Integration and Change From the Inside Out

I believe that to help change a system, even in one’s own small way, one has to have an intimate, experiential knowledge of it. I have a particular gripe with those who criticise the medical profession from a morally superior position that is not backed by any real understanding of the rigours, pressures and intricacies of practising medicine. I also have a gripe with those who arrogantly dismiss anything in the healing field that is considered to be ‘alternative’, or non-conventional, as invalid and insignificant because it might not be subject to the scrutiny of the common scientific method.

For a balanced view of anything we need to acknowledge the good as well as the bad, the pros and cons, and build on what is beneficial while transforming what might be overdue for change. In the field of health care, healing and ‘wellness’ – or however you might like to refer to it – we tend to take an ‘us versus them’ approach. It is very often conventional, mainstream medicine against so-called ‘alternative’ or natural medicine – and vice versa.

I have been to numerous medical meetings where non-conventional approaches to health care are scathingly criticised or ridiculed without any real understanding of what they are and how they work. These healing modalities are often dismissed as not being ‘evidence based’ – the common catch cry of those who uphold the common scientific method as being the ultimate (and sometimes only) means of validation. I have also heard numerous people criticise the medical system as being full of heartless doctors who cannot think beyond a pharmaceutical approach and who are just after your money.

Well, I have a foot in both worlds, which has made life quite interesting for me.  Having spent most of my career in conventional medicine (with some twists!) and having also trained in other healing modalities, I have a fair understanding of different approaches to, and systems of, health care. I can talk the language of chakras as well as that of biochemistry and see no conflict in this as they are but different interpretations and understandings of the same Universal energy.

I have the greatest empathy for my fellow doctors. I know what it is like to be working at the coal-face of the medical system. Particularly, as a general practitioner, I understand what it is like to have patients present with any and every problem known to mankind, for which we might have a whopping fifteen minutes in which to find some sort of reasonable solution. I know what it is like to be the final port of call of responsibility for a patient’s health and wellbeing.

I also understand what it is like for those practitioners who do not have their finely honed healing skills and knowledge recognised by our society at large, forcing them to work hidden and secretly or on the edge of mainstream.

Fighting, resisting and competing in a negative way has never served us well. We tend to take sides and scapegoat particular groups. It is not about this system is all good and that system is all bad. There is the good, the bad and the ugly on both sides, my friends – and this is more related to individual practitioners, and clients, rather than particular system of health care. I would say that the hope for the future is the integration of what is the best and safest of any health care/healing system.

The word ‘integration’ means a lot to me. I have a foot in both worlds as this reflects my inner conflict. Regarding health care, or anything in life, I acknowledge that I need to integrate those parts within myself before I hope to see any change in my outer reality. In keeping with a holographic view of how life works, any change in our external reality has to be preceded by a change within. I need to match that patriarchal, reductionist, linear orientated voice, that is so sanctioned by our society, with the voice that understands health - and all of life - from a holographic, interconnected, symbolic and ‘bigger picture’ perspective. Everything has its place and ideally work together in harmony.

As humans we are very attached to what we know and the systems we have been inducted in to. Generally, we are very much attached to the status quo, particularly if we perceive our income, status and reputations as being dependent on it. We are indeed creatures of habit and are universally threatened by change and anything that gets us out of our comfort zone.

We need to get beyond the complacency and the conditioning that keeps us tied to systems that might be overdue for an upgrade. As humans, part of our job description is to change and evolve. So let’s get on with the job and look beyond the limited perspectives of the individual systems we have been trained in.

I look forward to a time when practitioners of different health care/healing systems and paradigms, work in cooperation in an atmosphere of mutual respect and learning, with the overall aim being what is best and safest for the health care consumer and congruent for the health care practitioner. No one system, nor practitioner, has all the answers. Let’s move from the atmosphere of unhealthy competition, and derision of other systems, to one of understanding and collaboration. Potentially this is a ‘win-win’ situation for all.

Dr Catherine Fyans is a holistic medical practitioner/conscious health facilitator and the author of The Wounding of Health Care: From Fragmentation to Integration