We bring you Part II of our interview with Janet Quinn, who is Associate Professor and Senior Scholar at the Center for Human Caring at the University of Colorado School of Nursing.
What is the noticeable response to the work you're doing with clients-the therapeutic touch, guided imagery and healing dialogue?
People have lots of different reactions. I don't always ask them to tell me what happened because I don't like to interrupt the trance-quality by bringing them back immediately into a cognitive frame of mind. That will immediately bring them to a reporting state that takes them out of the experience.
So as a researcher, I miss information I'd like to have, but as a clinician I am convinced that's the best way to do it. And because I trust the process and because my posture is one of surrender, it basically doesn't matter what their experience is. That's the bottom line for me.
What are the observeables--not what they say, but what you see?
Very routinely, through therapeutic touch, you see a very deep relaxation and a trance-like quality as they're coming out of it. All of the things you'd see in an imagery state or a hypnotic trance.
How is it like a trance?
Their voice is very much lower...a quietness to the voice. And the body is quite still. When the treatment is over, there's a big stretch like there's been a deep rest.
This population, people with AIDS, often feel like a pariah. They feel untouchable like lepers, and so to have this experience of being deeply nourished through contact is wonderful for them.
Are there any other issues that come up for AIDS patients? You mentioned difficulties accepting nurturing...and feeling like a pariah. What other psychological...or life issues do they face?
I don't want to generalize, but this is my experience. Imagine that suddenly there is a pair of binoculars in front of you and in front of the binoculars is your life. And you realize you've been looking through binoculars that have been out of focus for years. AIDS allows people to focus. My experience with people with AIDS is that there is an invitation to really look at life. Of course, this applies to cancer or any other illness. Suddenly what's important gets clear. In my experience what's important that gets clear is relationship. There is a deep looking at relationship...both the relationship with oneself, with significant others...with community. There is an incredible re-evaluation. How do I get nourished? What am I really looking for? What do I want?
How do people change from the work?
This notion of surrender and control is important. When people first come in, there position is very much one of wanting to be in control and taking charge. And of course, one wants to support that. The AIDS virus is so unpredictable...and the way they feel from one day to the next is utterly unpredictable, they begin to realize that the unpredictability remains.
That's the only constant thing!
Right! The only predictable thing is the unpredictability. There are lots of ways to respond to that. One way is to get completely hopeless and give up. And the other is to surrender. What I'm watching is how people negotiate between giving up and surrendering, and how different those two things are. Surrendering is incredibly empowering because it is an action. And giving up is the refusal to take action. Giving up is saying there is nothing else to do. To be without power...to become inert. To surrender is absolutely active and requires doing over and over again. Surrendering is not something thatŐs done once and for all. You can't really say, "I surrender to AIDS today...or I surrender to God." It's required minute to minute. Being surrendered is becoming extraordinarily active in one's process.
How do you address outcome issues? People will ask you, "What happens with their mood? Do they live longer? What happens to the quality of life?"
This may sound harsh, but I'm basically not interested in whether they live longer necessarily. I don't think that longevity is the appropriate question for anybody's life.
Are they more at peace with themselves?
Oh yes, the quality of life is unquestionably different when they're able to work in these ways. It comes back to this issue of surrender and giving up. Surrender increases the quality of life...and the quality of one's dying. There is a peacefulness that comes with that...versus the despair that comes with giving up.
Do you consider your treatment to be one of hope?
Absolutely. Hope and surrender go together. And it can only happen a moment at a time, so it is the most dynamic thing you can do. You can't surrender to anything other than a moment. All you can surrender to is what's happening right now. And so the next minute you're going to be asked to do it again...and the next minute again.
I'd like to get really picky here. Surrender is a word we banter around a lot. You hear people saying, "I have totally surrendered to God," or "I am trying to surrender to my illness." In 12-step programs for treatment of addictions surrender is a central concept. How do you define "surrender?"
The word that comes to me is to say, "Amen" to it. To say it is enough. So be it. To not try and change it. To not make it anything different. And to not leave it. To not move into a future moment...or a past moment...to not be wishing for something different, which is to take one out of the moment. But to be in each moment and to say, "Amen." And I don't know that I can do it. It's to cease to struggle...to cease opposing. And it's to trust this moment...to trust that this moment is, for whatever reason, exactly what it needs to be.
For me, in my framework, which I wouldn't impose on anybody else, surrender means trusting that no matter what's happening to me in that moment that God is there. And God is the moment. I donŐt believe that God is only there in the good moments but has abandoned me in the bad. God is always present and I surrender to Him/Her in the moment...every moment. What else is there to say? Amen.
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