Sick leave: a time of care, a chance for healing

Comparison of three approaches to workplace health: occupational medicine, corporate wellness programs, and attentive medicine.

My experience

In more than 25 years of practice (clinical medicine, humanitarian health, clinical research, pharmaceutical industry), I have observed something simple:
sick leave can be one of the most beneficial tools for health.

It is not just a time for rest.
Sick leave carries a deeper kind of kindness:

• a kindness in taking care of the relationship with oneself,

• and therefore, ultimately, in taking care of the illness.

Many of the patients I have supported in their healing use this time to bring to light neglected vital relationships, to restore balance in their lives, and to recover new vitality.

Sometimes this happens spontaneously, but it is often supported by a particular practice: attentive medicine, which I integrate within my conventional medical work.

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Attentive medicine

Attentive medicine places at the centre a question rarely explored in conventional practice:
Why did this body, at this precise moment, change in this particular way?

Conventional medicine describes, diagnoses, and treats symptoms. But it seldom asks about the cause of the body’s change.
Patients are often told about:

• a “genetic predisposition” (even when no genes are identified),

• “the environment” (without clarifying which relationship needs to be reviewed),

• or “bad luck” – an unacceptable fatalism.

These answers are general, but rarely illuminating for the individual.

Take infections, for example: they do not appear constantly. If mere exposure to a microorganism were enough, doctors and nurses would always be ill.
So what, at that particular time, weakened the immune system in those specific places in the body?

Attentive medicine explores this meaning: it considers illness as the body’s attempt to restore balance when vital relationships have been altered.

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Vital relationships

We are made of relationships. They are not a luxury, but the very condition of life.

Among them:

• the air we breathe,

• the water we drink,

• our food,

• the shelter that protects us,

• our exchanges with the earth, air, and microorganisms,

• our sensitive environment, what we call beauty,

• the inner truth that inhabits us.

When these relationships are right, vitality circulates.
When they are distorted, illness appears.

A symptom is not an enemy to be eliminated, but the body’s language — a message revealing that a vital relationship has been disturbed.

An unhealthy relationship at work, for example, is not always caused by the workplace: it often reflects a dynamic already accepted elsewhere (in family, couple, or society). Work then becomes the place where this is revealed, without being its sole cause.

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Health and illness

• Health: the silence of the organs, a state of vitality.

• Illness: a loss of vitality, whether physical or psychological.

It is possible to lose a function without losing vitality — for example, in ageing, which is not an illness.

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What a consultation looks like

An attentive medicine consultation lasts 90 minutes.
Three simple gestures:

• Observe what is happening.

• Listen to what is expressed, and how it is expressed.

• Question attentively what emerges.

This time creates a space for learning.
In general, three things may happen:

1. the symptom disappears,

2. or it is experienced in a completely different way,

3. or the person changes their life.

In all cases, the individual’s relationship to their illness becomes more peaceful.

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The goodness of sick leave

Sick leave is not just a parenthesis: it is an opportunity for healing.

It invites us to honour this time by asking:

• which vital relationship has been neglected?

• what has diminished my vitality?

Honouring sick leave also means returning to nature.
Being in nature is a way of remembering that we are part of it, and that its balance is also ours.

That is why I always advise my patients, alongside attentive medicine:

• if they are mobile: to walk in nature, to reconnect with its rhythms and its light;

• if they are not: to open windows, to contemplate nature, to stay in touch with the life around them.

There is nothing wrong with the world of work requiring performance.
But performance requires extra energy — and this energy only circulates when health is present.

The kindness of sick leave is to first give the body back its health and vitality, so that performance can once again become possible without exhaustion.

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For companies

Offering attentive medicine during sick leave means transforming a constraint into a resource:

• offering employees a space that shows they are valued as people, not just as workers,

• making sick leave an opportunity for healing and restored vitality, rather than an empty pause.

An employee returning from this experience comes back not only rested, but also less vulnerable to relapse.
It is a way for the company to demonstrate relational fairness, essential for health, and a necessary foundation for performance.

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Comparative table

Conventional occupational medicine	Corporate wellness programs	Attentive medicine
Aims for safety and legal compliance (aptitude, risk prevention, screening).	Aims for comfort and motivation (yoga, mindfulness, nutrition, ergonomics).	Aims for understanding: exploring what the body expresses through illness, at work or elsewhere.
Assumes the problem comes from the job or work environment.	Assumes the problem can be solved with better lifestyle or stress management.	Does not assume where the problem lies. An unhealthy relationship at work often reflects dynamics already accepted elsewhere (family, couple, society).
Responds with practical measures: job adjustments, sick leave, administrative medical follow-up.	Responds with generic tools: wellness apps, group workshops.	Responds with a space for listening and reflection where the employee explores loss of vitality and its meaning.
Result: compliance and company protection.	Result: temporary well-being, but often without lasting effect.	Result: recovery of vitality. Sick leave becomes a chance for healing → more durable return, fewer relapses.
Limit: often perceived as control (“Am I fit to work?”), or as productivity-focused rather than person-focused.	Limit: perceived as useful but insufficient in addressing the real causes of illness.	Strength: shows that the employer seeks relational fairness and values employees as people, not just as workers.

🌕 More info or to book a consultation: www.attentivemedicine.org

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