The Complementary and Integrative Medicine Service is based on the belief that health is more than the absence of disease. The treatment of the whole person, i.e., body, mind and spirit, facilitates a person's own innate healing potential. It includes the broader concepts of heath promotion and disease prevention as well as the more traditional aspects of treatment of symptoms and causes. A person can be healed without being cured. Healing is the process of moving toward a sense of wholeness and well being within oneself regardless of what is happening outside oneself. It is person oriented rather than being disease oriented. Practitioners help patients activate the "healer within" by providing a secure, safe environment in which the patient feels grounded and connected. Practitioners are seen as the partners in healing with patients Healing takes place in the context of relationships. Therefore the role of the practitioner of integrated health is to help people feel more connected to all of the significant others in their lives, including the treatment team, and to bring the locus of control from without to within whenever possible. Integrative health helps to relieve patient's suffering. It focuses on quality of life rather than quantity at all costs.
The Complementary and Integrative Medicine Service Philosophy
