Dec 03 2007
Therapeutic Presence in the Emergency Room
December 2, 2007
I recently heard from a friend, an emergency care physician who attended my Healing From the Core: Grounding and Healthy Boundaries workshop several years ago.
“Suzanne, had an interesting experience with a patient tonight in the ER – call me!”
Naturally I was intrigued and minutes later we were talking. Here’s what he told me.
A 19-year old girl was brought in by her parents, unable to stop belching. It was constant – seconds between each burp. It had impaired her speech for days. She was quite upset, and things were getting worse, not better.
After running all the proper tests to rule out more serious issues, my friend sat her down and asked her if she was willing to try something with him.
At that point, she said she’d try anything. So the doctor took a moment to consciously remember his own grounding and therapeutic presence. Then he proceeded to guide her to breathe through her nose rather than her mouth.
Between his calm presence and her breathing, things in her body started to relax within minutes.
He then slowly and calmly offered a series of suggestions that led her deeper into her body. Ultimately she got her awareness down to the ground under her, connecting her to the rich energy field of the earth and its relaxing and energizing qualities.
He followed through with some additional suggestions that offered her ways to connect to the healthy, relaxing resources that were available to her right there, even in that busy emergency room.
All of 15 minutes had passed as he held his calm presence – and offered her access to her own.
“Suzanne, it was startling to see how easily and quickly her whole system relaxed and let go as I talked, right there in the ER!”
By the time he was finished she was smiling. And she was no longer belching.
Then he let her know that she could do this for herself anytime she needed it. He referred her to my website to get the CD version of what they’d just done, and off she went – healthier and happier.
A calm, strong therapeutic presence is valuable in a variety of situations, even some that we might not ordinarily think of. But here’s the big key: It needs to be enough of a habit for you that it’s easily accessible, even in the toughest situations.
It’s the “being” state that helps any technique you “do” work more effectively, no matter where you are doing it!
Over the next few blogs I’ll be talking about some other unlikely situations that were transformed by a healing presence. And by all means, if you have your own story of how you’ve used your healing presence in an unlikely setting, I’d love to hear from you.
Enjoy!