What is attentive medicine?

attentive medicine® is a medical approach
that seeks to understand the cause of bodily changes.

It is not primarily concerned with the disappearance of symptoms,
but with the transformation of the body that illness represents.

The body as a relational system

The human being is a relational being.
Life depends on vital relationships – relationships without which one cannot live.

These include:

– air – breathing, perspiration, space

– water – drinking, hydration

– food – nutrition, appetite, digestion

– physical activity – movement, effort, adaptation

– rest

– shelter – clothing, housing

– earth – elimination: urine, stools, menstruation, bodily cycles

– human relationships – respect, honesty

– the relationship with oneself – and the beliefs that sustain it

– other relationships with the environment – beauty, light, nature, quality of spaces… 

Vitality and vital relationships

Vitality depends on the quality of these relationships.
The quality of vital relationships is expressed in the vitality of the body.

The central role of the immune system

The immune system constantly participates in the regulation, repair and adaptation of the body.

It interacts with cells, hormones, microorganisms and the environment.

When this regulation is altered, different transformations may appear:

– infections
– inflammations
– repair disorders
– excessive immune reactions
– local or general disturbances in the body’s balance

Location of change

A symptom is also a situated transformation,
which can be explored from the place where it appears.

This localisation may orient attention toward certain functions or relationships of the body.
It indicates a place where the body’s balance is modified,
and where regulatory mechanisms – particularly immune – may be involved.

The location thus becomes an entry point
for exploring the vital relationships that may be altered.

The aim is not to attribute a single cause,
but to explore the factors that may contribute to this imbalance.

Examples of orientation

– cough
→ relationship to air, to the respiratory environment

– diarrhea, vomiting
→ relationship to what is ingested (water, food)

These examples are intended to orient attention toward the concrete interactions between the body and what it is in relationship with. 

Disease as a transformation of the body

Illness is approached as a transformation of the body,

resulting from multiple biological and relational processes. 

It corresponds to a reduction in vitality,
global or local.

The attentive medicine approach

Attentive medicine is based on two fundamental questions:

1. Which vital relationship has been altered?

Identifying the vital relationship or relationships
whose quality has been modified.

2. Why has this relationship become altered? 

Understanding the logic that led to this alteration.

The consultation consists in bringing this logic to light
and questioning it.

Sometimes, this exploration unfolds within the consultation itself.
Often, it continues in the patient’s own reflections
and – if they wish – in subsequent consultations.

The way the body changes – where and how –
is linked to the vital relationship that calls for attention.

These two questions are at the core of the consultation.

The symptom

The symptom is not treated as an enemy.

It is approached as the visible manifestation of a process involving:
– altered vital relationships
– shaped by a logic specific to the individual,
which itself is to be understood and questioned
in light of the loss of vitality expressed through the disease

The position of attentive medicine

Conventional medicine primarily acts on symptoms.
It is often very effective in doing so,
and can be essential.

attentive medicine® does not replace conventional medicine.

It is interested in another question:
understanding the vital relationships whose alteration contributes to the bodily transformation that disease represents.