Dr Karine Nohr

My interest in integrative medicine started when I was a gynaecology registrar, around 1985. At that time, a frequent reason for planned admission would be for laparoscopy: an investigation for unexplained pelvic pain. Invariably, no abnormality would be found. The patient would be told that 'there's nothing wrong with you, you're discharged'.

The whole experience seemed  not only potentially dangerous (such as the patient who got a perforated bowel and ended up in Intensive Care, with a colostomy) but futile. I asked myself whether there might be another way of looking at the problem and it was this question that lead me to train in pyschotherapy.

As a part of this training, I had to undergo a certain number of hours of personal therapy. I found this so useful for developing my own self-awareness that I extended my own therapy far beyond the minimum requirements; it ultimately lasted for 7 years. Only then could the old adage 'physician heal thyself' have any real meaning for me. I became so much more aware of the greater potential of life within, an education that has informed my relationships, including those with patients, ever since. Personal experience of Yoga, Chi Kung and Alexander Technique has also enabled me to understand the remedial potential of physical therapies. 

Being on the receiving end of Medicine, as a patient or as a relative of a patient, has been a painful lesson in the inadequacies of the traditional model. Healing has often had to be sought using other methods.

I have trained in both Westernised Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Although the use of Westernised Acupuncture is becoming more widespread in the English medical world, the Chinese model is almost unknown. Providing 'evidence' of effectiveness is not easy; the studies that meet acceptable Western standards according to evidence-based medicine are growing but still few and far between.