NETWORKING AS HEALING Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM

Networking is often seen to be an activity that promotes the sharing of ideas, activities and sales of products and services. Looking at the concept of networking as energy, networking is an energy exchange. It may be conducted with altruistic or business motives. The altruistic or business perspectives are ours. The benefits can be either or neither.

Networking can be a natural accompaniment to any gathering where participants come together and exchange ideas, share their feelings and experiences, and provide mutual support. This discussion focuses primarily on the deliberate networking that can be a specific motive for initiating the gathering of people with kindred spirits, shared interests and common goals.

Mary Ann Wallace, MD, suggests, �Networking has an added dynamic � a forward intentionality.  That is, we tend to network en route to someplace � for a reason in the future � creating a loosely defined structure with directionality that is unique and beyond �just� a gathering. Networking, in and of itself as a dynamic, provides a healing forum by creating �the space� within which a healing energy is generated.  In that space, issues for healing can surface, and the greater energy generated � with intention � can serve as a healing �medium� as it were.  Every interaction we have provides this opportunity - but networking, because it has the energetic of intention around an issue or commonality to start with, can be particularly powerful.�

In the spectrum of wholistic healing � addressing spirit, relationships (with other people and the environment), mind, emotions and body � networking can be a deliberately healing activity. Healings may be promoted through:   

Gatherings (from small, intimate meetings to major conferences) that  

Disseminate information on healing methods, innovations, research and theories [1]   

Disseminate information and invite discussions on healing needs (e.g. health care and environmental challenges; social challenges of poverty in material and educational realms);   

Bring together caregivers practicing similar or diverse healing methods and traditions � for exchanges of ideas and experiential learning;[2]   

Generate ongoing relationships among participants, with healing exchanges on personal and professional levels. Healings may include mutual support � particularly for complementary/ alternative therapy practices that are as yet not fully accepted in many places; feedback from respected colleagues that sharpens the focus of questions or raises new ones, and provides a diversity of answers on issues one brings to the group; and always the healthy awareness that there are many and diverse ways of understanding and addressing problems.[3]  

Generate publications of minutes, proceedings and professional papers that carry the energies of a gathering beyond the confines of the networking meeting itself; 

Alert the media and the public to new ways of conceptualizing and addressing health, illness and other issues; 

Create a healing, noetic space/energetic to move projects forward.   

Publications that     

Provide forums for sharing new ideas and practices;[4] 

Stimulate discussion among readers;  

Invite feedback and inputs from readers.   

Websites that    

Provide forums for exchanges;Stimulate discussion and invite interactive learning through 

Informative and enriching static content; [5]  

Discussion boards, and notice boards for events; [6] 

Publications that share new ideas and practices; 

Web content that is instructive, such as questionnaires that give participants feedback on their responses (e.g. personality inventories; surveys of participants' preferences relative to validated, standardized choices of established groups[7]);  

Questionnaires that gather information (e.g. Charles Tart�s TASTE site that collects reports of personal spiritual experiences;[8] Gary Craig's site that shares an impressive array of physical and psychological responses to Emotional Freedom Technique[9]);  

Offer networking for direct healing through the creative arts, including poetry, music, art, humor and the performing arts[10]    

The granddaddy of all networking sites is of course Google, which brings together information on all of the above   

Several examples will illustrate a spectrum of healing aspects of networking groups.   

The Council for Healing (CfH)    

The CfH is a non-profit North American organization including representatives from diverse healing modalities. The Council is a hub for sharing healing experiences, training and wisdom that crosses the boundaries of professional training. Too often, caregivers are boxed into associations and communication loops focused primarily on people within their same fields of training and practices. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, bodywork therapists, and other specialized professionals tend to meet with others who share their background and professional focus.

