Your Story Can Be a Key to Healing

It doesn’t matter who you are working with, what system you are working within, or what the income or educational level of the individual is. If you honor their story and are able to tell it back to them in a way that makes sense to them, they can work to unwind their complex collection of symptoms and return to health.” So says Dr. Henri Roca, an Institute of Functional Medicine–certified practitioner.

Everyone has a story to tell. The functional medicine model considers that story to be an integral part of medicine. The story begins at the start of all illnesses, often before the patient is even aware. Stories can be a powerful way to help clinicians and patients begin a meaningful conversation—and can also provide the clinician with important clues regarding the development and manifestation of disease.

Rita Charon, MD, PhD, coined the term “narrative medicine” in 2001. She said, in an interview with Columbia University's Insight into Diversity, that “physicians are trained to zero in as quickly as possible on the physical problem,” but they can provide better care if they consider the patient’s experiences and connect with them.

Stories can be a powerful way to help clinicians and patients begin a meaningful conversation.

The Functional Medicine Timeline is a tool to record a patient’s story, and helps organize their experience into a history that helps both patient and clinician better understand the causes of their illness. Validating an individual's story helps provide insight and, ultimately, can help to motivate the patient to make lifestyle modifications and engage more fully in the treatment plan. According to Dr. Roca, “Receiving the richness of that person’s life—whatever it is they choose to give to you—is actually therapeutic in and of itself, and it leads you to understanding how to help the individual unwind their set of circumstances.”

Clinicians are able to identify factors that predispose, provoke, and contribute to pathological changes and dysfunctional processes through the graphical representation of the Functional Medicine Timeline. This allows practitioners and patients to identify cause-effect relationships that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Compassion for others has been widely recognized as an integral part of patient-centered care. Recent studies show that patients have less favorable clinical outcomes and are more likely to sue for malpractice if they perceive a lack of empathy and compassion in their care.