Healing in Healthcare: Integrative Approach to Building Resilience in Providers & Patients

Presented to staff of SickKids hospital, as part of the Mindfulness & Compassion Rounds

Message from the organizer:

Note:  This is a very vital, sensitive, vulnerable, honest and emotional session of an adult recounting their healing journey post treatment. Some may find the presentation triggering. As a whole, we as a group felt it was important to share and to start to go deeper into the topic of healing a life; for all of us that give bedside care this is an important recounting.  This is Part One, we hope in the near future to present Part Two where she is today and how this has motivated her to support and heal others…and to bravely share her story.

Montana is a yoga and meditation teacher, guiding individuals facing health challenges to discover their inner wisdom and healing potential. As a former childhood cancer patient at SickKids, Montana's presentation will highlight how the absence of emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions in her treatment led to decades of mental and physical health challenges.

Through the design and implementation of an integrative approach to well-being for herself and her clients, she has found that patients access increased agency in healing, overcome hypervigilance and fear, and discover a sense of peace with their new-found identities and in their lives.

Montana strives to bridge the gap between biomedical and integrative healing for healthcare professionals and patients alike, recognizing that these tools must be accessible to everyone. Learn more about her practice and get in touch at: https://montanaskurka.com/

Montana Skurka is an OCT-certified Integrative Wellness Educator and yoga and meditation teacher with a Masters of Teaching degree from the University of Toronto specializing in mental health education. She has over ten years' experience coaching individuals and facilitating self-care groups, providing her students with tools and supports to access their innate healing potential. Montana's dedication to this therapeutic holistic work and the mind-body connection stems from her personal struggles navigating health crises throughout her childhood and young adulthood.

♾️ Inner Alchemy Healing

One-on-one support for individuals facing health challenges addressing the emotional, spiritual & mental dimensions of your journey

Drawing from my lived experience with disease & disorder, I offer you empathetic and personalized support

Through tailored meditation, restorative postures, Reiki and additional embodiment techniques, I guide individuals on a transformative journey, fostering relaxation, resilience and holistic sense of well being

Your body is wise beyond comprehension. I am here for you 🤍

Healing the Healers

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Not too long ago, nobody was ‘working on their health’. None of our ancestors had the luxury to be concerned about how to increase the length of their days or quality of life. They were busy trying to survive. Medicine always existed in one form or another, there were always healers who aided those who were ill. And then the rest was left up to fate, or God, whomever you choose. 

What a beautiful gift that we all live in a time when many of us have the privilege of thinking about how we can structure our days to increase our wellbeing. What a mistake to place the responsibility this holds at the feet of a small number of (largely) white men in white coats. 

I am saying this with the caveat that white men in white coats have literally saved my life. I would not have lived past the age of seven without the advances and incredible care that I received, and continued to receive throughout my life. 

There is an incredibly important role that these white coats play in our lives. Thank god, fate, or whomever you choose that we have advanced to this state where our life expectancy is increasing.

However, because life is more complex now and we have the luxury to ponder the meaning of all of this, I think we must be cognizant of  the price we as a society pay when we bestow too much power in the hands of institutions such as our healthcare and education system. 

If life were simple, and expertise worked as we have been taught it does, then anyone who studied enough in any given discipline would be the most knowledgeable and best practiced in any given field. 

We know this to not be true.

Are doctors the most healthy among us?

Are politicians the most savvy at creating policies that benefit us?

Are those with the most degrees the smartest and most accomplished?

No. No. No. 

It almost appears to be the exact opposite in many cases. Physicians are currently suffering rates of burnout, depression and suicide at unprecedented rates.

Politicians… enough said. 

In terms of ‘success’ and ‘smarts’ whatever those terms means to you, take a look at a list of those who are accomplished in whatever those terms to you. Is it clear that those who appear successful have all gained ‘expertise’ in their given field?

Once we remove our labels for a moment, we can clearly see that delineating the great task of healing to those who have attended medical school is a grave error and mistake.

By broadening the scope of who can be considered a healer and what health is, the great burden that is currently being placed on our medical system can perhaps be lessened, at least ideologically. 

The roles we play in society are important and allow society to function. We each become skilled in certain fields and lend our talents to the collective. What I believe is less useful is when we freely give agency over our lives and bodies to those we have been taught ‘know better than us’ in certain areas. 

They may; they may not. But it must always be a partnership between two equal individuals who can identify that they are playing roles at any given time. That underneath the costumes we wear, we are truly all the same. 

This isn’t just for the benefit of the patients. It is also for the benefit of the physicians and other healthcare workers who have been freely given this power in our society that inevitably transforms into a ‘God complex’. 

