Know Your Role to Soothe Your Soul
It’s hard to believe we can’t be everything all the time, however it’s an important part of how we manage our own sanity in the clinic, and the health and expectations of our patients.
We go to Traditional East Asian Medicine college and learn about the mental-emotional aspects of the medicine, yet we’re not really counsellors or psychologists.
We learn about Chinese Diet Therapy, yet we’re not really registered dieticians.
We learn some Qigong or Tai Chi, yet we’re not personal trainers.
The fact is, when a patient tells you they are cutting themselves, thinking of suicide, wondering what stretches to do for their knee pain, or they are having an unhealthy relationship with food, we are not very well equipped to deal with these scenarios. School didn’t prepare us for this stuff. I think the problem lies with the fact that we flirted with these topics, and our instructors said they are all part of the medicine, so we feel like we should have it all figured out as soon as we graduate.
The same can be said about finances. We start using money at a very young age, so by the time we get to be 40-years old we think we should have it all figured out - but we don’t and that makes it feel doubly worse. So, if we’re willing to put our fragile ego in our pocket for a minute, hire a money coach, and create some good habits, we can figure it all out.
Acknowledging the role we play in clinic can be hard at first, but it is actually quite freeing in the end. Why did we learn about the Shen, Po and Hun have a relationship with organ systems? Why did we learn that cold, raw foods in winter are hard on the digestion? Why did we learn to swallow, spit, sink and float in the Tai Chi form? To make our bodywork better. That’s right. I said it: you’re a bodyworker FIRST.
In fact, we’re all just massage therapists with needles. How does that make you feel? Does that make you feel less than? Take a minute and think about why that makes you feel so bad. It’s because our egos are so wrapped up in us being Almighty Grand Master Doctors of Chinese Medicine. However, if we look at what we spent the most amount of time doing in student clinic is it would be plain to see what our tools are: needles, scrapers, cups and hands. I would think this outlook gives us an opportunity to not feel so pressured into being everything and solving everything for our patients.
When a patient tells us they are cutting themselves, instead of feeling ill-equipped, we can remind ourselves that we are just a mere bodyworker and we’ll need to refer that out. Simply, patients who require anything outside of our wheelhouse should be referred. It doesn’t make us a failure. We are specialists. Others are specialists, too. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a complete healthcare team to heal a patient - not a one-person show.
Know your role. Stop trying to be everything to everyone and be really good at one thing: a bodyworker with needles.
(I know you’re much more than that and you could argue that a massage therapist can’t treat certain conditions, and I would agree with you, but that’s not what this post is about. I just want you take it easy on yourself, okay?)