Led largely by increased public interest over the past two decades, there has been a growing investment in the use of complementary therapies around the world. The public has been voting with their dollars in a major way for these therapies, spending more annually out of pocket in the US than is paid with the help of insurance for conventional medical care. To assure the provision of high standards of care, the Council is working to develop unified codes of ethics in members' organizations that could also serve as a model for other healing organizations. We have distilled the essential factors from member organizations' ethics documents.[11]   

The Council for Healing offers education and guidance to those seeking healing or working in the field. Some of the members of the Council for Healing are involved in professional training programs. Others represent their modality generically, without organizational affiliations (details below). To assure that everyone's voice is heard, the CfH works within a consensus model. This requires agreement of all participants for decisions to be approved. While this is often a slower way of proceeding, it encourages compromise and cooperation among all members and does not give greater power to representatives of larger organizations, nor, conversely, diminish the power of members who represent a modality generically, with no organizational membership behind them.   

The Council Board has been meeting by telephone conference for over six years, with an annual meeting in person. Invitational �Summit� meetings are also arranged with groups of representatives of diverse healing modalities (not yet members of the Council) � for cross fertilization of technique, methods and theories, to enhance the therapeutic capabilities of healers and improve their training and practices. For instance, two years ago we held our first Summit meeting in which twenty new invited participants joined the dozen regular CfH Board members. Discussions in plenary and breakout groups enabled participants to get to know each other quickly, with plenty of time for personal discussions over meals and in one-on-one exchanges of treatments. A similar, briefer workshop was presented at the American Holistic Nurses Association annual meeting in June of this year. Participants uniformly report great satisfaction with the opportunities to network with others who are outside their usual professional groups. 

Many members of the Council for Healing are involved in public speaking. One member provided testimony to the President�s Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Council members are a resource to consumers, healers, mainstream medical providers, public policy makers, and researchers.   

Many Council members are involved in conducting healing research and in the compilation and promotion of awareness of research that has already been carried out. Research assures us that the treatments we offer/seek actually provide what they claim to do. We have a Research Advisory Board to provide expert consultation in design, methodology, and exploring what research questions might profitably be addressed. Given that scientific research has largely been applied to physical phenomena, new and innovative ways to research the often intangible world of healing must be explored and developed. The Council is also gathering reports and summaries of research in healing and other modalities for publication on our site, making the rich databases from studies in various healing approaches available to practitioners, the public and regulating authorities.  

The Council for Healing Board includes representatives from diverse branches of healing, training organizations, individuals who practice or research a variety of healing techniques, and naturally gifted healers.   

The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) embraces nursing as a lifestyle and a profession and provides a means to create bonds within the nursing community.
Lucia Thornton, RN, MSN, AHN-BC, AHNA President Elect, Fresno, California   

American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia� (AOBTA�) is a non-profit professional membership organization representing instructors, practitioners, students, and schools and programs of Asian Bodywork Therapies (ABT).  ABT encompasses any form of bodywork therapy with its theoretical roots in Chinese/Asian medicine including, but not limited to, Acupressure, Amma, Shiatsu, Tuina, Nuad bo'Rarn, Chi Nei Tsang, and Medical Qigong. 
Wayne Mylin, New Jersey   

The Association for Network Care (ANC) teaches Network Spinal Analysis, a system of assessment and of low force and bioenergetic applications (derived by Donald Epstein, DC, originally from chiropractic) that are applied at Spinal Gateways to assist the brain to connect more effectively with the spine and body. Network Care has been shown to promote an individual�s experience of greater physical and mental/emotional wellness, as well as, to reduce stress, enhance the ability to make healthier choices, enjoy life more, and improve one�s quality of life. 
Dan Lemberger, D.C., Louisville, Colorado   

Representative for Education in CAM and Spiritual Healing, working with healing practitioners, helping them design research on their own modalities. This CfH member has studied a wide gamut of healing processes. He feels his life role is to aid communication between knowledge groups, whether across cultures or across specialist communities in the same culture. He is increasingly aware of his use of intuition and clairsentience in these social translation activities, though not himself a master of such processes. He feels they seem more to be his masters. 
Berney Williams, PhD, Lawrence, Kansas   

