Resumes are useful in employment decisions. I provide this background so that you may understand what informs the work which you may employ in your own.

I have been involved as an organizer-writer in the emerging fields of complementary, alternative and integrative medicine since 1983. Happily, I have learned some things. I was once called an "expert in alternative medicine" by Medical Economics and later an “alternative care (integration) expert" by Modern Healthcare. The name-calling was proud-making, even if I was so-dubbed by reporters who were on their first forays into the field.

Both anointed me before I went on sabbatical in Costa Rica and later Nicaragua with my family in 2002. Part of the reason for sabbatical was that whatever expertise I may have developed often ran frustratingly short of being able to offer robust, successful business models with readers and clients. More than once I counseled people against the initiatives they planned. Trends taught me to recognize the invisible handwriting of a sure failure event behind the bubbling enthusiasm of an initiate. I needed a break from the work. My family and I took it!

I was away from the United States for three years. I had my hand back in things for the last 2.5 years. I assisted a philanthropist on her integrative medicine investments in community clinics, CAM schools and academic health centers. From early 2004 forward, and out of home offices in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and then Granada, Nicaragua, I helped organize and direct the National Education Dialogue to Advance Integrated Health Care: Creating Common Ground. This ongoing project, involving leaders of 12 disciplines (IM, massage therapy, holistic nursing, AOM, ND, DC, direct-entry midwifery, holistic medicine, public health, yoga, occupational medicine, whole person nutrition) will inform The Integrator Blog copy.

I come back to writing these News and Reports and to managing the blog enthused to discover and share with you what I can which can serve your work. We are all in a new, more seasoned phase of this integration work with its own insights, opportunities, edges and challenges.

The visit The Integrator Blog go to www.theintegratorblog.com.