There is no true dichotomy between healthcare professionals and patients. We all play these roles in different ways: health of our bodies, finances, spirit, mind. We are all healers and we are all patients. 

The idea that you are the number one most important person and healer in your life isn’t some ethereal platitude, but something of deep importance and concrete implications. 

There is no medical or otherwise technological test that anyone has devised that can more accurately describe your experience than you. The experience that you have, from moment to moment, determines your health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is up to you to get in touch with yourself and accurately assess how you feel and how to meet your unique needs based on your unique circumstances. 

The Loneliness Generation: A Spiritual Crisis

I have two potentially uncomfortable questions for you:

  1. Are you lonely?

  2. Did this feeling of loneliness begin with the COVID-19 epidemic?

If you answered 1) yes and 2) no, you are not alone. Researchers have long known that loneliness is growing in society, particular among the millennial generation, which I am certainly a member of. In fact, those of us between 24-35 years of age have been deemed “the loneliness generation” according to statistics from the U.S. and around the world. Loneliness isn’t the only unfortunate trend that was already increasing among all segments of society prior to the epidemic. As we came ‘roaring’ into the 2020’s, rates of mental illness, chronic illness, addictions, burnout, deaths of despair and suicide have been growing.

You may think that grouping loneliness with these more dire conditions seems unreasonable, but loneliness is incredibly detrimental for us both mentally and physically - never mind the fact that it is incredibly painful.

Despite this stark reality, I wonder how many of us are ‘diagnosed’ with loneliness as a cause or symptom of our distress when we go for doctor’s check-ups. The truth is that loneliness can manifest as depression, or even inflammation, but does not often get addressed within our current Western model of healthcare. This is changing: doctors in Britain have begun prescribing social interactions for their patients, and my hope is that this wonderful trend spreads as we continue to talk openly and address these massive issues facing us in our current global society.

But it still doesn’t get to the root issue: why are we so damn lonely?

Well, experts of different fields have their own explanations for why us millennials are the “loneliness and burnout generation”, and these causes are attributed to various systemic issues facing society, from economics to technology. They analyze statistics and come up with various findings, which all contain elements of truth and reveal part of the picture. However, largely these academic findings are based in an old paradigm where the mind and body are separated, and spirit has been surgically removed from the conversation.

Loneliness is a manifestation of our spiritual crisis.

What seems to be at the heart of the loneliness and mental health epidemic in my opinion is a crisis of the spirit, which has manifested in a number of societal and personal ills. What I mean by spirituality is the quest for meaning beyond our material desires. The spiritual crisis stems from the fact that for the last few hundred years, for various reasons, we have lost communities of like-minded individuals supporting one another and working together to grapple with both survival and the big and unanswerable questions of life:

Who am I?

What do I value?

What is this whole life thing?

What does it all mean, and how do I live a life of meaning?

In the vacuum of dedicated spiritual communities, our economic systems filled the void to become the basis for our ethics, values and purpose in life. When the pursuit of happiness through economic means is the only basis for what it means to live a good life, we pursue a life full of promise which always feels somewhat empty. In a world where God is dead, our insatiable desire to consume has crept in to become the central goal of our lives. So, here we are. A generation that is well aware that money does not buy happiness, but still living within an old paradigm, which preaches the gospel of consumerism:

Buy more, do more, be better, be more attractive, be younger, be fitter, be healthier, buy a car, buy a nicer car, be more productive, buy more, go on more vacations, look better, be happier, buy more, go out more, do more, look better, smile more for more pictures, get more plastic surgery, do more crunches, post more, be smarter, be happier, buy a house, buy a bigger house, get more followers, consume more, scroll more, buy more.

This is the invisible ethos of our culture, and we have spent our childhood, teenage years and young adulthood absorbing the message loud and clear. What does this have to do with loneliness? Well, the result of living by the values of serving our economic system is that if I need more, then I can justify taking from you. Despite what previous generations believed, we know that the world does not have infinite resources, In fact, we are pretty close to reaching the limit of the planet. In a world where resources are quickly dwindling, we have been taught that we must look out only for ourselves in order to survive. This scarcity and survival mentality exists throughout every modern society. If anything, it actually becomes more acute in communities that are higher in socio-economic status. The more you have, the more you feel you need - at the expense of your neighbours. 

We all want to do incredible things and have our parents and community feel proud of our achievements. Many of our grandparents and parents worked incredibly hard to provide us with opportunities, and there may be a sense of guilt and obligation to prove our sense of worth to ourselves and others. But in pursuit of these material or status-driven goals (often in the absence of others goals) we begin to see others as either superior or inferior to us, based on whatever factors we use to determine success. We are constantly judging others, and assume they are judging us too. In this hyper competitive and superficial atmosphere, we are completely alone. 

