Most of the complaints, pains and hardships that hurt people do not stem from deep pathology, brokenness, badness, defective genes, or chemical imbalance. Most of the hardships are normal and expected results of living in our era of broken communities or of ineffective parents and school. Along these lines, I see most depressions as depletion, most anxieties as overwhelm, phobias as being out of control and panic as the psyche's cry for help. Accordingly, my bias is, if possible, not to medicate people for these struggles, but to help people cope better, change attitudes, alter behavior, modify life style, ease the pressures, stressors, anxiety or pain or resolve the tension so people live creatively and fully. When dealing with chronic illness or any other dis-ease, my approach is to uncover the underlying issue that the illness represents or to understand the metaphor of the illness.
Illness often creates a crisis which can lead to the opportunity to change.
I help people understand the messages of each ailment. Without blame or guilt our diseases are precious resources guiding us towards wholeness. When indicated, I work closely with the medical doctor or a bigger team of family, friends and colleagues to facilitate healing. As my confession indicates, I choose not to work with most insurance companies and especially managed care organizations unless in the rare event when they are respectful of clients' privacy and do not micro-control the treatment. My main concern with managed care organization is the privacy of clients.