We routinely have people ask us how to determine if they should see a medical practitioner versus a complementary care provider. Below we will give you some easy ways to differentiate and distinguish which type of practitioner may suit you at any particular time along your path to optimal health.
People consult health care professionals for many different reasons. Some want to be free of a particular illness or set of symptoms. Others want to prevent an illness from occurring. Still others, already feeling quite healthy, want to be the best they can be. Generally people consult a practitioner because they want to improve their health. When choosing which type of health care professional to consult it is often helpful to consider whether their emphasis is upon ‘healing’ or ‘curing’.
‘Curing’ involves removing symptoms, treating a part of the body, or controlling a process.
Curing professions, whether orthodox medicine or natural/alternative, tend to concentrate on symptoms and abnormal pathological tests (such as blood tests, etc.). Curing involves judging whether a symptom is ‘bad’ or good’ and attempting to control those which are viewed as inappropriate or ‘bad’. Their emphasis is upon removing symptoms and ‘normalizing’ the results of laboratory tests, seeking to return you to the state you were in before you became aware of an illness.
‘Healing’ involves helping people to become more whole and function at a higher level.
Healing professions are based upon the knowledge that you have an innate intelligence and healing ability which knows far more about your needs than any other person; all you need to realize your maximum health potential is to not interfere with this ability. A healing oriented practitioner concentrates upon how YOU are functioning rather than merely focusing on the presence or absence of symptoms. You don’t need to be ill before consulting a healing practitioner; all you need is a desire to improve. In their own ways, healing professions seek to enhance the expression of your innate healing ability and help you perform at your best. They help to empower and encourage you to make more supportive health choices.
The Role of Symptoms
Frequently ‘symptoms’ are a healthy response to excessive stresses, like a runny nose, a cough etc. Although not essentially pleasant, they are a results of your body cleaning house. Symptoms may also be a sign that you have not been functioning well and can no longer adapt to the stresses upon you. Healing oriented professionals consider symptoms (and abnormal pathological tests) as an indication that parts of you need YOUR attention, rather than as an abnormal or inappropriate response. Healing involves exploring what a symptom, or absence of them, may be telling you about yourself (with the knowledge that your body ‘knows’ what it is doing) and clearing interference to your own innate healing ability.
‘Curing’ can be an essential part of the healing process.
If your health declines, curing techniques (medications or other procedures designed to remove symptoms) can be very beneficial and they may be invaluable in emergency situations. They help you to function in the short term and assist in keeping many people alive. This gives you the opportunity to choose a lifestyle that is more supportive of your health. When curing techniques are used as a short-term solution and symptoms are known to be an indication for the need to change, they become a valuable part of the healing process and a stepping stone to greater levels of health.
Long-term health depends upon making the changes necessary to insure you are receiving adequate nutrients, stress management, exercise and spiritual support to allow the body to heal on a daily basis. As such, chronic illnesses often respond better over time to approaches that provide the body healing support and have a long-term focus.
Healing and curing both have a place in our modern world. The advances in medicine are well suited for emergency situations and acute care conditions. Once a person is out of danger, a healing approach can be used to provide the basis for long-term health and vitality.