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The healing power of being seen, heard, and validated

Dear reader, 

I’ve been in so much physical pain and discomfort since a nasty wisdom tooth extraction 1.5 years ago. It reached it’s peak this summer, when my throat muscles started numbing out and I felt as if I was choking. That very unpleasant, slightly panicy  experience finally had me seek medical help!

The doctor immediately connected the dots to the wisdom tooth ordeal that I told him about, but he also took the time to calm all my fears of it being something really scary that was causing the numbing. He then referred me to the center of dental medicine at the University Hospital here in Zürich. 

Before the appointment at the University Hospital I was sent an on-line form to describe my pain in detail, and much to my delight (to someone working with the mind-body connection on a daily basis) there were quite a few questions relating to my mental health, stress levels and life situation as well.

I even made sure to point out  that I had dismissed my pain as being stress related until now, but finally had understood that it could well be something physical that was causing it 🙂 

And now something weird happened!

I say weird because I’m so used to talk about the healing power of finally being seen, heard  and validated with my clients all the time, but I’m always secretly sceptical that it will indeed work on me too 😀 

Immediately (as in a few minutes) after filling in and pressing the “send” button of the intake form, the pain level dropped from a 6-7 to a 3 (on a 10-scale)!

I walked around for days trying to feel the pain I had seeked medical help for, but it simply wasn’t there anymore. It almost made me feel like a hypocrite and therefor I almost cancelled the appointment. But I didn’t. 

The day finally came for my appointment at the University Hospital, and indeed the doctor diagnosed that a nerve had been damaged from pulling the tooth on the left side. I was so relieved! 

…and yes, the pain level dropped even more efter the appointment, from a 3 to a 1, and it has remained on that level for 3 weeks now.  

So how is that possible?

The only thing that change from the time of seeking help to the reduction in pain was that I had been taken seriously by a medical doctor who then referred me to the right place. That medical doctor also validated what I was experiencing and really made her absolute best to find the root cause (pun not intended!) of the origin of the pain.

What those two doctors did made me feel so taken care of, listened to, and taken seriously. She even read my mind and and wrapped up our appointment by saying “It’s much easier to take care of others than ourselves, right?”

So thank you Universe for that painful, but profound lesson on the healing power of being seen, heard and validated!

Warm regards,
Karin

 

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