Christie: Can you share your thoughts on the idea of “buy-in” and the pressure patients feel to accept the mindbody nature of their pain?
Lilia: Absolutely, this is actually something that I am really passionate about. I don’t view buy-in as a prerequisite or a goal. It’s okay to be skeptical, in fact it's a great thing to be skeptical. Can we, at the same time as being skeptical, open up space for curiosity and irreverence in terms of what we think we know or take as a given and bring a willingness or openness to engage with practices in a spirit or exploration and discovery? I know that for providers there is a lot of pressure because there is a segment of knowledge that tells us that when a patient believes in a diagnosis or a course of treatment, the result is better. We know that when there is a shared understanding and both provider and patient believe this can help then we are better able to recruit the mechanisms of what is sometimes known as the placebo response, meaning-making, or remembered wellness. So why not spend some time co-creating a shared understanding of possibilities instead of trying to insert and put pressure on accepting a single narrative?
For me, the presence or suspicion of a medical diagnosis outside of neuroplastic pain doesn’t preclude engaging in the work wholeheartedly and experiencing tremendous benefits not only in terms of pain but for our whole life.
[this is an excerpt only - for full response, listen to the podcast at the link above]
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