So we work hard to prove our worth. But many of us don’t feel worthy at all, and these feelings of unworthiness manifest in deep loneliness and isolation. We want to belong and feel connected, so we chase after the things that we believe will give us a sense of connection and meaning: get the job, get the house, get the pension - everything we have been taught to desire. We post about our beautiful lives on social media in order to prove to others that we are “making it”. We are trying to prove to others that we belong, but deep down, we aren’t so sure, and always feel that we are falling short. This is a lonely place to find yourself.

Herein lies the paradox: we could be around people all day, whether colleagues, family or friends, and yet still feel completely alone. It’s as though we are simply wearing one mask after another, not knowing who we truly are behind the performance of these various roles we play. Where is a place we can go to speak truthfully, discuss the big questions of life and understand ourselves and our values? Where can we truly be honest with ourselves and others without judgement? Without these spaces, we tend to experience this pervasive sense of loneliness that continues to naw at our souls.  

Despite the grim picture I have just painted, I am very optimistic for the future of my generation and generations to come. It is when we face a crisis (hello 2020!) that we are forced to face the facts that the old paradigm is simply not working anymore. The new paradigm arising is one which includes the spiritual dimension and values each member of the human collective as inherently worthy, simply as they are.

Like most ills of the 21st century, loneliness cannot be alleviated through a prescription. We treat loneliness through authentic connection, and we can only truly connect with others when we have established a loving relationship with ourselves.

This is the true aim of all the work that I do as a holistic healer. Let’s create this space together.

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

Navigating the System to Get the Most out of Your Health Care

This article was written by Dr. Deborah Mechanic, doctor of chiropractic and acupuncture provider. It was first featured in The Canadian Jewish News

What should patients do when their doctors have differing opinions and they feel like nobody is listening to them? It’s a problem that is being reported more commonly lately.

Over the past several years, there has been a shift in how health care is run. Family doctors have become the linchpin in a system where imaging or specialists are recruited for a variety of investigations, depending on symptoms. Health care has become a fine orchestra of specialized medicine, composed carefully, with the general practitioner (GP) as the conductor. Often, patients can feel lost in the system, or don’t know who the right specialist is for their concerns.

Their task becomes even more harrowing in more insidious conditions, such as oncology, concussions, headaches and organ disturbances. Patients often want to seek a second opinion, more information or an explanation, and find themselves at a loss for where to go. This is where the grey area begins. What happens to patients who don’t fit a black-and-white mould of what we expect a condition to be?

Montana Skurka, a Toronto-based patient advocate, deals with this problem every day. A patient herself at a young age, Skurka has unique experience to offer from both a professional and patient perspective. “The fast pace and isolating nature of modern society can be quite detrimental to our emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being. Our current health-care system was built to manage acute medical conditions and emergencies. An increasingly fragmented and specialized system is not equipped to view us holistically or guide us towards a life of wellness,” says Skurka.

In fact, in a report published by a group of patient advocates, in 2017, patient values were highlighted as an important aspect of care. The report recommended that patient values be included in every framework for evidence-based medicine. In actuality, patient values sit right at the core of evidence-based medicine, which is built on three tenets: best research evidence, clinician experiences and patient values.

Skurka notes that as more Canadians have become patients, death due to chronic diseases has increased at a rate of 14 per cent per year, and suicide rates are currently at 4,000 per year, or about 11 per day, on average. As well, she notes that three out of five Canadians above the age of 20 suffer from a chronic illness, while four out of every five Canadians are at risk for a chronic illness.

Research databases are filled with peer-reviewed literature highlighting the importance of patient perception on surgical outcomes, but it’s not far-fetched to apply this to conservative interventions. Chronic illness has quickly risen in our health-care system. Applying this research may indicate that patients advocating for their care and values is a strong predictor for successful treatment.

“It can be difficult for those who are not living with an invisible and chronic illness to comprehend the extent to which it can interfere with a person’s life and sense of self. It is common for patients to report that their loved ones and doctors do not adequately understand or validate their experiences,” says Skurka.

This takes a toll on mental illness as well. Skurka believes that another fundamental aspect of patient advocacy is “educating others on the mind-body connection and their own innate power to care for themselves.” Her practice involves encouraging equality between physical and mental illness and understanding that health and well-being cannot be neatly divided into these two categories. “There are significant resources dedicated to understanding and treating pain. However, pain and suffering are not the same thing. When our health-care system focuses on treating pain and ignores the suffering of patients, this can have devastating results.”

What can patients do to overcome this? The answer, as with most health dilemmas, lies in education. Education in health situations creates confidence, including the confidence to ask questions and have one’s voice heard. Building a relationship with a health-care professional that you know and trust is a great way to create a space where you can ask these questions and get the knowledge to have your voice heard.