How to Reclaim Your Life

Abstract

Towards a new model of medical practice: the empowerment model. The social determinants of health and the RACP’s 2019 guidance document, Employment, Poverty and Health. Subsequent work on improving health equity. Resilience and the internal locus of control. The role of childhood trauma, childhood sexual abuse, adverse childhood experiences, and chronic conditions in adulthood. Case example of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, yet post-viral fatigue excluded; the success of a multidisciplinary approach. The importance of self-healing. The placebo effect: in 2016, 97 per cent of GPs in the UK admitted to using placebos. The concept of healing, and the role of sleep—‘Doctors are not good at telling their patients they will get better’. How the Māori model of health works in practice. The importance of spiritual health. How the author uses Māori model of health to co-develop a Life and Health Integration Plan with clients. A case example of this approach in the words of a patient. Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the process of self-actualization. The author’s concept of ‘positive medicine’.