We all need some directions, except for John.<\/p>\n
John was a handyman I employed some time ago.\u00a0 He could build and fix and assemble anything.\u00a0 One day I asked John if he could put together a stereo cabinet I had purchased.\u00a0 It had what seemed to me like a million pieces.\u00a0 John said sure and went about assembling the stereo cabinet.\u00a0 When he was done, I admired the finished product.\u00a0 The stereo cabinet looked just like the picture on the box it had arrived in.\u00a0 Then John handed me several unused parts to the stereo cabinet.\u00a0 I asked John why he didn’t use them and didn’t he read and follow the directions.\u00a0 He replied, “Directions? I just looked at all the pieces and put it together”.<\/p>\n
I guess John didn’t need directions.<\/p>\n
In the consulting room, patients often ask me for directions.<\/p>\n
One patient recently said to me, “You’re the doctor, just heal me.\u00a0 Tell me what I am supposed to do to be cured”.<\/p>\n
Another patient said to me,”You’re a hard man.\u00a0 You have all the answers, but you don’t give me any”.<\/p>\n
First time patients frequently start their first session by saying something like,”I have never done this before.\u00a0 What do you want me to do?”<\/p>\n
I used to give directions.\u00a0 But not many these days.<\/p>\n
I used to think that I was being helpful by giving directions.\u00a0 But now I think that the only one being helped was me.<\/p>\n
On a good day, I am better able to tolerate waiting and seeing what directions will emerge from the patient. I have less of a need to prove I have all the answers and know everything.\u00a0 After all we are there to discover what is in the patient’s mind, not mine.\u00a0 Even though most patients come to treatment to learn what is in my mind, assuming I have all the answers.\u00a0 As I frequently hear patients say to me, “You’re the doctor. You went to school, I didn’t”.<\/p>\n
But in order to learn about the patient’s mind, I have to empty mine.<\/p>\n
I have to proceed without directions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Brody<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We all need some directions, except for John. John was a handyman I employed some time ago.\u00a0 He could build and fix and assemble anything.\u00a0 One day I asked John if he could put together a stereo cabinet I had purchased.\u00a0 It had what seemed to me like a million pieces.\u00a0 John said sure and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drbarrybrody.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}