Project Creative Vision

New Vision of Holistic Health

As regular readers of this blog know, my interest in holistic holistic health and wellness has grown over the past year.  As a student of energy medicine, aromatherapy, Reiki, and general principles of holistic health, I've come to realize that, if we want to change our lives for the better, we can't be looking at just one isolated slice of our life for the answers.  We are whole, complex human beings, and to create positive change in our lives, we need to treat ourselves as such and address the challenges we face on many different levels.

This growing interest led me last week to the Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, put together by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.  I left the Summit inspired by the discussion and the possibilities for all of us together to build a society that fosters holistic health and honors each and every one of its members as a whole and complete human being.

To continue the discussion that started there, and extend it to those who were unable to join us, I have invited several friends who are leading the effort here in the Washington, DC area to offer their thoughts and perspectives on the Summit here on my blog.  

Below are the guest posts:

Lucrezia Mangione argues that we are part of a sea change in health care and there is room for all at the table in Creating the Culture of Wellness. 

Daphne White reports on groundbreaking Senate testimonies by Mehmet Oz, Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil, and Mark Hyman, and on Sen. Harkin's moving address to the IOM Summit.  Daphne calls upon all CAM practitioners to "put in sweat equity" to make sure that integrative health care is really part of the health care reform.

And Izabella Tabarovsky (yes, that's me) chimed in with some takeaways concerning what we, as CAM practitioners, can do to make the new, emerging paradigm a reality.

I have also just added a post on Dr. Mehmet Oz's remarks at the event and may be adding more as I go through my notes. 

In the meantime, the full webcast of the conference is now available online, so you can watch the entire event or the parts that interest you the most from the comfort of your own home.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Please share your comments under any of the posts that have caught your attention.  Let's all join in the revolution that's taking place in the way we as a society view and create health and wellness! 

IOM Summit: Opportunities Are Huge

But CAM Practitioners Must Seize the Initiative

 By Izabella Tabarovsky

Note: This post is part of the discussion on the Summit on Integrative Medicine

The 3-day Institute of Medicine Summit on Integrative Health was truly mind-broadening for me.  I came away excited about the possibilities and bursting with ideas.

The key was that we are living at a time of huge opportunities.  But no one is going to hand anything to us on a silver platter.  We must fight for what we believe in - and we must get creative about it. 

We can continue complaining how mainstream establishment doesn't recognize or accept us, that insurance companies don't reimburse us, and how the public doesn't understand what we do.  Or we can get beyond the current paradigm and think creatively about our competitive advantages vis-a-vis mainstream medicine and go there. 

Two key ideas were voiced at the Summit in this regard:  Community-based care networks and work-site CAM interventions.  Both require initiative on our part. And to become viable, both require that we overcome our tendency to get silo'ed and act alone.  Right now we will benefit from acting together, from helping each other out, from, together, creating the new paradigm in which the benefits of CAM modalities will be apparent to everyone. 

With that, here, briefly, are some of my take-aways from the Summit:

• The new paradigm is being birthed.  It seemed that everyone, from MDs to insurance reps, agreed that the old paradigm of health care is broken. We are present at the birth of the new paradigm.  No one knows yet what it will be.  The moment to contribute to the shaping of this new paradigm is now.  Each of us participating in the CAM field must now step up to the plate and do our part in making sure that integrative health care truly becomes a reality. 

• From evidence-based practice to practice-based evidence.  Pedigreed scientists such as Ken Brigham and Lawrence Green suggested that "to reject a treatment because we don't understand the mechanism is a mistake." The idea that randomized control trials don't work with CAM modalities and that practice-based evidence is "the only way to integrate practices that have hundreds of years behind them" was voiced repeatedly.  This means that if your practice shows results, that should be considered good enough evidence.  Music to the ears of a CAM practitioner.

• Shortage of primary care physicians creates opportunities for CAM practitioners.  The PCP shortage is already affecting the health care industry.  By 2025 we could be short as many as 200,000 PCPs, and, according to Richard "Buzz" Cooper, the health care reform could increase the shortfall by another 400,000.  Doctors' functions are becoming increasingly narrow and high-tech.  The offloading of tasks by physicians will accelerate, leaving physicians with increasingly narrower responsibilities, more high-tech and less relevant to the real issues affecting the health of their patients.  Other disciplines will, by necessity, be called upon to fill the gap, and this is where CAM practitioners will have their entry.

• There is room for everyone at the table to provide an amalgam of services.  This means that there will be room for everyone, from chiropractors to acupuncturists to health coaches to energy healers in creating an amalgam of care.  Because of the above, we are moving into a place where physicians will share the platform of care with a broad range of non-physician clinicians. 

