Dr. K.M.Kundavi Shankar

Hi, this is Dr Mangesh Chandewar, currently practising in Kharghar, Sector 20. I have done Post Graduation in Community Medicine. Today we are going to talk about the importance of family physician.

Why should one a family physician?

Because there are so many things we cannot discuss with the family members or friends or the relatives. So the person who has the right to tell you about your health, infections or any diseases, is your family physician. It will definitely help you to prevent serious illness as well as the extra money that is spent by the patients because of lack of knowledge. And, the family physician is important right from the birth till the death. Why? Because from the birth, what precautions to be taken, for example, vaccination of the baby at the appropriate age with the correct vaccination. The family physician is again important at the adolescent age because so many physiological changes occur at this age and the family cannot speak about it because of our alien culture; they are hesitant to talk with their son or their daughters. So, the physician plays a very important role.

And again when it is in a reproductive phase, there are so many changes, so many problems, often in females, regular periods and all. So, rather than discussing in family and hesitating to discuss in the family, one should discuss this with the family physician. He can guide you or she can guide at the regular intervals, and he can give you the advice and treatment required and consult to the appropriate specialist whenever required. So it will save your golden time as well as your money. Again, when it comes to the phase of marriages, means like, 18-21 up to 30, so, so many hormonal changes occur, so many decisions to take, whether it is conceiving, not conceiving, and so many financial issues and financial problems are there which can be shared with the family physician.

At the elderly age, so many changes again like simple joint pains and all where we visit so many doctors but we do not get the right person to tell us whom should we visit and what should we do. So the family physician has an important role; he can give you home visits as well as he can guide you the right specialist at the right time. And at the end, if you have your own family physician, right from the birth till the end of the life, he can suggest, help you with chronic illnesses in the post-elderly phase and suppose when you are a regular patient of your family physician, he knows everything about your family and if anything serious happens in the family, say for the death of a patient, he is the person, he will help you in giving the death certificate as well.

So our aim is to identify a good family physician, who is a good family physician, just follow what he says with the faith and complete the course of the medicines and follow the advices suggested by him.

For more details and any information regarding the topic discussed, you can contact me through Lybrate.com.

Marriage is perhaps the most important relation in an adult’s life. That’s why it needs extra care and attention, especially when things are not exactly gung ho. This is where marriage or marital therapy comes in. 
Marriage counseling is the process of counseling the married couple to recognize and to reconcile or at least manage differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the marital relationship.

Basic practices of marital therapy

1. The basic practices of marital therapy focus primarily on the process of communicating. Counselors use a method called active listening.
2. Another method used is called “Cinematic immersion”. Both these methods have one important thing in common- they help counselors create a safe environment where each partner can express feelings and hear the feelings of the other.
3. Emotionally focused therapy for couples or EFT-C is also used. This is based on attachment theory and uses emotion as an agent of change and target, both.
4. Behavioral couples’ therapy is another method used. It is actually a proven way out of marital discord. This method focuses on integrating the twin goals of acceptance and change for couples in therapy.

The successful couples usually make concrete changes to accommodate the needs of the partner and also show greater emotional acceptance of the other.

Role of the relationship counselor
A couple therapist is usually someone with a degree in psychiatry or counseling. And her primary role is to listen, understand and facilitate better communication between the couple. The counselor also:

1. Provides a confidential tete-a tete, which normalizes feelings
2. Enables each partner to be heard and to hear themselves
3. Works as a mirror to reflect the marriage’s difficulties to the partners
4. Outlines the potential and direction for change
5. Delivers important information
6. Improves communication
7. Identifies the repetitive, negative interaction cycle that drives a problematic marriage as a pattern
8. Understands the source of emotions behind that negative pattern
9. Re-organizes these key emotional responses to offset the pattern
10. Creates new patterns of interaction
11. Increases emotional attachment between partners

When should you seek marital therapy?

1. When you avoid communicating or your communication has become negative- This usually means bad language, verbal abuse, and sometimes physical abuse.
2. When you or your partner have sought out other sexual partners – Marital therapy can save a marriage after an affair if both partners want and work out the kinks in their relationship.
3. Lack of intimacy in the marriage- This is the stage when partners just occupy the same space without communication, or exchange of feelings or touch.

Marriage counseling is a long process. And another thing to remember is that it can’t save a marriage that is unsalvageable. So, go in for marital therapy with an aim to do what’s the best for you and your partner.