Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: Are you guaranteeing to cure my disease?
- A: I cannot make such a guarantee (although I wish I could). Realistically I can make no promises regarding what degree of healing you may achieve if we work together. Although there are some common factors in people who achieve full cure of their chronic or life-threatening diseases, there are lots more people who do not achieve a full cure. What I can promise you is to work with you to help you with relief of your symptoms and to help you find happiness despite your disease.
[Top]
- Q: Do you work with mental illness?
- A: I am not a licensed psychotherapist, therefore I do not work with mental illness. Rather, my focus is on helping basically healthy people manage an aspect of their lives that is interfering with their ability to function more effectively. I can help someone manage the symptoms of chronic pain, for example, or overcome a phobia, but I would refer someone with, for instance, clinical depression or bipolar disorder to a licensed psychotherapist.[Top]
- Q: Do you diagnose disorders?
- A: No I do not. Legally, diagnosis of physical disease can only be done by a Western medical doctor (an MD). In fact I strongly recommend that you get a diagnosis of your disorder from your doctor and explore all your treatment options with him or her before you come to see me. I can then work with you as a complement to your other medical treatments to help alleviate your symptoms and assist you in achieving a state of holistic health. [Top]
- Q: What is holistic health?
- A: Holistic health is actually more of a philosophy than it is a medical tradition. It deals with the health of the whole person—including your mental thoughts, emotional state, and spiritual state—not just your physical body. Holistic health also focuses on your relationship to life and your environment, not just on your isolated individual self.
Most importantly, holistic health assumes your full participation in your own journey to achieving the optimum state of health possible.
Because of its emphasis on the whole person, holistic health in practice often involves a variety of therapies that are sometimes considered to be alternative or complementary in addition to Western medicine.
See my Links page for some good Web sites on holistic health and medicine. [Top]
- Q: What is the difference between alternative, complementary,
and integrative therapies?
- A: Alternative medicine, complementary medicine, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and integrative medicine are all in common usage to describe medical modalities outside of Western medicine. Having so many names can be quite confusing, especially since the real difference between the terms has more to do with how they are used than the types of modalities themselves.
CAM is the abbreviation that is commonly used to describe therapeutic modalities that fall outside the common definition of Western medicine.
The confusion comes from the fact that the same modality can be called alternative if it is used instead of a Western medical therapy, complementary if it is used in conjunction with a Western medical therapy, and integrative if both Western and other therapies are managed under the auspices of a single practitioner, usually a Western medical doctor.
Here are three scenarios that might help explain the distinctions between alternative, complementary, and integrative therapies:
Let’s say you go to your doctor complaining of anxiety. In scenario #1 she prescribes you a medication, let’s say Xanax, to help control your anxiety. But you don’t like to take medications, so you don’t fill your prescription but instead come to see me as a hypnotherapist to help you find the cause of your anxiety and learn to control it. In this case, because you chose hypnotherapy instead of the prescribed drug, hypnotherapy would be considered an alternative therapy.
In scenario #2 you fill your Xanax prescription but decide to use it only when you really need to and go to see your friendly neighborhood hypnotherapist—me—to help you get at the cause of your anxiety and bring it under control. You may or may not inform your MD of your choice, but you make the treatment decision yourself to use both therapies. Since you have chosen to use both the Xanax and the hypnotherapy to control your anxiety, hypnotherapy here is a complementary modality to the prescribed medication.
In scenario #3 your doctor is more holistic in her practice and she prescribes the Xanax for your use but also gives you a referral to see me because she knows that as an experienced hypnotherapist I can help you get at the root cause of your anxiety. Your doctor asks you to stay in touch with her about your progress. In this case the hypnotherapy is an integrative modality, since it is being used in conjunction with the medication under the direction of your MD. [Top]
- Q: What does it mean to be an ordained Interfaith Minister?
- A: As an ordained Interfaith Minister, I have received training in a variety of religious traditions, not just one. Interfaith Ministry is a still new but growing approach to ministry, especially chaplaincy and spiritual guidance, that emphasizes the commonalities rather than the differences between the religions of the world.
As an ordained Interfaith Minister I can work with you within the context of your own religious or spiritual tradition, whether as a spiritual guide or as an officiant of a rite of passage.
I was trained and ordained at a small seminary that was led by one of the earliest graduates of the New Seminary in New York, the first Interfaith seminary. Because of that ordination, I am recognized by the State of California as a legal wedding officiant. [Top]
- Q: What do you charge for your services?
- A: I cannot answer that question with a single number. My pricing is variable, primarily depending on what services you want from me and how many sessions we plan. If you need something simple, like hypnotherapy to overcome a fear of public speaking (something that we could probably handle in one or at the most two sessions) the cost per session would likely be different than if we were working on something more complicated, such as fibromyalgia or cancer. I am flexible depending on your need and your situation, so contact me to discuss your situation or to schedule a free consultation. [Top]
|
