Nursing Perspectives

Alternative Practitioners: Choosing What’s Right for You

Christine Jette, RN, BA

The author explores methods of choosing alternative treatments and evaluating health practitioners. Readers learn the symptoms that need attention and questions to ask before and after the first visit. Drawing on her experience as a professional Tarot reader and registered nurse, the author offers a simple Tarot layout to illuminate treatment conundrums.

The best time to choose any health practitioner is when you are in good health. You will have time to make a careful choice. Unfortunately, in the era of health maintenance organizations (HMOs), choosing a medical doctor depends more on your insurance policy that it does on personal preference.

Alternative health practitioners offer more freedom of choice because they are usually not members of HMOs. The up side to this is that you are free to choose. The down side is all payment for a service rendered comes out of your own pocket. Check your insurance policy—many services once considered "alternative" are now part of standard insurance coverage.

Now you must decide what type of therapy best suits your needs. It is not within the scope of this article to describe all known complementary therapies, but the choices can make you dizzy. Do you need chiropractic intervention, aromatherapy, guided imagery, homeopathy, therapeutic touch, herbal remedies, acupressure, massage therapy or a combination of the above? Keep in mind that this is not an all-inclusive therapy list.

If you’re reading the Alternative Journal of Nursing, you’re already on the right track. Look in the yellow pages, make phone calls, search the web, go to the public library, call any hospital that offers a "whole life" (alternative therapy) department, browse the ´health´ section of a bookstore—and become informed about the options available to you.

If choosing a specific type of alternative therapy seems like a daunting task, then getting the name of a reputable practitioner can feel overwhelming. Let’s say you´ve been having symptoms, you have surfed the web, and have now decided to seek treatment. How do you find the name of a practitioner who is right for you?

Visit the American Holistic Nurse Association at www.ahna.org for a directory of practitioners. Most cities have holistic health directories that can be picked up at any chiropractor’s office, yoga center, health food store, new age book shop, or the local library. Ask your friends and neighbors for a recommendation.

Once you have a name, contact the practitioner´s office and ask for references, which will tell you more about the person´s qualifications. Call the Better Business Bureau to see if there have been any recent complaints. Make sure the practitioner is appropriately qualified to your own satisfaction. Before and after the first visit, ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you comfortable with the practitioner´s age and gender?
• Do you have easy access to the office? How far do you have to travel?
• Is the office clean?
• Is the staff courteous?
• Can you reach the practitioner to schedule an appointment without much delay?
• Did you have to wait long to see the practitioner?
• Did the provider put you at ease, listening to your concerns and answering any questions you had?
• If you were given a test or asked to buy a treatment, medicine or herb, did you understand what it was for, how much it cost, how to use it correctly, and what to do if you had problems?
• Determine you need a second opinion if: your practitioner recommends anything that feels "radical" to you, a rare or fatal condition is diagnosed, your practitioner does not seem to know what to do for you or, your symptoms don´t improve over time.
• Did you feel satisfied with your first visit, and most importantly, did you sense yourself to be a partner in your own health care decisions?

Describe exactly what the problem is at the first appointment. Tell your new practitioner if you are under the care of another health professional or taking any prescribed or over-the-counter medications, including herbal supplements. Don´t expect your practitioner to "guess" or "divine" your symptomes. Ask for details.

Make a note of the things you’d like to discuss on the first visit and don’t be embarrassed to refer to your notes. If you don’t think your practitioner listens to you or communicates clearly enough, tell him or her so. If things don’t improve, consider changing practitioners. It’s your money, your body, your health and your life.

Calling All Tarot Enthusiasts

For those of you who love working with the Tarot cards, an entire deck can help you decide on the most appropriate treatment for your situation. Any time we face several options, we can choose a card for each choice to see what it might offer us. We should never base important decisions only on the cards, but they can help us consider the issues and make our important decisions a little easier.

Try a spread I call "Physician, Healer" to shed some light on your treatment conundrums. It is important to research two to four types of therapies before you begin. Get enough information, at least, to understand what each treatment might have to offer you, according to your specific health concern. I´ll use my own layout as an example.

At the top of a journal page, list the two to four treatment options you are considering. For example, I was having painful problems with my stomach (again) after being diagnosed two years earlier with a gastric ulcer. I did a little research and decided upon medical doctor, healing touch practitioner and herbal remedies as my three most likely choices.

Next, shuffle the entire deck and randomly lay a Tarot card next to each treatment choice. My "Physician, Healer" spread looked like this:

Medical doctor- Page of Swords

Healing touch- Four of Swords

Herbal remedy- Queen of Pentacles

The Page of Swords told me that seeking a medical doctor´s care would involve painful, "knife-like" invasive tests, or perhaps surgery. The Four of Swords suggested that I needed to rest and healing touch would help me do that. It also told me that the integrative experience of unblocking and balancing my energy fields might bring some painful psychological issues to the surface. The Queen of Pentacles reminded me that I needed to nurture myself and pay attention to my body. It suggested that an herbal treatment would nurture me from the inside out by using a gift or two from Mother Earth.

In the end, I chose healing touch and herbal remedies. The stomach discomfort dissipated. True to the cards, painful psychological issues came to the surface during my healing touch sessions. I began seeing a counselor and my book Tarot for the Healing Heart was born.

A card for each treatment option will help you look at the different qualities each offers. You may be able to imagine how your body will respond to a specific remedy. Notice in my layout that the cards do not choose one course of action over another. Instead, "Physician, Healer" will help you see what might happen in any given situation. Compare the images on the cards to your own inner sense of what´s right for you. A Tarot reading often helps acknowledge what you already know. This layout will give you a "snapshot", or summary, of the situation and the choices available to you.

Tarot is a wonderful tool to unlock intuition, establish the mind-body connection and engage the unconscious in the healing process, but working with Tarot is not a cure-all or panacea. New insights from Tarot will sometimes alert you to the fact you need outside assistance to engage the healer within. Put simply, know when to say when. The type of treatment you seek is your choice based on your life experience. Call a medical doctor or healing practitioner if: (1)

• There is an unusual discharge or bleeding.
• For women, there´s been a marked change in menstruation cycle (pain, decrease or increase in flow).
• A sore doesn´t heal in three weeks.
• A lump appears in your breast.
• You have chronic indigestion, difficulty swallowing, or recurrent vomiting; there is a marked change in your bowel and bladder habits, including difficulty with urine stream.
• You have blurred vision or see a halo around lights; you have unexplained faintness or dizziness.
• You have severe shortness of breath; or your lips, eyelids or nails have a bluish tint.
• You experience a sudden loss of weight or appetite; or you have excessive thirst.
• You have a nagging cough or hoarseness; or a fever above 103 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A mole, freckle or blemish changes color.
• You have unusual weakness or fatigue; or there is a yellowing of your skin or eyes.
• Your ankles are severely swollen or you have pain in the calves of either leg, especially accompanied by pain on flexion (pointing your toes towards the ceiling).
• There is unexplained severe pain, especially in the head, chest or abdomen.
• You simply don´t feel well and not feeling well has interfered with your activities of daily living.

Best wishes to you on the mysterious journey of healing. May your path be filled with light and love.

Footnote:

Mosby’s Conventional Medicine/Alternative Medicine: Choices of Treatment for Your Most Common Medical Problems. Caroline Green, Editor (St. Louis, Mosby Year-Book, Inc., 1998), p. 6.