And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain,
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain.
I’ve lived a life that’s full; I traveled each and every highway,
And more, much more, than this
I did it all my way…
- Frank Sinatra
Here is a patient who is living in his present. His life has come to a point where the downward journey has begun. According to him he has lived his life, so he is stuck in the present. He has almost lost interest in what is going on now so the only thing they will ever utter is ‘all is well’.
Another cause for the geriatric patient’s resolute silence can be depression- triggered by physical illness and compounded by associated medications.
Whom should they turn to; to express themselves poses another problem for the geriatric patients.
Further, getting overtly involved in religiousness or some form of spirituality forms another cover over their sub-conscious likes, dislikes, feelings and perceptions because it is often construed as advocating giving up your desires and that it is wrong to feel a particular way at this age and so on.
Geriatric patients are often expected to take recourse to it, whether they wish to or not. We can often hear people saying ‘how can they act this way at this age?’ or ‘at this age they should be more interested in mantras than movies!’ Elderly people are frequently supposed to behave in a certain way solely because of their age ignoring their own mind.
All these layers mask the patient’s true self as the years pass by and the elderly patient, before long, starts identifying with this mask and looses touch with his inner being.
To understand a geriatric patient’s core we have to enter their space, their time, their zone and become one with their sensibilities and energy. We have to consider where or in what they see their silver lining inspite of the dark cloud. What is it that they still delight in?
Passive Case Witnessing Process –
As with the other patients we remain still initially and give free attention to whatever they would like to express. We let them talk to find out what they are spontaneously in touch with and allow true patterns from their life to come to light.
GUIDED PASSIVE – FOR GERIATRIC AGE GROUP
Wouldn’t it make a huge difference if we step down from our seat of a ‘doctor’ and take on the role of a curious grandchild? Asking interested questions, laughing with their joys, empathizing with their losses, looking at the past through their misty eyes… and amid all this seeing glimpses of the person this patient once was, his true self...
1. We can also ask about their growing up years, what influenced and inspired them during their adolescence, activities they used to participate in, their favourite books. ‘Since childhood what do you remember?’
- ‘What was your life like as a child?’,
- ‘How were the things at that time, it’s not like that anymore?’
2. Another door we can try to open is – their private thoughts and feelings -
- ‘Can you tell me something you always wanted to share but not spoken?’,
- ‘All that you always wanted to express but could not’,
3. One more subject elderly patients love to recount are the instances of major shifts in their lives – their college days, the beginning of their married life, their first job etc.
- ‘How was it for you for the first few years after marriage?’ or
- ‘Which incident was the first setback of your life-what had happened and how you dealt with it?’
4. Hobbies are an extension of an individual’s subconscious likes and dislikes and knowing them helps us to know the person.
For example –
- We can enquire about the music they enjoyed, or
- The coins they painstakingly collected from all parts of the world, or
- The beautiful garden they cultivated at their doorstep
5. After getting a feel of the patient’s reality through his emotions, perceptions and situations we give wings to their daydreams and fantasies, and travel to the surreal world beyond.
- ‘If ever you want to change some part of your life, what would it be?’
- ‘If given a chance to live life once again, and everything goes according to you, what would you like to do?
- ‘When you are in your space, what imaginations or daydreams come naturally to you?’,
- ‘If God gives you last three wishes- what you would like to do’.
Active Case Witnessing Process with focus-
The determining points here are-
- Whether the patient is in touch and
- The Level of Experience (LOE) of the patient
- From the Passive Case Witnessing Process and the Active CWP without focus, if we evaluate that the patient is in touch with himself and the LOE is high, i.e. qualified emotions and delusions have come up; then we can proceed by asking the patient about the focus which has come up. We follow the standard CWP technique, going with the flow of the patient, scientifically and intuitively, till the whole altered state surfaces.
- If the patient is unable to identify with the focus, either because the patient is not in touch with his self and has built up strong defenses around his subconscious being and /or the LOE is low, then we use dissociation techniques. So my questions will be –
- ‘Imagine or go back to the situation what would you feel?’
- ‘What thoughts would have come to your mind then?’
- ‘What about that particular song or what about that particular advice had struck a chord with you?’ or
- ‘What about that daydream makes you happy?’ This will take us farther in our journey towards the patient’s subconscious being.
Active- Active Case Witnessing Process -
Once the focus is confirmed and the patient has qualified it, we move on to the next step, the Active- Active Case Witnessing Process, towards the source. We keep the patient on the precise track leading to his individualistic expression at the holistic level and understand the Kingdom, sub-kingdom, miasm, and thus his remedy.
Homeopathic counseling- Our role as holistic healers doesn’t end at the remedy level, in fact the journey has just begun. As the patient starts improving we can counsel them to revive their long-forgotten wishes and hobbies. The patients commonly protest saying that they have passed their prime, they are not young enough now to get back to all those things.
For further details refer to upcoming book of scientifically intuitive case witnessing process – Part II in difficult cases and conditions.