Understanding
transformational experience is important to every caregiving discipline. At the
end of the day, caregiving almost always involves a partnership between the
caregiver and the patient or the client. There is a tacit agreement between
them that they share a common goal—healing, whatever that means for each
individual’s situation. Clearly, this goal needs to be patient centered.
Caregivers are not rescuers with their own agenda that barge in on people’s
lives irrespective of their wishes and dictate what is needed. On the contrary,
caregivers practice listening skills that strengthen the caregiving
partnership. However, under the best of circumstances, the goal of healing can
be difficult to achieve. Sometimes this is true even when technology can deliver
a cure.
A cure, when possible, is an important accomplishment that deserves
to be celebrated, yet we know that of itself it does not mean the goal of
healing has necessarily been achieved. For many people a significant health
risk remains if underlying psychosocial and spiritual issues are left
unaddressed, particularly when those issues contributed to the condition that
brought the patient or client to the caregiver’s attention in the first place.
In that case the health problem or a related one will almost certainly return.
Caregivers are challenged by this all-too-familiar scenario in the caregiving
partnership.
This year’s ETIP Conference has been specifically planned to
address this challenge. Advances in understanding transformational experience
have been occurring that have gone largely unrecognized by mainstream
caregivers. These advances have illuminated conditions that can be seen to
interfere with healing. This understanding, in turn, has contributed to
development of clinical caregiving practices that empower patients to escape
the determinants of health leading to chronic diseases, suffering, and early
death. Researchers are exploring the role of forgiveness, for example, both of
self and others on health outcomes. For some people the correlation will be
surprising. Similarly, the role of gratitude, as simple as that may sound, was
found to have a profound influence that began almost immediately once a
particular practice of gratitude was adopted by a research cohort.
This science-backed foray into the realm of transformational
experience is showing promise. While not yet producing a generalizable
theory explaining the details of personal transformational experiences, the
theory may not be far behind. In that respect, ETIP participants will participate
in discussions with researchers that explore how new tools used in studying
epigenetics are being applied to the deeper understanding of what healing
really involves. The implications support a deeper appreciation of how
important the partnership is between caregivers and their patients. The
practical implications for practitioners and the caregiving community will then
be developed in the ETIP workgroups as they work together to develop specific
strategies for implementation with patients and clients.