Back in TCM College, one of my clinic supervisor would always tell it like it is!
One day, a new patient came in with lots of knee and back pain, diabetes Type 2, sleep apnea and fatigue. Within the first 10 min of our consultation, he looked at her and said: “You’re too fat! That’s your problem! You lose the weight, all your health issues will resolve”.
And he walked out, leaving us shocked and embarrassed for the patient. We thought, how could he be so mean?
But, wait a minute!
Was he really mean? Because after all, it was the truth. She was obese, on many medications and her diet was very poor. Getting down to a healthier weight would resolve a lot of her health issues!
He might have been a little harsh and he could have been more tactful, but he was right!
Most of our patients need our help and guidance, but not all of them take responsibility for their own actions. They often want us to fix everything! So, I believe it’s part of our mission to tell the truth (nicely!) to educate our patients and to insist on their compliancy, for a better outcome.
As practitioners, we want to help our patients reach optimum health. But the truth is nor everyone gets better. That frustrate me a lot! A LOT!
Recently, one of my patient told me this: “You saved me, I feel so much better, I can’t thank you enough” and my response was: “That makes me so happy! But the credit goes to you as well. You showed up consistently to your acupuncture sessions, changed your diet, took supplements and started salsa dancing.”
This is such a great reminder that TCM rocks, but a compliant patients always wins 🙂
So we may not always be able to change the world, but we definitely can change someone else’s world.
Keep rocking it with TCM!
Clara
TCM Geek
That’s so true Clara I was known for being blunt but TCM working on many levels can empower and connect the client to their many inner voices so you can only tell the truth. Thanks to my early nursing training “explain to the patient” and the beautiful poetry of weaving a story about what their body is saying and why, is essential to free the client from the dependance on a medical view of their health rather than insight of the body mind and spirit journey including the wrong paths that lead to dis ease. Respecting the client and grace from experience but still telling truth is what I have aimed for.