I love this course. It has made my reflexology practice simpler and provided better clarity about it's relationship with other integrative therapies. Thank you!
My feelings about this course are a little bit ambivalent. While it is generally well constructed from the point of view of educational effectiveness, and it is laudable that such effort are being made to introduce a more holistic mindset into medicine, I have not been convinced that the course authors understand what a holistic mindset is. It is obvious to someone who has worked in holistic healthcare for two decades that here the Cartesian mindset still exerts its stranglehold. I think perhaps what is needed is a bit of deep thinking about what holism actually means, and then the insertion of a module on holistic philosophy. My second point concerns the emphasis on the evidence base, presented as an indispensable tool rightly to inform our judgement rather than shackle it. Nevertheless, I feel the strong emphasis on the evidence base sometimes gets tripped up by its own paradoxes. For example it is repeated over and over that integrative medicine must address body, mind and spirit, yet "spirit" is never defined, not any evidence ever presented for its existence. Evidently we are just asked to assume its existence without question. This just one example which particularly struck me. My third and fourth small grumbles concern assessment. Some of the quiz questions are equivocally worded such that the "correct" answers are arguable. The policy of assessment by our peers in the project, I accept is the only workable way of doing this, but it does have the major disadvantage that we may be judged by peers who have not themselves understood the questions. I have read many answers where the person had clearly not read and understood what was required by the question. That person will then be judging others! Notwithstanding all the foregoing, well done, it is a good start (to be improved upon!), and thank you for providing this course!
