stark reality

After “the interview” I talked to Dr. C about why he left his job as a therapist (presumably where he learned how to heal with words). He told me how emotion laden and energy consuming the work was, where every movement, every sound, action was scrutinized by both the therapist and the patient. So much so that he was exhausted and could work no more than 25hours a week actually seeing patients. And when managed care came along, he realized that the reimbursements would start to shrink and he would have to struggle to justify the time spent with patients so he left. He told me that he thinks if he were to go back to it now, he could only take patients who paid in cash and could justify charging $200 an hour which would result in about $250k a year but leave him very little energy for his art where he would rather focus his energy. Finally he told me that what I saw today, the time and opportunity for real “healing” in medicine no longer exists.