The Problem With the Medical Model • Alice Whieldon

The medical model is useful for certain conditions and problems. It also lends itself to a factory sort of medicine that allows a large number of people to be served using protocols and standard procedures. But when a patient’s issues don’t fit neatly into “the machine” then that system of medicine is not just not helpful, it can bring harm.

Engaging with a patient free of flowcharts and diagnostic codes invites into a space free of agenda and technique. It allows for a kind of non-doing that can allow for a patient connecting with resources they did not know they had.

Listen into this Part Two conversation with with Alice Whieldon on the cost of the medical model.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• What’s the cost of the medical model
• Distinctions between non-doing and inaction
• Does the medical model work?
• Treatment and diagnosis are the same thing
• The gentle process of attending to the fundamental distortion
• Working with the patient and practitioner agendas
• What is help? 
• You can’t “technique” being with someone
• Fostering wisdom
• Inhabiting a neutral agenda-free stance

Alice Whieldon MA PhD SFHEA, worked with Kishi from 1997 until his death in 2012.  Together they collaborated on a book, Sei-ki: Life in Resonance, the Secret Art of Shiatsu 2011 Kishi & Whieldon, Singing Dragon, London, with the assistance of his wife, Kyoko.  Alice offers Sei-ki workshops and sessions internationally.  In addition, since the 1980s, she has been involved with the work of Charles Berner and Lawrence Noyes in Clearing and the Enlightenment Intensive workshop – a fusion of the zen sesshin and western communication techniques – see Mind Clearing: the key to mindfulness mastery 2016, Whieldon, Singing Dragon, London. 

Alice was Senior Faculty Manager in Arts for the Open University and remains an Associate Lecturer in Arts and Humanities.  She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Chair of the Shiatsu Society (UK) 2016-18 during which time she oversaw a major restructuring and renewal.  With degrees in philosophy and religious studies, Alice is adept at offering the explanations often welcomed in learning Sei-ki.

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