The word, Sonder, is the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Just as similarly rich as each of our individual lives are, our bodies hold that same level of complexity, yet the way we receive care in the industrialized healthcare system does not reflect it.
In New York City specifically, there is an abundance of holistic integrative care institutions available. The issue is that most of them are unattainable and inaccessible. The structure of the system and the many barriers that come with it perpetuate the already existing inequitable gap of people who can access this care and those who can’t. A systemic change is urgently needed. For my graduate thesis project, I took a reformist approach in that I accepted the reality of abundant barriers folks experience surrounding financial access, individualization, and time. I proposed immediate, incremental change by using my thesis to respond to a system that is exclusive by design and does not adequately address the populations of people who need it the most.
My research and co-design process was extensive. I began conducting secondary research to examine the system’s landscape. Synchronously, I conducted 50+ hours of primary research interviews by speaking with a wide range of physicians, practitioners, and patients – all varying in age, race, and gender. Before conducting research, I deeply internalized the book, Data Feminism, by Catherine D'lgnazio and Laura Klein. I used thins methodology to collect, store, analyze, and use data.
All of this research proved that the issue is not with the doctors, but rather the system they’re working in. My focus began to shift towards institutions, practitioners etc. who were truly putting an emphasis on the “whole person” experience. I entered the world of the perinatal lifecycle and spoke with doulas, midwives, and prenatal yoga instructors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and more. My eyes were opened to the fact that in many ways, the birthing space has more visible options for birthing people that are accessible, allow them to be unapologetic in their bodies, and treat them with complexity.
This shift in my process allowed me to get really clear on which group of people to hone my focus on...women and gender nonconforming folks – they have been understudied, undervalued, and misdiagnosed for centuries. The result being that they may not have always received the most optimal care. This addresses a large group of people who are often traumatized by traditional science based modern medicine models. Holistic Integrative Care can aid in the trauma as well as the well-being of the individual. Ultimately, this work can take shape in different communities and spaces of people who haven't felt heard, cared for, or valued.
I facilitated a workshop with community members who wanted an entry point into the holistic health space. we talked about each other's perceptions and experiences with holistic health. We moved through an activity that encouraged folks to think about different aspects of their health as ‘dimensions’ – this included spiritual, emotional, occupational, physical, social, intellectual. We moved through some self reflection and then shared with each other the amount of energy we would want to put into each dimension. Our conversation surrounded the idea that oftentime, the dimension we give the most energy to stays constant even when everything else in our lives is falling apart.
This helped us move into an activity around resource sharing and putting different methods and modalities of care into practice. I took all of the feedback from the post-event surveys and created a facilitation guide that anyone can use to begin a conversation around holistic health practices with their friends, family, and community.
I sent out a survey after the workshop that asked questions to evaluate the event's effectiveness in increasing knowledge and access. Based on the surveys, the workshop was successful in challenging folks’ perception and definition of holistic health as well as co-creating a space for them to feel in community with one another. The intervention doesn't stop here. In fact, this is not an intervention; this is a prototype – a prototype that should be tested and co-created again with a different group of folks who want to practice holistic health at home and in community with others.
When people share their lived experiences and interpretations of wellness in a group setting, it transitions into something really powerful for healing.
Holistic health is uniquely positioned as an expansive space where those conversations can happen. Moving forward, I hope that this work serves as a stepping stone with the goal of achieving an ideal future for body complexity in medicine – that primary care physicians adopt the values, practices and language from the Integrative Holistic Medicine space and use it in tandem to that care that already exists. Knowing the language around holistic health, what it means to you, and what it looks like in practice is a core part of shifting the system.
Holistic health is uniquely positioned as an expansive space where those conversations can happen. Moving forward, I hope that this work serves as a stepping stone with the goal of achieving an ideal future for body complexity in medicine – that primary care physicians adopt the values, practices and language from the Integrative Holistic Medicine space and use it in tandem to that care that already exists. Knowing the language around holistic health, what it means to you, and what it looks like in practice is a core part of shifting the system.