|
Valerie Parker
I have been working alongside people with HIV infection and AIDS for five years as a member of support groups, a stress management therapist and nurse. Last year I left my nursing job and founded The Devon HIV/AIDS Association(1,2). I now spend much of my time working with individual clients and preparing educational workshops on many aspects of HIV.
My role is to be a catalyst introducing complementary therapies, including healing, for HIV. I am also a resource for allopathic clinics and support groups throughout the Devonshire area. Healers are part of the resources of the D.A.A. and also in my stress management clinics at three of the regional hospitals.
We see the immune system as the link between the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. It is easily influenced by mental confusion and emotional stress, thereby affecting the physical state of a person's body. Healing reminds us that we can help on all of these levels. First and foremost we give the clients support and individual time to relax and to focus on the self. We then give them back control, enabling clients to switch into their own healing abilities. Then they can gain confidence, learn relaxation and open to spiritual awareness.
We must take extra precautions to maintain confidentiality because many of our clients have been badly scarred emotionally by lack of understanding and fears of their families and communities. Many come to us starving for human contact yet fearful because of repeated rejections.
Bereavement counselling is an important aspect of the work. We help clients and their families and friends to deal with their fear of dying and loss. We respect the clients' individual faiths and beliefs as each has their own particular pathways leading to their acknowledgement of God the creator. We also have a support system for the Carers and Therapists to give them their share of support within a confidential setting.
We find that healers are often in an excellent position to be able to help more comprehensively than just by giving healing. The Association offers AIDS Awareness courses and communication and counselling skills courses for healers.
CASE STUDY
One August day I was asked by the Health Advisor to call into the hospital to see a young chap who was very distressed. I shall call him 'Guy' to protect his anonymity. I was asked to go as urgently as possible as he was in a critical condition. On arriving I was taken to his room at the end of the corridor away from the main part of the ward. On entering I could see a round ball, which I assumed was Guy, lying in a fetal position. All I knew was his Christian name and that he had been newly diagnosed HIV positive.
For a while I sat quietly and made a mental assessment of what I could see in front of me. Then I began to 'tune in' and ask for help and guidance. Sitting beside the bed it was easy to ascertain that Guy was hyperventillating and very frightened and distressed. I took off my shoes and sat on the bed as comfortably as I could and put my arm around him. I remained in this position, supporting his body, wiping his brow, allowing the quietness and the healing energy to begin to work wherever it was needed. After about ten minutes Guy's trembling and sweating began to stop and his breathing began to slow into an easy rhythm.
Guy began to speak. 'I'm sorry to be in such a state. You see, it was such a shock. I suppose I did expect it. I have been very promiscuous. I think perhaps I deserve all that is coming to me now.' Guy explained that he had had no idea of his diagnosis. He had arrived in hospital after his G.P. had unsuccessfully tried to control a chest infection which had progressively become worse and needed acute medical attention. Due to his homosexual life-style the hospital doctor had asked permission to take an AIDS test. Guy agreed, not really believing that this could, in fact, be the reason why his pneumonia was not responding to normal treatments.
We made regular appointments where Guy used guided imagery to help focus on the virus and to encourage the T4 cells of his immune system to remain strong and healthy. We encouraged Guy to love his virus cells as they belonged to him. The guided imagery is a wonderful way of facing situations that hurt us or give us distress. We encouraged him to become self-appreciative, thus raising his self esteem. With the help of colour and music we were able to spend many pleasant hours working closely together.
Healing, help and support were given not only to Guy but also to his partner and friends. Laughter and light took the place of the fear and unhappiness of the early days. He returned to Buddhist meditations and practices which he had followed earlier. During Guy's terminal stages he remained competent, bright and cheerful, supporting his partner, friends and carers. We spoke of grieving and dying and living through death. Guy's fear was not of passing but of any pain or discomfort that he might endure during this time. He was reassured by the medical support team that this would be closely monitored and kept to a minimum.
With this settled in his mind, Guy lived each day as fully as possible until his very peaceful dying just over two years after our first meeting.
The quality of Guy's life certainly had improved during those last two years. His understanding of himself and his needs had been clarified. He remained well and in a control of his mental faculties up to his death. His very peaceful passing was of great comfort to those whom he left behind.
Spiritual healing, as we know, is not always just the healing of the body or the biological processes. Spiritual healing is about healing that spark within, providing time, empathy, a listening ear for the person so that the healing energies may be accepted and used.
FOOTNOTES
1. The Devon HIV/AIDS Association, 10a Salterton Road, Exmouth, Devon EX8 2BW. Tel (0395) 265122
2. I have been a qualified nurse for the last twenty years, have worked in areas of maternity and all aspects of medical and surgery. I have worked with the Marie Curie Foundation for five years, in outpatient clinics and GU medicine and have been a registered healer for the past six years.
INTRODUCING HEALING UNDER THE NHS
Dr. Jean Roberton
This is a personal account of how Hertfordshire FHSA accepted spiritual healing as a paid clinic for General Practice.
