The Healing Relationship and Suffering: A Catholic Perspective

In clinical practice today, we are endowed with enormously effective interventions that were unimaginable only a few decades earlier. In light of the fund of knowledge, skills, and competencies that we bring to bear in our experience in caring for patients, the learning curve is never flat, never complete, and never static. As clinicians, we are reasonably well-equipped and experienced in treating physiological or neurological pain. When physical pain has been relieved by pharmaceuticals and other interventions, we oftentimes find the person who is not relieved of psychological, emotional, or spiritual pain. This paper will explore the mind-body connection of patients experiencing pain and suffering, followed by the identification of a framework that will help to understand the importance of the healing relationships between patients and clinicians in responding to the mind-body connection among persons who experience pain and suffering.