On mental health care

What if the problem in Dutch mental health care (the GGZ) is not just the waiting list, but the foundation? We have organized our care so that it functions as a market mechanism. Market forces in healthcare. Introduced by Jan Peter Balkenende of the CDA, following the American model. As if psychological distress can be cut up into billable services. As if a diagnosis is first and foremost an access code to funding. As if production matters more than real encounter.

And meanwhile, as a society, we are dealing with ever growing alienation. We spend more time on screens than we do in connection with reality. Less connection with each other. With our work. With ourselves. And with that, the distance grows. From person to person. Between care provider and human being. Between system and soul.

In my consulting room I see the consequences of this every day.
Waiting times of months. Technical language. Protocols that are meant to offer something to hold on to, but miss the core. We treat mental health symptoms. But we do not reach the deeper layer that it is really about.

Because mental imbalance is rarely only about what is wrong in the brain.
It is also about a life that has lost its riverbed. About losing direction.
About going along with everything, without feeling connected.

Meaning is still too often seen as something soft here. Something extra.
Not a serious lifestyle factor. While research shows that experiencing meaning is linked to stronger coping, more flexibility and greater resilience.
That it protects against anxiety, overstrain, burnout and depressive symptoms.

We still underestimate that power of soulfulness. These times do not only call for more treatment capacity. But above all for different questions. Not only: what is your diagnosis? But also: what gives your life direction?
It is time to return to what truly gives us soul.

In my book Doctor’s Orders: Partner with Your Soul I describe how soulfulness can be a foundation for health. Rooted in ancient wisdom and modern science. Especially in a time of alienation we need something that connects us again. With ourselves. With each other. With what really matters.

What would change if meaning were not a side issue in mental health care, but the starting point?