According to Pfizer research, 90 million people in the United States may be at risk because of the difficulty some patients experience in understanding and acting on health information. Errors in intensive care units (ICUs), even with all the computer technology, account for errors as high as 1.7 per patient per day. In another study, slightly more than one-half of patients had an episode with pharmacists giving information that scared patients out of taking medication. Communication, especially in health care, is critical, but it is important for everyday communications too.

 Communication is such a powerful and delicate thing. Most speakers/ communicators have a fairly good grasp of their native vocabulary, but how they manipulate those same words change them from being able to just talk to becoming a person you can learn from. To move into the category of a great speaker you must also have timing and a rhythm of your sentences so that the impact settles into the very pores of the person listening. A dynamic speaker uses his actually energy or Qi to project into the audience, not just the words with timing and rhythm, but with an energy that one can feel into your very heart and soul – a lecture/sermon/seminar that moves you to the core!

 A great speaker lecturing to a group appears to be communicating to each person individually – as if the speaker knew them personally. Great books accomplish the same intimacy. That is why there are so many interpretations of the Bible or the Tao Te Ching. They are the top two most printed books in the world – but most readers interpret them slightly different.

As a professional speaker, I have had some fabulous opportunities. Some of my favorite memories were teaching communication skills to the U.S. Dept of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys office in Washington D.C. I used a variety of skills to present the seminar including voice projection, active listening to questions, learning to read the energy of the audience and give back exactly the kind of energy the participants needed and wanted to hear, as well as using the vibration of my voice to capture the minds of the audience. Yes, your voice has an energy to it that can be harnessed and used as a tool. 

In teaching my 3-year class in Chinese Medicine, I also have included these skills for my students. Although many health care professionals are wonderful speakers and are very capable of communicating their ideas to their patients, the patients themselves may not be as great of a communicator and may not actually have their needs met in the office. Sometimes the patient feels rushed, intimidated, or just is not used to asking for things succinctly (often times, they just “do not like to bother someone”) – which can all lead to communication breakdown and unmet needs and mental dissatisfaction. 

That’s is why I am teaching my students communication skills in addition to Chinese medicine skills. I have found that the human voice, when trained properly, can be a wonderful underestimated healing tool that can calm and sooth a suffering soul sitting across from you. Learning to harness Qi this way and utilize it is an art, like most effective healing modalities, is something that has to be cultivated. I like to think that my graduates will have an enormous array of tools available to them, including the ability to sooth and heal with their voice, with enhanced listening and speaking skills.

Dr. Cibik will be speaking on Effective Communication skills for patients and health care professionals on September 12^th, 2009, from 9am to 1pm. The cost is $99.00. Dr. Cibik will be demonstrating various voice projection techniques (Qi projection) for effective communication as well as word choice and timing skills.