I had been referring selected patients in my General Practice to healers volunteering at my surgery for eighteen months before the arrival of the government's White Paper. (These are changes in the NHS introduced by the Thatcher government.) The number of patients attending the healing clinic grew from eight to about sixty per month. I employed three healers on a one in three rota for each Friday afternoon. I included extra patients for myself from March 1990, when I felt confident enough to use the new healing gifts that I had been given.
Whilst completing applications for our other proposed clinics for the Family Health Services Administration it was natural to submit one for Stress Management (counselling and spiritual healing). Since there were never less than twelve patients attending any such clinic, they well covered the minimum number of ten required in April 1990.
In due course we were asked to make out the following protocol which we sent to the FHSA:
CLINIC PROTOCOL: SPIRITUAL HEALING, COUNSELLING AND STRESS MANAGEMENT
The clinic is available to all patients of any age via referral from their GP. Its main aim is to counsel and alleviate symptoms and stress in conjunction with conventional medicine. Strenuous efforts are madeto help the patients to come to terms with their symptoms and any related problems and help them to help themselves.
Record keeping:
At the first consultation Dr Roberton speaks with all patients and obtains information that is recorded on pre-designated sheets. Note is made of name, address, telephone number, date of birth, occupation and any relevant details of family and circumstance. Past medical history is noted along with family medical history, present condition and current drug regime (if any). After each consultation these records are updated noting improvements and significant changes with relevant information from both patient and healer.
Two months later, in July, we received confirmation that this clinic and several others had been accepted for the standard clinic payment. More recently, our FHSA has reduced the minimum number of patients required for the payment from ten to six. We therefore applied for payment for a second clinic on the same day. This has recently been granted.
For those interested in using healers in General Practice, I suggest you find a compatible healer first and try out a few trial clinics before applying for a fee for healers. This way you can learn how you prefer to run your clinics, alter them as necessary, and feel confident about writing up and submitting your protocol. You are also on safe ground if the members of the FHSA wish to come to inspect your clinic.
Good healing! Working with a healer will certainly alter your thoughts on both diagnosis and treatment.
A COMPARISON OF CRANIAL OSTEOPATHY AND HEALING
Jonathan M. Lawrence, BA, DO, MRO
If our ubiquitous friend from Mars were to come to Earth and observe first a cranial osteopath doing his work and then a healer healing, he might not readily distinguish between them. Further enquiries would elicit from the cranial osteopath that she was adjusting the tensions in the tissues of the cranium whereas the healer would probably say that he was channeling energy into his client's body. So obviously there is a great deal of difference! Or is there? Let us examine this more closely, starting with a look at cranial osteopathy.
The tissues which cranial osteopathy seeks to influence are the bones of the cranium and face, the membrane system of the brain and spinal cord, and the connective tissue scaffolding of the body known as fascia. This is achieved through the utilisation of the cranio-rhythmic impulse or CRI, the third major body rhythm (after respiration and the heartbeat).
The CRI is readily palpated from any part of the body. It goes through 8-12 cycles per minute in a normal person and feels like an expansion and contraction of the body tissues. Dr. William G. Sutherland, who developed the technique early in this century, believed the CRI is caused by pulsation of the brain. John Upledger, an American cranial osteopath, believes the CRI is due to the cyclical secretion and reabsorption of cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain and spinal cord.
There are differences, too. Cranial osteopathy restores mobility of the tissues in the same way as more conventional osteopathy does. For example, mobilisation of the temporal (ear) bone re3leases tension in the jaw joint or can clear the eustachian tube, both of which effects are mechanical. It is my experience that when there is mechanical locking of a structure, it is not readily unlocked by most forms of healing. Even here there are exceptions, however, as some healers are intuitive bonesetters.
Another area of difference is that cranial osteopathy relies on a good knowledge of anatomy. Restoring normal mobility to a tissue requires a knowledge of the degree of movement that this tissue can achieve. We may take the temporal bone as an example again. As the bone moves with the expansion and contraction phases of the CRI cycle, it moves forward and outward, backward and inward along an axis through the opening of the ear.
As in all healing arts, despite the difference in techniques there is much in common. The human contact between therapist and client, the relationship they develop together, the time and space given to the client as well as whatever other energies pass between them, are all part of the healing process. Cranial osteopathy is a way of focusing healing onto the body in a particular way and therefore has its limitation. Healing itself is almost indefinable. The limits are simply the talent and imagination of the healer and the ability of the client to accept and utilise this energy.
So is our Martian friend now more enlightened? Probably not. If he has the intelligence to be able to come to Earth in the first place he is likely to know all this anyway. In fact, I would not be surprised if he could have told us a thing or two about advanced healing on Mars. But he didn't.
You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1991 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS NEWSLETTER
|
![International Journal of Healing and Caring [IJHC] facebook page](sitegraphics/facebook_icon.png "International Journal of Healing and Caring [IJHC] facebook page"){kind=icon}
