Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Psychology
Advisor
Lean Stadtlander
Abstract
In Western medicine, anatomy is divided into multiple disciplines with specialists focused on their specialization, thereby limiting the whole system medical approach within the diagnosis, practice, and treatment of illness. The purpose of this qualitative study with an emergent design was to explore how physicians of Tibetan medicine viewed treating the whole person through the lens of Sowa Rigpa. Inquiry and analytical thinking were viewed through the lens of Otto and Knight’s principles of wholistic healing, Wilber’s integral model, and the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Phase I consisted of key informant interviews with four participants that were recent graduates of Tibetan medicine or scholars knowledgeable in Tibetan medicine. Phase II consisted of interviews with seven Tibetan medicine doctors. Inductive coding and thematic analysis showed nine themes associated with whole person care and wholistic healing: an applied philosophy of wholism, the anatomy and physiology of wholism, the pathology of disease, health and wellness, disease prevention, patient assessment and diagnosis, treatment and healing, self–awareness and healing, and the doctor and doctor–patient relationship. The findings may provide positive social change through insight for allopathic physicians and scholars on how to address the complex factors associated with healing and curing from a whole person perspective while also promoting engaged collaboration among cultures and medical disciplines.
Recommended Citation
Brooks, Emma J., "Wholistic Healing: The Physician Perspective of the Tibetan Medical Philosophy" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 13229.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/13229
