It has been decades now since medicine first recognized the connection between stress and physical disease states.  Several names have been given to approaches aimed at treatment:  holist, mind-body, and now “integrative.”  Integrative Medicine is considered the practice of medicine that puts a focus on the relationship between the practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, makes use of evidenced based medicine, and uses all appropriate approaches to achieve optimal health and healing.

In psychology, for example, an integrative approach to depression will include the use of everything from medication and exercise to nutrition, supplements, and yoga.  Integrative Medicine is involved in patient care to the extent that every aspect of the patient's life is important.  This includes the medical system as well as family system, spiritual life, and work place.  Healing is found at many levels and it is often the support of these systems that helps a person bring meaning within illness and suffering.

Health is a sense of being alive at every level of existence.  It is being vibrant in life and thriving, not just surviving.  Health is not just the absence of disease.  Health is mindfulness about each moment in life.  Being mindful is at the core of my practice and each session with my patients.  I have found that the more mindful my patients can be as they face health problems, the better equipped they can be to deal with them.

There is much discussion and many definitions these days regarding mindfulness.  I find the most simple way to educate people is to describe mindfulness as being aware.  Sometimes people are on “automatic pilot” in their lives.  When they encounter a health care crisis or have a diagnosis that is difficult to handle, their “automatic pilot” fails and they crash emotionally.  In the early phases of a disease there is an intense period of uncertainty.  It is during this time that a sense of being grounded is important.  When a person is able to focus on the present moment, stay centered, and prevent being overwhelmed, then life becomes manageable.

Dr. David Thomason is a medical psychologist who maintains a private practice in Monroe, Louisiana.  http://www.drdavidthomason.com