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Doctors must be open to patients’ objectives and objections
In recent posts I’ve established that patients have their objectives or agendas in their illness, which is revealed in the meaning they attach to symptoms, uncovered in their descriptions. In light of the objectives and objections of the patient, what is the role of...
When “Objective” is Euphemism for the Doctor’s Subjective Perspective
I have spent my last several posts discussing the shortcoming of standard approaches to the subjective dimension of the SOAP formula. In the next series of post I’ll address the “O”: objective! The doctor’s task conventionally is noting the patient’s subjective vision...
LISTEN to Symptoms to Know what We’re Treating
My last post recounted an experience with an MS patient who seemed to prefer her disease to being cured because of the greater attentiveness and intimacy she felt it stirred in her husband. Not all patients will be so clear about their unconscious driving forces, but...
When the Cure Really is Worst than the Disease?
Early in my practice, I saw a patient, a psychologist, who had developed MS six months prior. She arrived in a wheelchair, guided in by her husband, who was also a patient of mine. I conducted a 2-hour interview and felt fairly certain of the treatment. A mere six...
What the Patient Believes About Their Illness Matters
In my last post I introduced two patients with sequelae of polio. A male patient was looking to improve his condition so as to care for his wife who developed Alzheimer’s and a female patient want to improve her conditions so that she would not be compelled to settle...
A Comparative Study of Two Patients Sequelae of Polio.
For a second illustration of how important is a patient’s subjective meaning of their symptoms, I want to compare two different patients affected with the sequelae of polio. Both received the same treatment. I treated them both with a technique called BowenFirst™, a...
Business as Usual Misses too Much Prevents Optimum Patient Care
In my last two posts I introduced the case study of a 67-year-old whose subjective experience of her diagnosis was continually ignored by the objective assessment and plan of a health care regime that was oblivious to her story of her injury. (Reviewing the past two...
You Can’t Kill Pain Where There Isn’t Any
In my last post I introduced the case study of a 67-year-old whose subjective experience of her diagnosis left her so unsatisfied that her story of the incident actually changed. (Rereading the prior post might offer a helpful refresher.) This was just the beginning...
A Case Study on the Incongruence of Subjective and Objective Assessment of an Injury
I promised over the next several posts to explore some examples of the innate knowledge in the meaning that patients’ read into their illness. The first is a 67-year-old female who fractured her patella bracing herself from a fall. When first interviewed, the patient...
The doctor knows best? Relinquishing our power.
In my last post we looked at how the subjective description of a patient’s condition actually embodied much more knowledge about a patient’s condition than is commonly recognized. This could be a valuable resource for a doctor. How does such knowledge actually fare...
A patient’s subjective knowledge knows more than you might think!
I concluded my last post emphasizing that the patient’s subjective presentation of symptoms does not exist in a vacuum. I pointed out that patients often describe what their condition based on what they “feel” is happening, or with fear of what they “think” is...
Subjective patient perspectives are a valuable diagnostic resource
In an earlier set of posts, I’ve addressed the SOAP formula (Subjective, objective assessment and plan) which is supposed to inform doctor note-taking with new patients. In the next set of posts, I want to explore the subjective-objective aspect of the SOAP formula...
The Meaning (and Importance) of the Meaning in Symptoms
My last post concluded by raising the importance of meaning in treatment. Having patients share their interpretation of what their symptoms mean is the most effective way of helping them regain their health. Implicit the self-diagnosis is the solution. My experience...
Treat Individuals, Not Diseases!
By this point, anyone who has been following this series of blog posts will realize that an integrative approach to health is necessary, encompassing the patient’s full understanding and commitment to therapy. Treating a “disease” without treating the person who...
Do Doctors Opt for the Easy “Solution”?
What is the doctor’s role in the disillusion of patients suffering in pain? Does our failure to fully disclose the subtleties of dealing with pain, opting for the easy short term “solution,” play a destructive role? Research in psychoneuroimmunology shows the...
Understanding Pain Requires Understanding the Mind-Body Connection
In my last post, I discussed how understanding the mind-body connection enables doctor’s to better LISTEN to symptoms. Toward the end, I cited the case of pain as an illustration. Today I want to explore that topic a little more deeply. Consider the experience of...
Symptoms will speak to us, if we’re ready to LISTEN
The term “prescription” requires exploring the patient-doctor relationship. It should reaffirm the doctor’s purpose, opening up the healing dialogue. My conviction is that the body’s symptoms call upon us to LISTEN: they’re trying to say something. This is true of...
Getting the Mind-Body Connection Right Provides the Essential Theoretical Framework
My last post warned of the dangers in treating the patient’s symptoms as an inventory of body parts to be discretely assessed. An antidote to this misguided thinking is in recognizing the mind-body connection. Understanding the factors which may have contributed to a...
Patients are not a collection of body parts
Having considered the subjective and objective aspect of the SOAP process, today I want to discuss the last two parts of that acronym: the assessment and plan steps. I’ll lean on current research in psychoneuroimmunology and pain to illustrate that the categories used...
Avoiding the Misuses of Objectives in Healthcare
In my last post, as part of an examination of the SOAP concept, informing doctor note taking for initial patient interviews, I explored the meaning of the idea of “subjective.” Today I’ll look at the next term in that acronym, “objective.” I actually call into...
The Subjective in the SOAP: What We Know about Symptoms
Over the next few posts, I’m going to introduce you to four key ideas that we have to understand to make a path to a better health care approach. These are the “SOAP” (i.e., Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan) notes doctors take during their initial patient...
Healthcare Has to be Personal to Work
The new paradigm in healthcare that I’ve been discussing in this series of blog posts is sometimes mistaken for simply alternative modalities of practice. The choice of modality is not unimportant, but neither is it a panacea for sound practice. Valuable as was my...
My Experience of “Disease” as a Personal Journey
In my last post, I began a discussion of the paths that lead us to the new healthcare paradigm. There I discussed the personal experience of a disenchanted law student who discovered that justice through the law wasn’t all I’d initially thought it cracked up to be....
The New Healthcare Paradigm as Social Justice
In my last blog post, I discussed the emergence of a new paradigm in healthcare and some of the opportunities it was beginning to open up. Such important changes in how people think, feel and act are not expected to come out of nowhere. So, from where has all this new...