Medical Consultations With Dr. Berg

          Serious medical problems take time to discern a workable medical solution.   My job is to serve my clients with the respect they deserve.   Building health is like building a house, both requiring strategic planning, a sturdy foundation and skillful execution.  These take insight and refinement.   My services are for those who appreciate medical services that are tailor-fitted, comfortable and effective.   My clients and I need to get to know each other for me to help them envision how to heal.

          Realizing that different people prefer to go about their healing in different ways, I have designed different options for ways to utilize my services.  I do prefer to have an introductory meeting that allows my clients and I to gain a clear understanding of the problem and a strategy for healing.  For me to be responsible for the depth required in this process, this first introductory session is approximately one and a half hours long.  I request that the client has already filled in a very complete history form before they come to the office so that we spend more time exploring solutions.  This form can be downloaded through the above hyperlink or a printed copy can be requested to be sent from my office when the appointment is made. 

          The number and length of follow-up appointments is up to the client, their problem,  and their appreciation of my involvement with them.   I prefer to take each problem seriously and I also realize that the appointments cost time and money.   I will make every moment of every appointment worth while and valuable.  Yet each client needs to decide how to utilize my services.   My duty is to help my clients see what it is that they could do to become healthier.  This might include herbs, foods, exercise, medicine, and lifestyle modification depending on the specific needs and interests of the client.   I am joining their team of support.

          Many clients like to have me involved with them like a personal trainer, meeting regularly to help keep them solidly on the healing path.  That way, I can educate them thoroughly about their medical challenges, and can help them gain the skills needed to fulfill a deep solution.  We work on both the principles of their healing, as well as specific discipline techniques.  Each person prefers to discipline themselves uniquely.  Discipline styles always have their blessings and drawbacks, and need to be weaved into the solution.   Internal and external obstacles often block the path to healing and dealing with these effectively helps to fulfill the solution.   Sometimes these obstacles are the disease itself; sometimes it's our own attitudes, ignorance, habits and weaknesses;  and sometimes it is the medical system itself that obscures the way.  It is easy to be overwhelmed by a difficult medical situation.  My job is to empower people to be proactive about their healing and to overcome their particular challenges effectively. 

          Many clients have either a minor medical problem or else they already have good healing skills and support.  These clients might utilize my services more briefly, tuning in every once in a while.  I still prefer to have an introductory meeting for an hour and a half.  That way,  my clients and I can gain good insight into each other as a baseline.  This introductory meeting serves to establish an ongoing relationship, in addition to helping the immediate problem.  This way, I can also offer phone support to a client I am familiar with if a new medical problem should arise suddenly or an old one exacerbate. 

          I also offer sessions in bodywork and physical rehabilitation as this is a special skill of mine.  I have been an acupuncturist for twenty years, but the state of Hawaii has very restricting laws for medical doctors to practice acupuncture.  I have a lot of excellent training, and I have been on the visiting faculty of acupuncture colleges, and have designed and taught many programs training medical doctors in acupuncture, bodyork and oriental medicine.  Because of the acupuncture licensure restrictions, I will focus my rehabilitation practice to  other techniques that effectively solve the problem.   These techniques include bodywork and therapeutic exercises derived from my lifelong experience with yoga, tai chi, martial arts, and especially qigong.  Every rehabilitation project is uniquely designed to help a client directly and to help them gain the skills needed to do most of the rehab on their own.   This keeps our relationship cost effective. 

            Although I have been trained in primary care as a family practitioner,  I am a consultant, rather that an emergency doctor.  I am not "on call" for emergencies and do not design my practice to squeeze in acute situations.   I do, however,  try to accommodate my clients that I have an ongoing relationship with  in times of more emergent need and give them priority in my schedule if my schedule allows it.   Since I am a consultant, I assume that all my clients will utilize their other medical/healing resources if I am not available.  I design my practice like this out of respect for my family and myself.  I love my medical practice and clients, and I also love my life outside of my practice.