Holistic
healing is a term which is becoming familiar through the increased
acceptance of alternative and complementary
therapies. There are several cautions for those involved in this
process
Healing comes from the early English and Germanic roots
of haelen, meaning to make whole. Holistic healing is actually a
redundancy, brought about by Western society's narrowed focus upon
diagnosis and
treatment of diseases rather than upon addressing the people who
have the diseases.
We
believe that holistic healing is the involvement of practitioners/
therapists in helping people to address disharmonies or blocks to
their well-being
as they seek to become whole in body, emotions, mind, relationships
(personal and community) and spirit.
For
millennia in Western society (as is still true in many societies which
have not abandoned their ancient traditions) the world was a unified.
mysterious whole. The feminine principle prevailed. Humans were integrally
a part of nature. They felt themselves to be a part of the mysterious
forces which guide and rule the wonderment of life (in every aspect
of Gaia). our planet, and all the life forms and forces upon it, and
of the vaster cosmos beyond. We understood the world through heliocentric
and anthropocentric myths (Campbell 1972).
Gradually
the masculine, logical principle came to dominate. The earth was the
center of the universe and man was seen to have been created by God
and to have been given the earth to rule. Thus began our separation
from nature.
Many
factors contributed to this process and the world has been demystified
by scientific methods of observation. Copernicus and Galileo showed
that the earth revolves around the sun; the body lost much of its mystery
under the dissecting knives of the early anatomists: Descartes emphasized
the divisions between body and mind; and the industrial revolution
gave us the methods and tools to make our lives more secure through
exploring. taming and conquering nature.
The
same principles were extended into medical practice. Reductionist modern
science hopes to explain the whole by analyses of its parts. The discovery
of microbial and viral agents for disease, of vitamins and hormonal
agents for maintaining health, and of numerous sophisticated medications
lead to the hope that all disorders will eventually be treatable through
addressing causative physical agents for disease and dis-ease. In line
with the rest of Western science, we have been promised by medical
science that eventually we shall understand the ultimate mechanisms
which guide and shape our health (probably in terms of biochemical
processes). and then we shall be able to develop the means to conquer
all illness. Indeed, organ transplants, sophisticated prostheses, and
genetic engineering would appear to present signs of early achievements
in these directions. However, not all is rosy. The promises of antibiotics
which would eliminate infectious diseases are proving to be false promises.
Infectious agents are developing immunities to antibiotics at alarming
rates (McTaggart 1996). Costs of health care and limited health care
budgets are bringing about bureaucratic governmental reshapings of
health care systems. Doctors and nurses are being forced to limit the
time they spend with patients while budgets limit the amount of care
according to diagnoses: again overlooking the individuality of the
person who has the diagnosis. This is not to put blame on health caregivers
who are working very hard to provide individually-focused care. They
are simply unable to make the time available to do so under the present
health care systems.
The
influence of the masculine principle is subtle and pervasive in medical
practice. Our very language shapes us to conform to separation from
nature and urges us to participate in 'battles which can be won' if
we only work hard enough at it. We suffer 'heart attacks', nervous
breakdowns, and 'organ failures', and engage in aggressive treatments.
'wars on cancer'. 'conquering illness', and .seek to 'defeat death'. All
of this hype focuses intensively upon the disease. ignoring the frailties
and strengths of the processes of life and spirit. It also pushes away.
rather desperately, from acknowledging the inevitability of death (Hocking
1994).
Even
without these outside pressures. modern medicine has lost sight of
the whole
person in many ways. in the name of efficiency it divides people into
arbitrary parts, treated for the convenience of the medical and nursing
practitioners by different specialists in different departments. The
objectively observable and measurable aspects of disease are the focus
of attention. Doctors and nurses can often ignore the dis-ease attendant
to being ill. Too often they overlook the psychological, social, environmental,
and other factors which contribute to the development and perpetuation
of disease. There is a tendency to minimize or even to deny the seriousness
of the illness and to avoid discussion with the patient. particularly
when death is possible or immanent (Hocking 1994).
With
measurable disease as the focus of health care, people have come to
focus upon health primarily when dysfunctions appear. Many people only
become aware of health because they have lost it. They are not educated
in health prevention and maintenance. Furthermore, there is very little
awareness that total health is more than just being free of disease.
Total health involves nurturing and harmonization of emotions, mind,
community. and spirit. It also requires a positive focus on ways of
being which are enjoyable and meaningful. Without joy in our lives
we are more prone to illness, and even to serious diseases (Le Shan
1989).
The
masculine principle now dominates, reducing and analyzing, seeking
to extirpate and cure disease while the gentler, feminine, caring,
organic aspects of ministering to people with illnesses are considered
by Western medicine to be lesser and often unproductive aspects of
'medical problems'.
Fortunately, the public is not as indoctrinated
in scientific methods and thinking as health caregivers are. Growing
numbers of people are seeking the help of other therapists, feeling
that they deserve to have caregivers who listen to them and who address
them as persons rather than as problems. In the UK, as in the rest
of the world, this demand is bringing about a major return to whole-person
care; most notably through complementary and alternative therapies.
Within
the conventional caregiver community, many nurses are awakening to
the limitations of the biomedical model and are gradually reintroducing
a focus on whole-person care (Benor l996a, Pfeil 1994, Rankin-Box 1993).