• We must educate MDs and the public about our modalities. For the above point to be true, PCPs have to become educated about what we as CAM practitioners do.  83 percent of PCP practices in this country are groups of 1 or 2.  They account for nearly 50 percent of primary care.  This means that there are great opportunities to develop community care groups that could include nutritionists, dietitians, social workers, all connected to small PCP practices. The problem is that many times MDs, along with general public, have no idea what it is that we do.  So it is up to each and every one of us to take the initiative and reach out to the PCPs and educate them.  Go introduce yourself to PCPs in your neighborhood, tell them about what you do, show your credentials, build a relationship.  Begin where you are. 

• Empathy is CAM practitioners' competitive advantage.  I was floored by a slide presented by one of the speakers that illustrated the dramatic decline of empathy in medical students as they progress through medical school. This shift particularly affects men, whose levels of empathy drop nearly to zero.  (I don't have that particular slide, but here's a link to another onethat demonstrates the same point.)  What this suggests to me that we as CAM practitioners are, first and foremost, in the business of empathy.  In fact, empathy is our competitive advantage vis-a-vis the MDs - all the more so because studies show that empathy is the top quality that patients long to see in their caregivers.  Emphasize this with your prospects, let this be your selling point.

The one thing I found myself wishing for was that the Summit had lived up to the word "integrative" in its name and included the discussion of mind and spirit, not just the body. Dealing with questions of meaning and purpose is integral to whole person health.  But hey, you can't get everything right right away.  Perhaps next time.   

Creating a Culture of Wellness

Note: This is a guest post that is part of the discussion on the Summit on Integrative Medicine

By Lucrezia Mangione, CHTP/I, CMT 

Have you ever thought about . . .

• What a healthy health care system looks like?

• What a patient or person-centered approach to health and healing is?
• A place for certified, credentialed and/or licensed health care practitioners co-existing within a system that engenders cross-disciplinary connection, discussion and collaboration? 
• What happens when all credentialed and/or licensed health practitioners collaborate together, in support of the suffering person/patient with an individualized well-care program? 
• What an honest, authentic discussion of the inherent problems with our health care industry and its' sick care model sounds like? 
• The behavioral challenges to better health?
• The class/social  issues that prevent access to health care?

Six hundred health professionals joined together for a lively discussion on these topics and more on Feb. 25-27, 2009.  It was a thought provoking and collaborative experience where I was sincerely surprised to be among peers.  We, the people who genuinely wish to alleviate suffering, engaged in dialog on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public at the Institute of Medicine and Bravewell Collaborative's Summit in Washington D.C.

It was powerful. I was positively impacted.  There were more questions than answers and there is so much to share.  In the spirit of brevity, however, I'll speak to a few points that stood out for me.

This Is What I Learned:

"Person-Centered Care" Is the New Model for Health

Because of the efforts of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practitioners and their holistic work over the years, the new model emerging for health care is a shift to "patient centered cared" or "person-centered care".    The individual is returned to the center of the health care wheel and s/he is the hub around which all else happens.  This shift will take time but there are models that are working already like the eight integrative centers of Bravewell Clinical Network. 

In the meantime, business is the force driving the shift.  Employee wellness centersare arising within large companies.  Why?  Because the return on investing in an employee's wellness is significant:  employees perform better. There are studies that prove meditation, fitness and health coaching are helping in "presenteeism: be here now" as Dr. Kenneth Pelletier puts it.  Businesses are bringing about the person/patient centered care and self-care empowerment.  See this article on Medtronic:

This Is What I Realized:

Integrative Practitioners Are on the Same Page

Pangea Day: Making a Difference through the Power of Film

As stories of people following their own unique vision in life go, Jehane Noujaim's Pangea Day was truly inspiring.  As the four-hour event unfolded at the Letelier Theater in Washington, DC, and 1000 other locations around the globe, I found myself riveted by the short films it showcased - windows into human experience, portraits at once intimate, unique, and universal.  There was power in the simultaneous simplicity and depth of the stories.  There was power in the message that no matter how many walls divide us, we are all exactly the same and we are all searching for the same things in life. And there was power in the idea of a young woman making a difference simply by taking the courage to pursue her own path.

All of the film selections are available on the Pangea Day website.  Here are my personal favorites:

Dancing Queen, by Sumit Roy (filmed with a mobile camera)

Walleyball by Brent Hoff

I'll Wait for the Next One, by Philippe Orreindy

Mutual Recognition by Jehane Noujaim

Why Skills Are Secondary and How to Figure Out Where You Want to Be in Five Years

As a coach, I heave a deep sigh every time I hear another would-be career-changer enumerate the skills she acquired in her previous position and ask me what she should do with her life based on that.

Skills are an important currency in work, and we do need to know how to leverage them. But to begin your career exploration with skills inventory is to miss a major point, especially if you are looking not just for another job but for a career that's really right for you.

