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I was drawn to this book after listening to an interview with Dr. Remen from the "Speaking of Faith" series on National Public Radio. I could tell from the interview that I was listening to a wise and compassionate person who was speaking from a deep well of experience about the real needs of patients, families, and those involved in health care delivery.

Remen is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and a chronic sufferer from Crohn's disease, an often debilitating illness. This volume is a collection of brief stories from her own experiences as well as the lives of hundreds of patients she has counseled. Remen has been something of a medical reformer and pioneer as she turned toward the emotional and spiritual needs of cancer patients she was counseling.

Typical of the moving stories in this book is the selection about a man with cancer named Dieter. Convinced that his chemo was no longer working, Dieter told his doctor he wanted to stop the treatments but to continue his appointments just to talk. His doctor pushed him away, saying that if he discontinued treatments, there was nothing more he could do for him. Dieter told his cancer support group, "My doctor's love is as important to me as his chemotherapy, but he does not know." Ironically, Remen discloses in this story that Deiter's doctor was one of her counseling clients, although neither Deiter nor his doctor knew that, and she could not disclose it. The doctor was depressed and isolated, complaining that he was just another white coat and that no one cared for him. Sadly, neither doctor nor patient could receive healing from each other.

Remen's mission has been to base health care relationships on the whole person. This requires new forms of medical education which she has developed. Remem herself has said that she had to "unlearn" much of her own medical training--with its emphasis on detached clinical professionalism--in order to be someone who not just cures but heals. This collection of stories reveals much of the fruit of this struggle. All of us will benefit from knowing that true healing occurs when who we really are shows up.

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