Testimonials

Dr. Paddy Rudden, General Medical Practitioner

“The healthcare systems of all first world countries have much in common. They are all in crisis. They use a model that is based on medical hierarchy and multi-layered administration. There is no sign of a solution. If anything, we can expect worse. All this has been predicted for the past twenty years or more. Compelling reasons were given and possible solutions were offered. It hardly mattered. Nobody listened. Now we profess that we are surprised, even puzzled, at the demise of the great dreams – that science would conquer illness and that high quality health-care would be easily accessible by everyone.

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It could be different. Many far-seeing individuals have pointed out that medicine must first of all be patient- based. That is hardly asking a lot. But what does it mean to be patient-focused? It requires that we embrace the totality of each individual – body mind and spirit. While it is desirable to observe the best principles of science, we must use them appropriately and responsibly. That in turn means allowing medical technology, whether machinery, procedures or medicines, a rightful but confined role in medical care. In acute illness, these technologies can be life saving and produce outcomes bordering on the miraculous. Yet we have allowed ourselves to be seduced by their power. Thus we end up treating all forms of illness with the same methodology, an approach that is often inappropriate and always expensive. We have somehow lost our way. Science has very little to say about the mind, particularly the emotions – and nothing at all to say concerning spirit. This need not be a problem. Scientific method stands on its own. It underpins much of what is good about modern medicine. Yet it does not take sides. It is about accuracy and truth. Medical Scientific Dogma, on the other hand, is willing to pronounce on everything it encounters. What it cannot measure it considers unimportant. By inference then, a large portion of what makes us full human beings is not worthy of so-called scientific study or comment. This thinking dominates health systems, both in the practice of medicine and the delivery of care. There is no room for partnership with the patient in this model. He/she is peripheral. It is prohibitively expensive too, using valuable technology to treat the effects, when it should be looking at the causes of illness. Integrated medical models offer a different approach. The patient is involved fully in the management of the illness on the one hand and in the active promotion of health on the other. There is a recognition of the innate ability of each person to participate in the healing process. Through a variety of techniques that are easily taught, the patient is empowered. This book describes such an approach. In language that is easily understood, Dr. Philip Christie outlines some of these methods and how to use them. We need books like this.“

Anjum Madani (MBBCh, LRCP &SI, MSc, MISH) – GP and Psychotherapist specialising in substance abuse.

“I highly recommend this book/manual, not just to dental patients, but anyone interested in general health and lifstyle changes. The author applies grounded cognative behavioural strategies to issues fundamental to good dental care. While doing so he also happens to introduce the reader most lucidly – and in the clearest layman’s terms I certainly have ever seen – to the world of cognitions, emotions and behavioural change. So digestible is this introduction (no pun intended!) that it could well serve as a stand alone book to the use of this dominant paradigm in the contemporary global revelolution of taking personal responsibility for health care change.”

Nurse Ann Reilly – General Practice Nurse

“An intelligently written, balanced and simple approach to holistic dentistry connecting the mind body state to the dental state, enlightening parents and health professionals alike.”