What is Embodied Medicine?

What is Embodied Medicine?

Embodied Medicine is my way to describe the connection and awareness I’ve developed through my training and 16 years practicing the art of medicine. Embodied Medicine offers a framework and approach to healing that centers our whole bodies and body wisdom. We acknowledge and name the ways the western-medicine system is based in capitalist and colonial oppression patterns which separate us from our bodies, from humanity and from our connection to earth/nature. 

A key part of Embodied Medicine is being present in the experience of care. It means that both the healing practitioner and the person receiving care are invited to be present. Embodied Medicine emphasizes the inclusion of our bodies in that presence. 

Embodied Medicine is based on the truth that our bodies are always trying to take care of us. That our bodies want us to survive and thrive. Embodied Medicine doesn't believe bodies are broken or wrong, even when they are in pain or misalignment. The discomfort is your body’s way of communicating that a change would be helpful. Our bodies are communicating through symptoms to help us move towards alignment, to recognize the ways our bodies want and need tending. Bodies don't need to be "fixed" but they do need to be supported and listened to. Bodies want to be healthy and they need our help to do so. They help us know what foods will best support us. They help us understand when we would benefit from more water. They help us notice when our boundaries have been crossed or when we are moving away from our center and our personal alignment. And sometimes, though generally less than is regularly presumed, our body is sharing that a more significant western-medical intervention would be supportive.

Embodied Medicine trusts that the discomfort people are feeling is real whether or not there is a western-medical explanation for it.

Embodied Medicine is intended to be human-centered, body-centered, trauma-aware and flexible. Each person's wellness is individual. Each person's healing path is unique. Therefore each person's embodied medicine experience will be their own.

Embodied Medicine believes that it is not a failure to have a body with needs. Body communication is not a sign of doing something wrong. It is not an imperfection. Symptoms are your body's way of calling you home, of asking for tending and care.

Embodied Medicine recognizes that space and environment are collaborators in our healing experience. The space we are in affects our ability to access safety, feel held, and move towards healing for both providers and those receiving care. It is essential for healing practitioners to feel safe and comfortable in their healing environments if they are going to hold space for others to access deep, resourced and sustainable healing.

Embodied Medicine is relational and non-heirarchical. Embodied Medicine treats everyone "patient" and "practitioner" as human. Neither member of the therapeutic team is more important than the other. Embodied Medicine is meant to support both providers and those receiving care. 

Embodied Medicine includes the provider's wellness as an essential part of the experience. We, as providers, can't fully invite presence for the person we are supporting if we aren't offering it to ourselves.

Embodied Medicine knows that the ideal conditions may not be available for you now. You can still practice being present and start making small changes to find ways to be more present in your space, in your schedule, in your flow and in your healing.

Embodied Medicine focuses through paths of embodied understanding, embodied agency and embodied practice. 

As Embodied Medicine practitioners we: 

• trust the wisdom and innate healing of all bodies.

• recognize the importance of nature connection in healing. 

• combine the "patient's" embodied wisdom, lived experience and ancestral healing practices with the experience, wisdom and training of the "practitioner" 

• are NOT trying to figure out how to get the "patient" to follow our plan. We are exploring the patient's goals, discussing their desires, needs and understanding and sharing our experience and learning as invitations and guidance. 

• are NOT controlling disease. We are NOT controlling bodies. We are looking at body communications ("symptoms") as information, as ways to understand a body's need for tending and then offering attention (a-tend-tion) to our bodies.

• ask our bodies how they feel about the plan. We ask YOUR body how you feel about the plan. 

• prioritize your body experience and the effect of that experience on your life as the most important, more important than that lab result, that imaging result. That does not mean those western-medicine tools can't be valuable, it means that they can be used while also bringing in the wisdom and communication of our bodies.