What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. – Meister Eckhart
Prior to working in private practice I have had the opportunity to work in numerous psychiatric settings. I have worked on psychiatric units in general hospitals as well as in psychiatric hospitals. I have held positions as a mental health worker (a job very similar to that of a nurse’s aide), as a trainee at various levels, and as a licensed psychologist. I have been very proud to say that I have worked in private, city, and state hospital settings, and that I started out making beds and worked my way up to being a primary clinician creating treatment plans and providing treatment to patients.
I have had the tremendous opportunity to work with and learn from some very highly esteemed and intelligent doctors and from some incredibly insightful and courageous patients. Often the patients blessed with insight, and those graced with courage, were not the same. But they all had their lessons to teach nonetheless.
I often think about one particular woman who was a patient in a state psychiatric facility. And while I have had the opportunity to work with patients for months on end in this kind of setting, this is a woman that I only saw very briefly in the hallway. She was walking with a few other people in what seemed very clearly to be a small group of patients that was on pass to do an activity in another part of the hospital. This meant that they had the very rare opportunity to leave the locked ward that they spent most of their time in. What struck me about her was her appearance – her hair and her make-up. She had created a strikingly bizarre look – and it was undeniably meticulous. It looked as though she had probably spent hours getting ready for her outing. I recall my heart breaking and melting at the same time, because while her struggle to function at a “normal” level was quite evident – I can guarantee you that her’s was the happiest face I had seen that day.
What a gift of perspective. I remember thinking that the business of being a human being is so challenging as it is, but to have to do that while at the same time contending with severe mental illness, just seems profoundly unfair and unbearable.
In each of my hospital positions I worked with medical doctors (internists, psychiatrists, etc.) and I remember a conversation with a medical intern who told me about the medical model of teaching that is “see one, do one, teach one.” She was describing this in reference to learning how to do intubations – which is a procedure wherein a tube is inserted into the trachea to maintain an open airway. (Talk about unfair and unbearable – I think both for the patient and the doctor- but this is how lives are saved and why I did not go to medical school – but I digress).
While there is a definite horror that accompanies the thought of doing a medical procedure after watching it performed only once – I have to admit I love the idea of this method – and I do think it serves us better when the demand of speed is removed. “See. Do. Teach.” has a much better ring to it, don’t you think? And it so clearly applies to so much more than intubation and other surgical procedures.
For example – I began this blog as a way of working through and offering some ideas about combining different traditions of healing, but I must admit that I do feel overwhelmed at times by how much I don’t know. In these moments (when I have my wits and courage about me) l am reminded of my tendency to feel as though I must have all of the information and everything figured out before I may proceed to the space of action. I forget that so much learning happens in the space of action, and that so much learning happens in the space of teaching. So the approach of trying to have everything figured out before you do anything doesn’t work. It can’t work because you can never have as much information thinking about a thing – as you would have if you actually did the thing . Think about riding a bike. We can’t possibly acquire the skill by merely thinking it through. You must try, fail, adjust and repeat – before your body gets it right. But once you get it, you’ve got it. There’s no going back.
And once the skill is learned – then you can teach it – by showing and describing. Beautiful circle of completion.
See, do, teach.
Intend, manifest, share.
