The Butterfly and Transitional
Medicine
The
butterfly is a perfect symbol for this type of medicine. It starts life
as a caterpillar, then turns into a cocoon, during which time there is
a great period of transition and change.
Finally after this time of seclusion and transition, a time when
the caterpillar is "coocooned" off away from the rest of the world, with
the signals of spring and reawakening, the caterpillar emerges, transformed,
forever changed into a beautiful butterfly.
Transitional Medicine and
Psychoneuroimmunology
As compared to conventional medicine, which utilizes a mind-body
approach, transitional medicine utilizes a mind-body-spirit approach to
looking at how medicine is practiced, remembering to look at the impact
that the mind is having on the process.
Transitional medicine can also be explained by the relatively new
field of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). This term can be defined by
it's component parts--psyche the mind component or study of psychology,
neuro the neurotransmitters and connectors or study of neurology
and immunology how the immune system is impacted, or the study of
immunology. This area of medicine explores how the mind can and does impact
the immune system, the endocrine system, the nervous system, the cardiovascular
system. Sometimes the impact is positive (as with enhancing the immune
system to combat diseases), other times (as with heart disease and stress)
it is negative.
This Website and Transitions
Part of the mission of this website is to help people through the
transition phase, to realize that the emotions they may be experiencing
are not entirely unique or unusual, that other people have experienced
similar news (or worse) and survived. We hope to provide resources
to help people through the transition process and become transformed, ultimately
getting through the shock and the loss.
There may be times when the grief reaction to some bad news can
be overwhelming to a point of resulting in an acute
major depression. We have also provided information and quizzes to
help determine if the reaction is an acute depression, and one that might
benefit from medical or psychological intervention.
of winter, I finally
Albert
Camus
|
These coping resources are both internal and external sources, which
aid in getting through the transitional period and the grief phase, the
coocoon phase. The ultimate goal is to reach an integration phase, the
transformed phase and emerge from the process, forever changed, as the
butterfly. 
For a poem that describes the process of transformation, link to the site Transformation.
For more information on Transitional and Transformational Medicine
and its role in the grief and healing process, link to site Transitional
and Transformational medicine.