This is evidenced in holistic nursing associations in the UK. the USA,
Canada. Australia, and Mexico. Nurses are increasingly in positions
to influence this process as they are the largest group of health care
practitioners to be embracing the wider philosophy and understanding
of illness and health through the integration of whole-person care
and of complementary therapies into traditional health care environments.
It
is conservatively estimated that 40,000 nurses in the USA practice
Therapeutic Touch (Benor l996b). Growing numbers of nurses use aromatherapy,
reflexology, massage (Fraser & Ross Kerr 1993. Malkin 1994), and
other forms of caring involving touch. Doctors are learning to incorporate
homeopathy, acupuncture. and spiritual healing into their practices.
In the workshops we do with doctors and nurses, it is the touching
therapies which are most popular. How sad, in contrast, to find that
in the defensive practice of medicine in the USA, psychotherapists
in many states are forbidden to touch clients lest they open themselves
to accusations of sexual misdoings which could lead to malpractice
claims.
DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN WHOLE-PERSON CARE AND HOLISTIC THERAPIES
Whole-person care addresses body, emotions, mind, relationships
(personal, community), and spirit. While we may discuss these individually,
in reality they are inseparably interconnected with each other in a
mutually-interacting manner. The question of whether complementary
therapies are holistic is debated in this issue by Professor Pietroni
and Professor Saks (p 4-11). Discussions such as these are important
and an essential part of reflective practice.
The
body is not merely a collection of chemicals, cells, and organs. The
whole is far more than a sum of its parts. The body is a reflection
of a person's emotions and mind. Emotional tensions and mental worries
alter muscle tensions, blood pressure, and hormonal balances. Chronic
tensions may contribute to physical dysfunctions such as eczema, asthma,
hypertension. migraines, cancers, and more. Conversely, physical dysfunctions
may bring about emotional and mental instability, anxiety, and depression
(Benor 1996a). There is a vast literature on body-mind interactions
and interventions (Benor 1992, Dethlefsen & Dahlke 1983, Harrison
1984, Hay 1984, Rossi 1986). Relationships with family and community
are reflected in the state of one's health. For instance, losing a
person who is close to us predisposes us to illness (Parkes 1964).
Spirit
expresses itself through the body. We may become aware of spiritual
aspects of our being through intuitive, inner knowing of the rightness
or wrongness of what we eat, say, and do. Meditation and prayer may
bring us into deeper spiritual awareness (Benor 1994). Spiritual healing
may shift a painful experience of illness into one with spiritual dimensions
(Benor 1992, Benor in press a). Hundreds of studies have shown a strong
positive correlation between religious affiliation/practices and states
of health (Levin 1994).
Complementary
therapies may be offered in the spirit of whole-person care, Many people
come for such treatments because complementary therapists spend time
listening and counseling. This is in contrast with conventional medical
practice. where doctors and nurses are encouraged to spend as little
time as possible with people in the name of efficiency. However, research
shows complementary therapies are potent and effective (Benor 1992,
1993) and are not just opportunities for people to have someone to
speak with. Complementary therapies such as spiritual healing, Therapeutic
Touch (Benor 1996b), Autogenic Training (Benor l996c), applied kinesiology,
meditation, psychoneuroimmunology, and the like (Benor 1993. Benor
in press b, Benor l996d). when practiced at their best, encourage people
to take responsibility for their own health. They may also heighten intuitive awareness and spirituality.
Styles (p 16-20) discusses the value of some therapies in the use of
aromatherapv in hospitalized children with HIV disease.
So
strong is the imprint of the medical model that there is a tendency
to misuse complementary therapies. They may be given as partial methodologies which address symptoms
rather than being offered as systems of diagnosis and treatment to
enhance a person's state of being.
Even
when on offer as whole-person care, the offer may be available only
to the affluent who can pay for such interventions out of their own
pockets. However, this is a double-edged sword. The fact that so many
people are willing to pay for complementary therapies is an incentive
in the private sector (Eisenberg et al 1993). and a demonstration of
public belief in their efficacy (Woodham 1994).
It
is helpful when health providers model whole-person caring. sorting
out their own wholeness so that they can be fully available to their
clients. This can often be difficult in the current therapeutic milieu.
Medical and nursing bureaucracies are insensitive to the personal needs
of individual doctors and nurses. The good news is the growing acknowledgement
of high levels of stresses by individual doctors and nurses, even
though the ways of dealing with them have not yet been fully developed
or instituted (Benor l996a, Benor 1995). This is such a new realization
and so contrary to prevalent practices that many caregivers do not
feel entitled to put their own needs forward. Involvement in holistic
approaches is therefore often a covert statement of the caregivers'
own healing needs (Benor 1996a). All of these changes move rather slowly.
We must be patient and draw support from one another in this journey
towards wholeness.
CONCLUSION
Our language is important to our understanding
and practice of health care. We should be moving towards integrated
care: integrating complementary therapies with conventional medical
and nursing practices: integrating awareness of the practitioner's
health needs in the provision of care; and helping people in integrating
their bodies, emotions, minds, relationships, and spirit into a harmonious whole. Healing is a journey, not a destination.
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This article
originally appeared as
An
earlier version of this article appeared as: Benor, Daniel and
Benor, Rita, The missing 'W' (in holistic care), guest
editorial, Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery,
1997, 3, 1-3.
