Is Your Doctor Listening To and Valuing Your Thoughts and Feelings?

The Missing Question: How Do You Feel?

Let’s face it. Most doctors want to tell you what’s “wrong” with you before they ever ask you how you feel. Recently, I observed a healthcare interaction with a family member where the doctor was mumbling as he read the blood work report, “We’ll want to fix this…..oh, and this is off…..we’ll need to address that…..” all before he ever asked the patient how they felt.

Furthermore, he didn’t ask the patient if she had any specific health goals. The doctor just offered dogmatic advice based on objective findings. Does this approach resonate with you? Or would you prefer that your doctor be interested in your thoughts, feelings, goals, and emotions as much as they are interested in the objective data?

According to a recent article in the BMC Primary Care Journal titled, “Patients’ gut feelings seem useful in primary care professionals’ decision making”, the value of listening to patients and their intuitive “gut feelings” is being recognized.

Why Emotions Belong in Healthcare

As I have shared in some of my past posts, when I used to work as a counselor on a crisis hotline, one of the most valuable questions I asked was, “What do you think/feel/suspect is at the root of this issue?” (or some other version of this question). It turns out that the feelings we experience have actual positive medical implications! If only this knowledge would spread as quickly through the medical profession as the latest profit-driven pharmaceuticals.

If you are interested in learning more about the value of how your thoughts, feelings, and emotions play into your healthcare experiences, I have great news for you! I am writing a book that covers this exact topic. The working title is Feel Whole Again – Your Humanistic Guide to Healthcare. You can help me bring it to life by participating in my presale campaign that begins tomorrow! Order my book and help support my mission of creating a more humanistic approach to healthcare!

Blodgett Dental Care – Human Beings Helping Human Beings

If you desire an approach to your oral health care where all the treatment options are presented and you get to choose based on your values and goals, we would love to help you!  Please email us at info@bdcpdx.com to reserve your New Patient Experience and visit our website to learn about our Dental Tourism solutions. We are here to serve you!

Call Blodgett Dental Care at (503) 713-6980 to schedule your next appointment!