Although many aspects of healing remain a mystery, we believe that the nature of the patient-provider relationships has a significant impact on the healing process.

We highly recommend Daniel Siegel’s book The Mindful Therapist which highlights additional (paraphrased) elements of healing.

Presence:

“…Our presence as medical clinicians…, the way we bring ourselves fully into connection with those for whom we care, is one of the most crucial factors supporting how people heal.” Our presence, with others and with ourselves, promotes empathy and self-compassion, which both cultivates well-being in our mental lives and in our bodily health.

Resonance:

The physiological result of presence and attunement is the alignment of two autonomous beings into an interdependent and functional whole, each person influencing the internal state of the other. With resonance we come to “feel felt“ by the other.

Trust:

Trust is a state of receptivity, akin to the notion of love without fear. Presence, attunement, and resonance are the ways we clinically create the essential condition of trust.

Written by Paul McAndrew, PT, GCFP & The Wellness Station Team