Healing Touch International (HTI) is a non-profit membership and educational corporation established in 1996 whose mission is spreading healing light worldwide through the practice, teaching, and research of Healing Touch. The goal of Healing Touch is to restore harmony and balance so an individual can best self-heal. A variety of techniques are utilized that use gentle touch or touch off the body in the biofield around the body. The focus is to establish a heart-centered caring relationship between the client and practitioner to promote physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and wholeness. Healing Touch practitioners and instructors are integrating this therapy into hospitals and clinics in various countries as well as in rural outreach service programs in developing countries globally.
Mary Frost, RN, MS, HNC, CHTP, CHTI, CHt, Lakewood, Colorado

Medical Intuition uses high sense perception and intuition to identify  physical, emotional, and spiritual factors which contribute to well-being.  Practitioners in many healing modalities use their own intuition and that of professional intuitive consultants to address their clients' needs in a more in-depth manner. This approach to healing can effectively identify subtle factors that may go unrecognized using more conventional approaches. 
Rev. Cay Randall-May, PhD, Phoenix, Arizona  

Prayer Healing is equally effective in person or at a distance. This can be a solitary activity or part of group interaction.  The Council takes an interdenominational, and interfaith approach to intercessory prayer.  
Rev. Cay Randall-May, PhD, Phoenix, Arizona  

Noetic Field Therapy: Noetic means spiritual mind and derives from the Greek word nous, which is the wind of spirit that emerges from the void as the first emanating spirit of creation. Noetic Field Therapy is a spiritual approach to counseling and personal development that helps awaken us to our soul, align with our destiny and develop our natural spiritual power. The Noetic field is more than the energy field surrounding the body. It is also the mind and spirit that communicates within, and through the energy field.   
Scott Walker, MD, Albuquerque, New Mexico  

Self-Healing is most likely the oldest mode of healing we know as human beings.  We have the innate ability to heal or restore ourselves when listening to the healing voice and power from within.  All healing modalities include some potential for self-healing, acknowledged in conventional medicine as the placebo effect, although they often do not focus on self-healing or do not teach how to incorporate the modality into a personal or professional self-healing practice. All individuals have the ability to access and use their own healing potential. 
Rev. Martina C. Steiger, ThD, BEd, MA, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada  

Therapeutic Touch�: TT� is a scientifically based healing practice in which the human being is viewed as a complex, dynamic whole and healing is seen as the means of restoring integrity of the body, mind, emotion and spirit.  In this integrative therapy, the practitioner uses the hands as a focus to work with the energy flow in the vital energy field of the recipient to facilitate the healing process. This intentionally directed healing process of energy exchange is a contemporary interpretation of several ancient healing practices.   

Nurse Healers Professional Associates International (NH-PAI) is an international network of members interested in Therapeutic Touch and healing.  Its members facilitate the exchange of research findings, teaching strategies and developments in the area of TT� as developed by Dr Dolores Krieger and Dora Van Gelder Kunz and healing. 
Rebecca Good, MA, RNC, ACRN, LPC, QTTT, Salt Lake City, Utah  

Wholistic Healing, Addressing: Spirit � offering spiritual healing and introducing careseekers to ways of connecting with their own spiritual awareness and healing; Relationships � offering psychotherapy to deal with issues of caressekers with other people and with the environment; 
Mind � inviting new ways of understanding self and developing creative ways to relate to the world; 
Emotions � developing ways to identify emotional blocks and excesses from current and past situations and to deal with them constructively; 
Body � learning to listen to what the body is saying, then dealing with stressors that challenge the body�s coping mechanisms.[12]  
Daniel J Benor, MD, ABHM, Canada

