Reports from healers about individual healees' responses to healing can be helpful, particularly when the problems are chronic, did not respond to previously to conventional treatments, and were not being treated by other means at the time of the healing.

However, there are difficulties and potential pitfalls with such reports. For instance, a chronic headache could be due to emotional stress, previous head trauma, migraines, a brain tumor, meningitis, and other problems. So a healer's report that her treatments were successful for a headache, or even for a series of headaches, is open to many questions. Tension headaches can respond to suggestion, relaxation, or removal of stressors. Without a medical diagnosis it is therefore difficult to know what to make of such reports.

When a medical diagnosis is reported by a healee or a healer, there will still be questions as to the validity of the diagnosis. Laypersons sometimes mis-hear or misunderstand what their doctors tell them. Without a medical record of physical and laboratory examinations to corroborate the report, it is difficult to know how much credence to gove to such cases.

This is not to say that anecdotal reports are completely useless. They are an important first step towards more systematic and professional evaluations.

Reports that include some of the following factors may be more helpful:

- Description of setting, circumstances in which the observations were made
- Healer's innate gifts
- Healer's training, including any conventional clinical experience
- Healing method(s) used, with a brief description of the method(s)
- How long the healer has been practicing
- A brief sketch of the healee, including age, occupation, and any other details that would help a reader to appreciate the report
- Clear descriptions of the symptom(s) and disabilities that were addressed by the healer
- Specific medical diagnoses of the problems
- How long the problems were present
- Clinical and laboratory studies confirming diagnosis
- What conventional treatments had been applied, by whom, for how long, and with what results
- Subjective experiences during treatment
- Frequency of treatments
- Changes in the presenting problems that resulted following treatments, with a time course for these changes
- How long the changes lasted
- Consideration of any other factors that might have contributed to the changes (e.g. changes in healee's stress levels, effects of suggestion)
- Changes that occurred following healing that were not a part of the problems for which healing was sought
- Discussion of any likelihood that factors other than healing might have contributed to the observed course of illness
- How this treatment compares with other healing responses of the same healer (especially for similar problems)

Case studies are often rich in details that are sorely lacking in more formal studies. Subjective reports of relaxation or improved mood and energy levels may go unreported in formal studies. Experiences such as opening to spiritual awarenesses may be as important to healees as any change in their physical symptoms, but outside of the belief systems of many researchers.