Integrative medicine is featured in an upstate NY newspaper.
Medical director for the SHS Division of Integrative Medicine, Mary Ann Wallace, MD writes:
Much has been written about integrative medicine in the past. The words “integrative,” “complementary” and “alternative” often carry multiple meanings, which can be confusing. There are also many aspects of integrative medicine — some of them with incredible claims and practices that can seem too preposterous to lead to healing. However, as patients and physicians alike are discovering, an integrative approach can help patients where conventional Western medicine has fallen short. For purposes of this article, I focus on describing “integrative medicine” in terms of its current application at Samaritan Health Services, Division of Integrative Medicine, which operates primarily out of the Heartspring Wellness Center in Corvallis.
Integrative medicine focuses on treating the whole person — mind, body and spirit — not just the disease. In order to acknowledge each healing aspect in a patient, practitioners use these principles to guide their practice:
• True healing occurs most readily when all aspects of a human being are acknowledged (body, mind, emotions, spirit).
• At any given time, different parts of these aspects may need attention for healing.
• Healing is not the same as curing, and it transcends the biochemical structure.
• Suffering originates from a deeper place than biochemistry or biomechanics, and it requires deeper attention than a simple biochemical or mechanical fix.
• Suffering is not the same as “just pain.”
• It is our suffering we long to have eased, in addition to the more superficial and temporary components of our discomfort.
To the end of addressing these deeper issues, integrative medicine focuses on creating space and situations within, so that individuals can feel safe to delve into the mysteries of their own being. This is not simple psychology, and we do not espouse platitudes such as “mind over matter.” Rather, the body and mind are recognized as inseparable, and it is recognized that whatever is going on, either physically or psychologically, influences the whole person.
This physician author then goes into the benefits of treating the whole person.
All standard integrative medicine litany, aptly said, and making its way into mainstream press.
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The Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen offers corporate legal services, litigation consultation, and expertise in health law with a unique focus on holistic, alternative, complementary, and integrative medical therapies. The law firm represents medical doctors, allied health professionals (from psychologists to nurses and dentists) and other clinicians (from chiropractors to naturopathic physicians, massage therapists, and acupuncturists), entrepreneurs, hospitals, and educational organizations, health care institutions, and individuals and corporations.
Michael H. Cohen is Principal in Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and also President of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine (also known as the Institute for Health, Ethics, Law, Policy & Society), exploring legal, regulatory, ethical, and health policy issues in the judicious integration of complementary and alternative medical therapies (such as acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine, chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, massage therapy, energy healing, and herbal medicine) and conventional clinical care. Michael H. Cohen is author of books on health care law, regulation, ethics and policy dealing with complementary, alternative and integrative medicine, including Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives (1998), and Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Human Evolution (2000), and Future Medicine: Ethical Dilemmas, Regulatory Challenges, and Therapeutic Pathways to Health Care and Healing in Human Transformation (2003).
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