Dad not being a doctor.
Do you feel like you can make a connection with your doctor? When I was growing up my dad was the only doctor in our county. To this day I still have people tell me that they wish he was still their doctor. He hasn’t practiced medicine in over 18 years – that’s connection.
How did this happen? People in the community would see him at community events. One of his hobbies was to take pictures at these events. He would have them printed and hang them on bulletin boards in his office.
His patients not only saw the doctor they saw the person behind the doctor.
Because of a problem with Mike’s provider a few years ago I switched doctors. I remember feeling that the new doctor was very concerned with my mental health as I explained the situation with Mike. She is always empathetic and listens to me. She understands that everything that is going in my life affects my health.
I also feel empathy for her. She’s the mother of young children. I saw her at a swim meet while she was on the last few days of maternity leave and heard her say to her family that she needed to go call in a prescription for someone. I remember thinking isn’t there someone else who can do that?
These young horses are making connections in the herd.
I remember telling one of Mike’s doctors that people would come up to dad in restaurants and talk with him about their medical history. HIPPA wouldn’t allow this now and there is a good reason for that. There is a time and place for everything and that was neither.
Doctors need to show their human side to patients and patients and caregivers need to allow them to be human. Keep in mind that they are not perfect. They make mistakes. They have lives outside the hospital or clinic walls.
Doctors often see us at our worst. We are sick or trying to take care of our loved ones. It’s hard and it’s the only thing on our minds. They need to be mindful of this. We are not thinking about anything but ourselves or our loved ones. That’s what we need to be doing at that moment and the doctor needs to show empathy.
Doctors may be stressed about running late to appointments because they had an emergency, or they may have just had to give someone a hard diagnosis. This is when they should be spending the time to help the patient understand, answer any questions that they have, and show their compassion. Then they are expected to move to the next patient and push the other one out of their mind.
You and the horse have to have a connection to be successful.
Show your doctor some compassion as well. You may feel inconvenienced because they have spent more than their allotted time with a patient earlier in the day. But they may have been dealing with a life and death situation for someone else and have trouble switching gears. They may have gotten a call from home about a loved one but need to continue to see patients. Doctors are human and are allowed to have bad days as well.
There is a meme going around that says you don’t know what another person is going through so you should always be kind. I urge both doctors and patients to be kind.
How do you show compassion and empathy?
Connect with me here if you would like to see how the horses and I can help you improve your connections, compassion, and empathy.
Lighten The Weight by showing compassion and empathy.
Make a Connection in the comments below.
Onward! What The Heck Is Gestalt
