by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health
Is there something that has yet to be better understood that takes place when a patient engages in a course of treatment? According to Milton Cohen, when considering pain there is, “The self-referentiality of living systems (through their qualities of autopoiesis,...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In contrast to the more empowered approach, discussed over the last several posts, of viewing a patient’s pain as “one of their symptoms,” a pathophysiological approach to pain focuses on pain relief as the primary objective. The choice of intervention is usually...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In the last several posts, from a variety of angles, we’ve examined the mind-body dimensions of treatment for pain, seeing how it is essential to treat the trauma rather than the symptoms. This has involved treating the body as a carrier of meaning, whose history...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In my last post I raised the issue of fear as a meaning invested in the body and its symptoms. The correlation of the body part with the fearful memory deeply connects and acknowledges the fear. Making explicit the mind-body connection helps release the traumatic...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In the last post we looked at the research on the human body as a carrier of meaning, with a discernible history with lessons to teach us. Let’s look at this idea more closely. The work of Steen et al., “Generalized chronic musculoskeletal pain as a rational reaction...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | Addressing Your Pain, Advancing Your Practice
Our discussions in this blog have continually circled us back to the same set of questions. As a doctor, what is our responsibility for assessing the situation and exploring possible “prescriptions”? To how much of the patient’s story will you relate, and through...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | Uncategorized
In the last post we saw the findings on stress from mouse research. These findings were seen as providing optimism for the development of compounds to improve resilience to pain. A couple of thoughts come to mind in response to these ideas. On the one hand, yes, we...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In recent posts we’ve been considering the therapeutic benefits to dealing with stress as a strategy for addressing pain and cancer. But what is the story behind these concerns with stress? Researchers have long questioned why some people are resilient to stress while...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In previous posts we’ve considered the benefits of stress relief in treatment. Humor can effectively relax patients, allowing them to better handle fear and anxiety. “Nurses find humor to be very beneficial for increasing their patients’ pain threshold, which helps...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In the last post we began to look the changing role of the Doctor in a health care approach that treated the patient as a whole and meaningful entity. As a person with a life experience that had a bearing upon their existing state of health. We saw that taking a full...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | Addressing Your Pain
In their research, Korff and colleagues have observed a continuum of chronic pain, with no distinct class of chronic pain patients. No clear demarcation distinguished persons with possible or probable chronic pain from those with less significant and enduring pain....
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
In my last post we saw that, regardless of whether the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) deregulation is activated by physical or psychological triggers, such activation may have significant effects on nociceptive transmission and subsequent pain experiences. This was...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health
In previous recent posts I’ve discussed my experience with MS. I’ve reviewed my experience of emotional deprivation in my marriage as a key touchstone in my own journey. Last post I reviewed the symptoms that led to my diagnosis. I chose homeopathic treatment as I had...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health
I’ve been writing this blog for just about a year now. Though we’ve been required to make a number of detours, exploring some matters in greater depth, it all began with my desire to unpack the meaning that can be derived from the standard SOAP formula. It has taken...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health, Addressing Your Pain
Probably one of the most troubling presentations is the patient who is experiencing signs and symptoms of illness and is seeking a label to explain their discomfort, but is turned away by medical experts who give the patient a clean bill of health. The approach of...
by Manon Bolliger, facilitator & retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice | About Your Health
The following is Part 2 of a 3 Part Feature with Athletic & Bowen Therapist, Brynn Bicknell. Brynn currently works out of a multidisciplinary clinic in Coquitlam as well as with a lower mainland hockey team. Last week we discussed Brynn’s first exposure to Bowen...