The thing is, skills are acquirable, and they are also transferable. And quite often we end up having acquired skills that we absolutely detest using. For example, I’m bilingual and really good at translations, but I’d rather pour coffee at McDonalds than translate, because the process of translating makes me feel depressed, exhausted and underappreciated.

Or, as Barbara Sher puts it in her classic I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What it Was:

When I was a single working mother with two babies, you know what my skills were? I could clean house like a demon; catch a moving bus with my arms full of laundry, groceries, and kids; and squeeze a dollar until the picture of George Washington screamed for mercy. I do not want the career that uses those skills, thank you.

If you start out with a skills evaluation, you risk ending up where you began - the same career path that you’re trying to escape. A far more important question is not what you can do, but what you want to do with your life.

Do You Have Your Own Personal Board of Advisers?

If not, it may be time for you to start thinking about getting one.  Here's an interesting post on the subject in today's Shifting Careers.

To me, this seems like a logical part of the general trend toward individuals' adopting approaches that until recently seemed to be the exclusive province of big business.  Coaching, for example, used to be a perk available only to top executives being groomed for promotion.  Now, hiring a personal life coach is being increasingly viewed as not just common but necessary if you want to move to the next level in your life. 

Similarly, more and more people take time to think through and write out their personal mission and vision statements and clarify their values.  Doing that allows them to maintain a strategic outlook on their lives and make choices that are congruent with their larger goals.  (I certainly strongly encourage this with my own clients.)

We are increasingly realizing that our lives are no less complex an enterprise than a corporation.  No matter what careers we choose, we are first and foremost in charge of the enterprise called 'our life'.  And since we are these enterprises' captains - or CEOs, if you prefer the term - we want to make sure that we have competent advice and a group of like-minded individuals on our side. 

Who might you put on your personal board of advisers?

The Millennials' Escape

The Millennials' abandoning traditional career track and going off in search of meaning continues to fascinate mainstream media.  The most recent contribution on the subject is this piece on Conde Nast's Portfolio.com, "Escape From Corporate America."

Millennials - those in their 20s, whose distinguishing characteristic is placing job satisfaction and lifestyle concerns ahead of simply moving up the corporate ladder - no doubt also have corporate America freaking out.  Who's going to fill in the lower-rank corporate-slave spots in the big consulting firms' corporate sweatshops?  Who'll be chained to their chairs 120 hours per week at our nation's most prestigious law firms, living on the promise that one day 20 years from now they'll make a partner? 

Not these kids.  No wonder the older folks have no idea what to make of them.  "The Millennials Are Coming" segment that ran on CBS' 60 Minutes last November paints a dim picture of them, presenting the Millennials as slackers and an entitlement generation. 

A Long, Long Road...

You know that old saying about old habits dying hard? It's even more true with habits of the mind, and I marvel at it every time some mental habit I thought I'd kicked for good resurfaces with a vengeance. 

I'm reminded of it, for example, every Sunday night, when the usual pre-Monday morning blues washes over me.  You know - the blues about dragging myself out of bed in the morning and getting ready to go to the office. The blues about joining the commuter crowd of despairing masses fueling themselves with caffeine in the packed Metro cars...  The blues about the prospect of walking into the faceless office building and facing a mountain of tedious work...

Launching "Bold Moves"!

Today I decided that I am going to publish my very own e-zine after all - Bold Moves.  I've long wanted to have a reason to go out and interview some of the most extraordinary people I've come across in my life.  They are extraordinary not because they have some amazing artistic talent that showed itself at age five, nor because their lives have taken place under some unique circumstances. 

They are extraordinary because they were just like the rest of us - until at some point they chose to buck society's notions of what one "should" do with one's life, left their successful careers behind, and pursued their dreams.  They are people in their 30-s and 40-s - old enough to have achieved success in their first careers, but too young to have accumulated so much money as to not have to worry about making a living.

The things I'm going to be asking them are those that worry all of my mid-career career-changing clients:

How did you know that that was what you wanted to do with your life?

How did you overcome the naysayers, the fears, the gremlins?

What gave you the courage - the boldness - to continue after your dreams?

There is inspiration in such stories, and quite a bit of learning.  So stay tuned. 

This will likely be a bi-monthly, and I already have an amazing person in mind for the first issue.  To receive your e-zine, please subscribe by filling out the two-box Bold Moves form on the right margin of the blog.

Taking Your Dreams Seriously

You know how sometimes you open a random book and find yourself staring at a quote that encapsulates something you've been thinking about right that moment?

It happened to me the other day when I walked into a local Barnes & Noble and picked up Kathleen Turner's memoir. My favorite thing in any memoir is the photo section, so I flipped through the book and found myself staring at this caption under the very first shot of Turner in the collection:

"I knew when I was twenty that I wanted to play Martha when I was fifty.  This New York opening night photo of me as Martha and Bill Irwin as George in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? reminds me what can happen when you take your dreams seriously."