“As a psychotherapist, I do not work with ‘cases’ or, for that matter, with diagnoses, collections of symptoms, medical facts or findings, malignancies or ‘patients.’ I work only with whole human beings, each one complex, each one unique. Each person who walks into my office is like no other I have ever met.”
“My own goal [for my clients] is that they become empowered to explore their own being so that they make their own decisions, control their lives and further their individuality. To paraphrase Larry LeShan, by my listening to the person without preconception, the person would learn to listen to herself. By respecting the person unconditionally, the person would learn to respect herself. By having hopes for the person and her future, the person would come to have hopes, too. By trusting that the person can make her own decisions and shape her own life, the person would come to believe this, too. By seeing and caring for the person in this way, the person would begin to love and care for herself, shaping her life so that no part of her being remains outside of her concern. When this happens, her self-healing resources might well respond.”
Ruth Bolletino
“The Patient is a Person”
in Integrative Cancer Therapies
Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2004
