Community is the Heart of Integrative Care
Here at Integrative Care Collective (ICC), we believe that community is the heart of integrative care. What does that mean?
We all get silo’d in our own ways of practice, our own paradigms, as we get older and advance through our respective fields. We become familiar with the terminology, the ethics, the tenets of care. We seek out consultation from other, often more experienced, providers within our respective disciplines to help us learn and be better at our craft.
Interdisciplinary providers collaborating. Source: ChatGPT
Often times, we get put into echo chambers of ideas. This may be a natural effect of the environment. It makes sense. If I’m a counselor, and I need to know how to address a mental health issue that I don’t know how to solve, I’m going to ask another more experienced counselor, right?
This is not the wrong way to approach care. In fact, it’s often highly effective. But what do we miss when we spend our careers in our own respective thought bubbles?
I was asking a client with a high amount of ADHD symptoms about his Adderall prescription, and he said “You guys talk to your med providers… right?” Ouch… nope.
I get it. We only have so many hours in the day. We need to take care of our clients, write our notes, handle our billing and finances, and hopefully get a good workout in. We might have to do research on a client, make a care coordination call, or write a treatment plan. There’s only so many hours in the day, and (if you’re in private practice) only so many of them actually keep the lights on!
However, if we want to be better integrative providers, we need to start talking to our colleagues outside of our immediate field or work environment. We have to take the extra initiative to attend a networking event or talk and get our names and faces out there. We have to reach out and make the effort to build relationships.
I know for me, as a therapist, I am engaged to a med provider (Shannon, who co-founded the ICC with me), and I still have a lot to learn about medications for mental health. I believe the best way to do this is through relationship and authentic connection. Now, of course I’m not recommending you propose to a med provider! But it might be worth considering what kind of network you have.
For me, attending the talk we recently hosted with Stephanie Thomas was really eye opening. Stephanie is a friend of ours and a long time member of our community. She focuses on nutrition, specifically with food as medicine. With a past career as a Pharmacist, she was disillusioned by that industry and switched to something more authentic and heart centered. By getting to know her and engage with her over the years, she has really opened my eyes to the ways that nutrition can impact our physical and mental health.
This is why we focus so heavily on our community here at ICC. By building friendships and professional relationships with other providers in different but related disciplines we can expand our repertoire of knowledge. We can also better serve our clients by facilitating referrals to other providers that we know are like-minded and that we feel confident in.
So, I encourage you all to reach out and utilize our community! Here are some ways you can get involved:
Attend the weekly case consult Fridays at 12pm MT, hosted by Shannon
Attend a talk (Next one Nov. 16th 1-2:30pm MT, remote)
Attend a virtual networking event (more of these to come!)
Reach out and introduce yourself in the ICC by emailing integrative-care-collective@googlegroups.com
Join the directory or browse it to find other providers. Reach out to them to introduce yourself and have a coffee!
Of course, we are always open to hosting talks or events if you’d like to share your knowledge as well. Please reach out to me at cole@iccpbc.com to arrange that or offer any feedback.
If you’re not yet a member and considering joining, please review our membership page to learn more and join for free.
About the author:
Cole Butler, LPCC, ADDC, MACP
Cole Butler, LPCC, ADDC, MACP is a Mental Health Therapist and Writer. He co-founded Integrative Care Collective in 2023 to support mental health providers that are passionate about integrative care and to foster community amongst them. You can learn more about and connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-butler/
