In 2015 the International Diabetes Federation honored me with the distinguished IDF Lecture Award. That honor came with the opportunity to give a lecture on the topic of my choice. I shared the Flourishing Treatment Approach (FTA), a different way for health professionals to work with people who have diabetes (or another chronic illness). A way that helps people flourish not merely cope.

At the end of that lecture, Dr. Ilana Herman-Baham, Director of Internal Medicine and a diabetes clinic in Israel, came up to me and asked, “Would you come to Israel and share this with our diabetes nurses? They need to hear this.”

That’s exactly what I did in Zikhron three days ago at the ALUMA Israeli diabetes educators conference. It was a joy to work with them and to experience once again, as I had educators practice listening, communication, connection, strengths-discovery and inquiry skills, that the FTA works everywhere in the world regardless of culture, economics or health specialty. We are stitched together by our humanity and it is humanity that we must put back into medical training.

As much as being taught what to do, people living with a chronic illness need providers who can hear where they are and skillfully inspire them forward. I am grateful and appreciative to all who have and continue to invite me to do this work.