In order to integrate the biological, psychological, social, and existential dimensions of care into my day-to-day clinical encounters with patients, I have worked to cultivate several intentions of practice. These intentions of practice-habits of mind that nurture my resolve to attend to patients as complex human beingshelp me navigate my interactions with patients and families in ways that are simultaneously efficacious and therapeutic. When routinely recalled and adeptly implemented, they are what distinguish me as a competent and capable practitioner of person-centered care, when I am at my best, from when I am not. I present them here in hopes that others may find them useful as they progress down their ongoing paths as healing physicians. A s a young physician, many years ago, I felt frustrated. I felt unfulfilled by the constraints of the strict biomedical model in which I had been trained, severely limited by the narrowness of its focus. Fortunately, several senior members of my chosen discipline-I am a family physician-explained to me the value of connecting with patients relationally through the expression of affinity, intimacy, and reciprocity in clinical encounters, over time.1 They urged me to see patients as individuals in context of their families, their communities, and the social and built environments in which they lived.2,3 They suggested I investigate and make use of the "unclaimed space" between reductionist medicine and public health. 4, p. 228 Supported in their thinking by the written works of other clinicianscholars, 5-9 they fostered my nascent realization that both situational and emotional dimensions of life are crucial determinants of health and healing. They offered me a blueprint for practicing person-centered care. This blueprint has meant reorganizing how I think about the problems presented to me in clinical settings.10 It has meant seeing people first as relational individuals-members of families, neighborhoods, and communities, influenced by cultural norms and social forces, and motivated more by hope and fear than by statistical probability or rational deliberationprior to addressing their physical concerns, as appropriate to the situation at hand.11 It has meant conceptualizing family as a metaphor for the many dimensions of care that are not strictly biomedical in nature, all in order to maximize the therapeutic value of my knowledge and skills.It is not the simple fact of being a family doctor, however, that has sanctioned me to practice person-centered care. When I truly practice person-centered care-when I honestly integrate the biological, psychological, social, and existential dimensions of care into my daily work with patients-it is less because of my professional training and more because I have worked to cultivate several intentions of practice. In this essay I review these intentions, reflect on some challenges they present, and invite others to consider putting them to use in their practices.