Shards of hope, the relationships that heal

Presented at the San Paolo bookstore "Shards of Hope: the Healing Relationships between Epigenetics, Neurosciences, and Gestalt Therapy", the latest book by Dr. Rita Garofalo, endocrinologist and psychotherapist.

It is a essay in which the author has managed to combine her roles as a doctor, psychotherapist, and also as a storyteller. "We are used to considering hope as a philosophical-anthropological concept and, why not, also theological. In reality - says Garofalo - neurosciences demonstrate that it is a neuroendocrine process that is triggered within a meaningful relationship for us, such as the care relationship. A process that modulates all the functions of our organism and therefore our psychophysical health. It is the words we say but especially how we say them that modify our biochemical makeup. I am not referring to the semantic meaning of words, but also to the way our voice, our gaze, and our body convey to the other what we say. It is precisely the non-verbal language that can trigger or not a process of trust and hope and facilitate the evolution towards healing or improvement of health conditions".

In her professional life, regarding the communication of a diabetes diagnosis, "I often heard people say 'a bomb has exploded in my hands'". I believe that our task within the care relationship is to transform these shards into seeds of hope and we can do this only if we value the relationship which, as stated by the WHO, is in itself a therapeutic act. This is a profound truth that I have embraced as a doctor and psychotherapist. For this reason, I begin my book by narrating the encounter with a diabetic patient, whose very particular life story has accompanied me all these years".

As for who it is aimed at, this is a book that can be read not only by "technicians", doctors and psychotherapists, and generally healthcare workers, but by everyone who takes care of others.

The book, published by Pozzo di Giacobbe for the Gestalt Therapy Kairos series directed by Professor Giovanni Salonia, who wrote the preface, has been defined by him as "a gift in the name of hope". The same opinion is shared by Professor Bruno Cacopardo, director of the Uoc Infectious Diseases Arnas Garibaldi, who concludes the postface with: "The holistic approach proposed, considering the human being as an indivisible unit of mind and body, contact and emotions, memories and present in constant relation with the environment in its complexity, seems very modern and exciting to me".