Arya Chakravarthy Therapy (ACT)

©2019-06-14

Dr Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam

romeshsenewiratne@gmail.com

I have been wondering what to call the unique system of health

promotion that I have been developing over the past 25 years. I have
settled, for the time being on the grandiose title of “Arya
Chakravarthy Therapy” (ACT). Please let me tell you why and outline
what ACT is.

ACT stands for many things including Australian Capital Territory, and
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a therapy developed under
the supposed influence of Eastern spiritual traditions on Western
psychiatry. Act is also a verb. People can act, and what they do when
they act is an action. But action movies mean violent movies and
actors play roles and pretend emotions.

Actions can be voluntary or involuntary and depend on the

contraction and relaxation of muscles. Then there is legal action and
military action, political action and social actions. People who do
many actions are described as ‘active’ and some people are
professional activists. I have described myself on Linkedin as a ‘peace
activist’ as well as a ‘holistic physician’.

I do not act as in pretend. I do not have a ‘work hat’. I have no

employees and no boss. I don’t like bossy people. I don’t aspire to
being a boss. I am not interested in climbing ladders either, though
when I was in school I was very competitive. When I worked as a
family doctor I did have a ‘work hat’ – a persona I adopted when I
treated patients. This was significantly different to my real self and
the persona I adopted with my friends and family. These were not
the real me either. I agreed verbally with people when I privately
disagreed and complimented people when I didn’t really mean it.
This was in an effort to keep the peace in my dysfunctional family,
which was also a ‘medical family’.

I graduated as a medical doctor in 1983 after six years as a student at

the University of Queensland. My education was splintered between
different faculties, subjects and topics and my literary resources
were limited to my father’s textbooks and my sister’s ones as well as
the libraries of the university. We also studied anatomy from
cadavers and the pathology museum at the Herston Medical School
adjacent to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. After three ‘clinical years’ at
the Herston Medical School I obtained a position as an intern at the
Royal Brisbane Hospital (RBH). I was intimidated by my new
responsibilities and relied on the registrars and older resident
doctors to advise me. I also asked the senior nursing staff for advice
but less frequently did I consult the ‘consultants’ under whom I
worked. I just did what they ordered to the best of my ability.

Doctor’s Orders

Doctors used to give orders. This is a ‘time-honoured tradition’ such

that the advice that doctors give are still called “doctors orders”.
Doctors treat people in “beds” and have variable “bedside manners”.
I was trained to have good bedside manners and to get on with the
staff. I was keen to please my bosses and get a position as a
paediatric registrar. I harboured an ambition to become a
paediatrician, since I liked and like children.