The Council Board members are all extremely busy professionals who are involved in teaching, practice and research. They regularly volunteer their time to the Council because of the enriching networking experiences. An important highlight of our networking meetings is a �check-in� at the start of each gathering. Members share the �leading edge� in their personal and professional lives. As much as a quarter to a third of the meeting time is given to these exchanges, often an inspiration and encouragement to each other. A highlight from the past year was a member who lost her home with all her possessions in Hurricane Katrina. Her spiritual perspectives enabled her to maintain her centeredness and to continue her healing work � both in her devastated community and in the national and international organizations in which she works. Her calmness (literally � in the face of the storm) was an inspiration to the other CfH members. Members of the Council were also able to provide further healing support through various modalities.  

The Doctor-Healer Network � North America (DHN-NA), scattered geographically across the US and Canada, meets for monthly two-hour telephone conference calls. In the DHN-UK, participants are a mix of doctors who are healers and doctors who work together with healers. In the DHN-NA all participants are professional caregivers who are themselves also healers.  We start off with a sharing of our �leading edge,� and conversation often continues spontaneously around the personal and professional issues raised in these introductions. Sometimes we also chew on a question or issue raised by a member ahead of time or at the meeting. In addition to the collegial support around methodologies, there is support in dealing with the challenges that several of the participants find when interfacing with colleagues and institutions where their work is not well understood or completely accepted. (The last sentence is definitely British understatement!)  

I was delighted to hear from Bill Manahan, MD (a colleague in the American Holistic Medical Association) of a similar networking group he has facilitated for many years.    

We have a listserve of about 120 physicians from Minnesota who are interested in holistic medicine.  We meet three times each year on a Saturday morning from 9 to 12:30.  We usually meet at the home of one of the physicians from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  About 25 physicians show up each time.  We spend about two hours allowing each person to share what is on her or his mind.  Frequently that is about work transitions going on in their lives.  Other times it is about personal things such as medical problems, interesting conferences or workshops, books that excited them, or medical problems within their personal lives.  We take a break for 30 minutes, and then we have a one-hour program presented by one of the members.  It is on any topic from grief, to heavy metal toxicity, to chakras.

I think one reason we continue to get such excellent attendance after 16 years of meetings is because of the heart sharing that occurs during the two hours of �telling our story.�  I introduce it each time as just a time to share with the group whatever is presently on their mind, going on in their lives, or is of importance to them right now.

From a member of this group, here is a personal report on the healing she experienced through networking:   

I initially joined in 2002, right after my second son was born, I had just taken the American Board of Holistic Medicine exams, and I was looking for some guidance in my life.  At the time, my professional practice group was splitting up, and there was a lot of conflict. Also, I was frustrated with managed care (US insurance companies) attitudes toward patients.  In my local Holistic Area Resource Person (HARPS) group I found people who wanted to make a difference in the medical community.  Their values resonated with me.  I needed connection to the healer in me, and I needed to have some balance in my life. I started a new practice, not because of being inspired by others who had done so, (being so new to the group, I really hadn't heard too many stories) for me it was out of desperation.  I wanted to stay in the same community, I wanted to practice with people I liked and trusted.  I did not want to work for someone else.  What I got from the community were role models.  People who lived their values.  People who brought their purpose in life to work.  I gained new insights into how I wanted my life and career to fit together, to balance. I saw a passion and vibrancy in medicine that I had not seen since Medical School.  I was inspired to do my best to bring those things to my new clinic.  

I keep going because of the connections.  The friends you make here are friends you will keep.  We may not get together outside of our meetings, but we connect through patients, email and conferences.  The educational sessions are also very helpful. Many of us are experts in our own special interests.  There is no way to keep up on every topic, but by sharing our knowledge and through respectful discussions we all benefit.   

I believe others find inspiration in the meetings.  Inspiration to live their authentic life.  Inspiration to take a chance on themselves and move forward to better work environments, or just inspiration to practice medicine in a way that feels right to them.  We all find connection and solidarity.  It is nice to know you are not alone in the world in how you are thinking.   

