Unit 10-Professional Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

At the beginning of our course within Unit 3, I performed a personal assessment and gave myself the following evaluation on the scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the most optimal):

Psychological---9
Physical---6
Spiritual well-being---9

Now some 6 weeks later at the end of our course I have the opportunity to evaluate myself once more and to note my progress.  I give myself the following evaluation:

Psychological--9.5
Physical--6.5
Spiritual well-being---9

I have only increased slightly in the physical score because I have a long road ahead of me to rebuild the strength in my lower extremities due to cartilage degradation in both of my knees.  I began a physical therapy program to strengthen my legs to relieve the stress on my knees, however after starting the program I got laid off of my job/demoted to PRN work which relieved me of my health insurance (wonderful world of hotel work).  I had to go out on my own with my therapy.  I plan to concentrate during my break to regain the lost ground by implementing my own physical therapy program to regain the strength in my lower extremities.

I have improved my psychological scores slightly by implementing my own regiment of meditation and relaxation techniques.  I plan to utilize  the break between terms to get in touch with my FSM with the volunteer minister's program where I work as a volunteer to implement more auditing and assists to increase my scores in this area.

My spiritual well-being has always remained strong due to my faith in God, our creator and the concept of there being a higher-being in life.  I will continue my studies into this part of my well-being and continue to offer as much assistance in improving my surrounding environment to create my own personal Haven to which to retreat in my own personal periods of need.

I have not progressed as effectively as I had anticipated because I experienced a major set back in my finances due to being put on lay off from my job.  That caused an upset of which I intend to recover from during our break.  I intend to do this my securing more stable employment within the health care field and leaving the field of hospitality (hotel industry).

I have implemented the Loving-Kindness Practice and the practise of meditation on a regular basis.  I intend to utilize our break as a time to progressively develop a personalized physical fitness program concentrating on low impact exercises to strengthen my lower extremities.  I also will empower some assistance from some of my friends who also are in need of this same encouragement.  We will incorporate the "Buddy" system to encourage and maintain our commitment to ourselves and each other with these shared needs.

I have really enjoyed this course as it has really impacted some of the aspects of what I wish to accomplish with my clients when I become a health care professional.  It has given me to basis needed to embark upon my own personal quest for a better, healthier well-being.  The difficult part was maintaining consistency with classwork, work from my job and my commitments to improving my own diet and physical fitness activities.  By facing my own challenges that I have encountered, it has enabled me to see how my clients may also embark similar challenges and I can therefore empathize and sympathize with their positions because I have been down a similar path this term myself.  I can now offer foreseen, first-hand found and tried solutions to their possible challenges because of the challenges I have faced this past term with my job, classes and my personal life.