Sunday, August 17, 2003

Why It's Hard to be a Good Holistic Client Patience. I think it is as hard to be a good holistic client as it is to be a good holistic healer. ...especially living in North America. Here we are used to everything happening quickly, our lives move fast and we want everything fast - instant gratification. Most of holistic healthcare is slow and subtle. If you decide to go to an acupuncturist, you will probably have to go for several appointments before you see significant changes in your health. That is just how the process works. Don't think of it as a single appointment, but always a series. My rule is if I don't feel something getting better within 5 sessions, I consider trying another modality. Yes, it costs more for a series of appointments. But, then, compare it to the Western medical approach. Western medicine will always be more costly. Drugs are very expensive, often measured in terms of dollars per pill. Per pill! Obviously, anything that requires a stay in a hospital will be exceeding expensive. Five sessions with a holistic practitioner will be cheaper than most drug programs and certainly cheaper than any surgical process. And, of course, the holistic approach is more likely to get the source of the problem, the "why did this start happening in the first place?" But health insurance covers Western medicine, right? Of course, it covers most Western medical treatments but avoids holistic treatments. However, I like to think about insurance as just a payment plan. I put a certain dollar amount into insurance every month, and then when it comes time that I need to pull money out for a medical treatment, I pull it out. What if I dropped my health insurance and just put that same amount into a savings account every month? Wouldn't the money be there for me then also? "My company pays for my health insurance." Hmm, that's very generous of them. Do they still? Most companies are changing their health insurance programs for employees to pay less and less. Tough economy, y'know. So you are paying more and more for those Western medical treatments. And, by the way, where do you think those health insurance premiums get paid from? They are taken out of your salary, of course. In management terms, we call it "burden." To figure out what an employee costs, we take the person's salary before taxes, then we multiple by about 1.3, which gives us total cost after we pay all their insurance (health, disability, life, etc.) and 401(k) admin fees and contributions. So you would be making 1.3 times as much if the company wasn't paying for your health insurance. And by them paying for it, they get to choose which doctors you go to and what treatments are valid. The risk with contributing to a savings account instead of buying health insurance would be that I would face a major medical crisis before the bank account had built up enough to handle the entire cost. Then I would be in trouble. I'm not saying health insurance is a bad idea. I own health insurance myself, as a self-employed individual. However, I own the minimum amount , so I am covered only for those big disasters in my health, or my wife's health. For everything else, I'm taking the savings account approach. One more thought. Do you think insurance companies lose money on most health insurance policies? Of course they don't. So the cost of your health insurance policy includes a) the payment plan towards your health crises of the future, b) a profit for the insurance company and c) all the overhead of the insurance company. Ever noticed those skyscrapers downtown in your city with the insurance company names on them? Think about the skyscrapers when you pay your next health insurance bill. 6:04:09 PM     Interesting Modalities - Part Three The Feldenkrais Method I've recently been worked on by a Feldenkrais practitioner. I find it very different than other holistic health practices, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about it here. Feldenkrais is a way to help teach the body new ways to move. There are two ways to work with Feldenkrais. One is "Functional Integration." This is Feldenkrais one-on-one with a practitioner, who works with your body on a massage-type table. The practitioner will lift your body parts and move them repetitively, slowly and carefully. The person who works on me is very gentle and I think that is a trait of the modality as well as a trait of this person. These repetitive movements are meant to show your body new ways it could move, and once your body realizes that these new movements are possible, and that they feel better or more natural, it immediately starts replacing its old movements with the new. While the practitioner works with me, he is always asking if anything is causing pain. Unlike other modalities, that focus on the painful areas, the Feldenkrais Method specifically avoids painful areas or movements. There is none of the familiar "working through the pain until it subsides." This was a hard paradigm for me to break, but it's nice that there is no pain during the session. The other way to learn about Feldenkrais is called Awareness Through Movement. This is generally taught as a class. It involves moving the body around in new ways, teaching it some alternatives that it may or may not like, and allowing it to move in more comfortable, natural ways. Feldenkrais has some relationship to the Alexander Technique, in that it focuses on teaching the body new ways to move. This group of healing modalities is called "somatic education," which may also include some martial arts like tai chi and aikido. Feldenkrais has been applied successfully to many chronic diseases, including muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. But I think of it mainly as a wellness tool. It seems to me that the gentle approach of Feldenkrais is an excellent way to maintain a good state of well-being with small adjustments to the way we move made over time, allowing the body to make its best decisions with its own innate intelligence. 5:01:54 PM

© Copyright 2003 Copyleft. Last update: 9/13/03; 3:52:44 PM.