I see our group as still in the fledgling stage.  Many of us are just taking flight.  My hope is that as we mature we will find a way collectively to be of service.  I think our group shows the potential to do great things.  Bill and Carolyn do a wonderful job in encouraging and nurturing the group.  I am greatly appreciative of the support and encouragement I have received.   

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts.   

No�l A. Radcliffe MD

 

In summary, networking can facilitate wholistic healing on many levels. Through mutual support, participants can share, learn and grow � personally, professionally and collectively.   

I am grateful to Bill Manahan and Mary Ann Wallace for their editorial suggestions and contributions to this paper, and to Martina Steiger for her editorial inputs.   

Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM is a wholistic psychiatric psychotherapist who teaches innovative self-healing techniques and consults on networking and research in CAM, recently having relocated to Canada. He will be visiting in England in November, 2007 to offer workshops in WHEE � the Wholistic Hybrid derived from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), his schedule posted at http://wholistichealingresearch.com/scheduledworkshops.html  

1. Annual conferences of SMN, ISSSEEM www.issseem.org/ 
2. The Council for Healing, discussed below www.councilforhealing.org
3. An interesting example is The Norway-China Cooperation regarding Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), facilitating international exchanges of information and support in promoting TCM in these countries www.uit.no/nafkam/norge-kina/2#bakgr   
4. Examples of this form of networking are Network and The International Journal of Healing and Caring www.ijhc.org    
5.  An outstanding example of development of content through networking is the collaborative creation of the naturopathic diagnostic and treatment compendium, www.icaduceus.com.  
6. See www.healthy.net/    
7. See Myers Briggs Inventory at www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp; Keirsey Temperaments www.keirsey.com/matrix.html     
8. The Archive of Scientists� Transcendent Experiences www.issc-taste.org/arc/dbo.cgi?set=expo&ss=1   
9. www.emofree.com    
10. See collections of party-type balloon creations www.balloonhq.com/photos/   
11. www.councilforhealing.org/Ethics.html    
12. Clicking on the icons at the top of the following home page provides a discussion of the interrelationships between the elements in wholistic healing: www.ijhc.org. 

This article appeared as Benor, Daniel J. Networking as healing, Network Review: J. of the Scientific and Medical Network, 2007, 93, 19-22.

Resources for exploring messages from your body

WHEE: Whole Health - Easily and Effectively^®
AKA
Wholistic Hybrid derived from EMDR and EFT
  Potent self-healing method for releasing emotional and physical stress, pains, residues of traumas
  Workbook    Paperback - WHEE for pain    Articles    Workshops 

Resources for explaining the mind-body connection

Benor, Daniel J. Healing Research, Volume II: (Professional edition)
Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing, Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2004. 
  Thorough review of research validating the efficacy of self-healing, wholistic complementary/ alternative medicine (CAM), biological  energies, and environmental interactions with bioenergies.
  “Book of the Year” award - The Scientific and Medical Network, UK
  Paperback, CD-ROM or e-Book of Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing
    (15% author’s discount on V2. Professional edition paperback and CD-ROM worldwide, and free postage in the US)

Benor, Daniel J. Healing Research, Volume II: (Popular edition)
How Can I Heal What Hurts?  Wholistic Healing and Bioenergies,Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2005 
  Popular edition Explains self-healing, wholistic complementary/ alternative medicine (CAM) and bioenergies, and discusses ways in which
     you can heal yourself.
      (15% author’s discount on V2. Popular edition paperback worldwide, and free postage in the US )

Develop and deepen your intuition and personal spirituality

Healing Research, V. 3
   Personal Spirituality: Science, Spirit and the Eternal Soul, Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications (November 2006)
  
  Reaching Higher and Deeper
Workbook for Healing Research, Volume 3: Personal Spirituality:
   Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2007