“Healing is a miraculous phenomenon and one of mankind’s greatest gifts. To me the continuous thread that wove together all the good healers I met was their capacity for unconditional love.”
Allegra Taylor
In 2007 I was living in Chile, South America and working as a minister to a Spanish speaking congregation when I met sister Mary Maloney, an Irish Catholic nun who was Director of Nana Nagle, a women’s centre. The first time I met her she was speaking to two women about using a complementary therapy called ‘Healing Touch’. One woman said she had used the therapy to relax her son the night before his exams and the other woman spoke of using the therapy to reduce her husband’s back pain. I was curious, so I decided to do Level 1 of the therapy which was taught by another Irish Catholic who lived in Peru. In the end I found the therapy so useful that I completed levels 1-4 while I was in Chile. After I had returned to the UK, I completed Level 5 and thus became a Certified Practitioner in Healing Touch.
Healing Touch was developed by a nurse in the US and is used by nurses in hospitals and hospices alongside standard medical care. It is described as being a relaxing, nurturing energy therapy which uses gentle touch to assist in balancing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being (Wardell 2014). It works with a person’s energy field to support the natural ability to heal. It is safe for all ages and works in harmony with standard medical care. Those who practice Healing Touch are expected to hold on to the core values of integrity; heart centredness; respect of self and others; self care; service; community; and unconditional love. In order to practice Healing Touch, I was taught how to ‘ground’ myself and how to connect with my ‘higher power’ or ‘divine source’ to allow loving and healing energy to flow through me to the person I was treating. The ‘energy’ is interpreted in different ways depending on what religious background people practice – but for me it is the Holy Spirit.
I have used Healing Touch in the Centro de Atencion Familiar (Family Support Centre), Alto Hospicio, Chile whilst working as part of a multidisciplinary team (alongside a social worker, lawyer, and psychologist) with women suffering domestic abuse. I have also used it back here in the UK as a volunteer therapist with cancer patients at Cherry Lodge Cancer Care in Barnet. The use of the therapy has taught me a lot about the difference between ‘cure’ and ‘healing’, and the holistic nature of healing.
If ‘cure’ is defined as a return to the state we were in before we became ill, i.e. with the symptoms of illness removed, then ‘healing’ is defined as a moving towards greater harmony of body, mind and spirit – which may or may not include cure. In other words, healing involves positive changes in physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health (often in combination), and healing in some form can take place even though we might not see a cure.
The holistic nature of Healing Touch has taught me to let go of the outcome of a therapy or a prayer, because, although the person might present with a physical problem, the healing they may need might be social, mental, emotional or spiritual. One person I was treating had a persistent cough, but disclosed problems she had in communicating with her daughter. It turned out that the healing that was really needed was in the relationship she had with her daughter.
This holistic approach to healing has helped me to appreciate some of Jesus’ healing stories: in particular, the story of the woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for 12 years (Luke 8: 42-48). The woman did not just suffer physically. She was considered as unclean, and everything or everyone she touched was considered as unclean, so she was treated as an outcast. She was also not allowed to go to the temple. So the woman suffered not just physically and socially, but also emotionally and spiritually. When she is healed, her healing takes place in all these different aspects of her life.
Over recent years, public health services have become more responsive to the holistic needs of patients, and the offering of complementary therapies in hospital and hospices is becoming more common. Dr Adrian Tookman FRCP, Divisional Director of Specialist Services, and cancer lead at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust says:
“The complementary therapy service within the Royal Free, led by Keith Hunt, is one of our exemplary services. Used by many teams across the hospital, the service facilitates our day to day challenge of delivering compassionate care. Seamless integration of complementary therapies into high quality care is one of the symbols of a hospital that cares about all aspects of a patient’s care. It addresses well-being, enhances recovery and allows patients to have moments of quiet relaxation in what can sometimes feel an impersonal environment. It is to Keith’s credit that he has been accepted as an asset to care by nearly all clinical areas in the trust. He and his team are highly valued and have my full support.”
Booth (1998) wrote that
“[The] Holy Spirit works in many different ways and through many different channels. I prefer to rejoice when true healings of any kind take place through medicine, surgery, psychotherapy, prayer, the laying on of hands, anointing, together with the exercise of loving care. All that is good and wholesome is of God and to Him be the glory.”
Booth’s list of the channels to “true healing” clearly include techniques that we would today categorise as ‘complementary therapies’, but the important thing is that the whole person is being treated.
Learning Healing Touch has taught me how – through prayer – God can use me as a channel of God’s healing love, to offer healing from a place of unconditional love and to be aware that the healing a person needs may not be the physical illness the person presents with. Moreover, my experience has left me in no doubt that there are a variety of ways of offering healing, and that, as Flora Litt (1998) observed, our love and our faith are key to any healing we can offer:
Whether our faith expression is conservative, liberal or inbetween, we are called to connect with the heart of Love in the universe, and to exercise the gifts of the Spirit in an intentional healing ministry following the command of Christ. Whether we express these gifts in silent focused thought, in words or touch, we must do so with all the love of our hearts and the conviction of our faith.
References
Wardell, Diane, Kagel, Sue, Anselme, Lisa 2014 Healing Touch, Enhancing Life through Energy Therapy. Bloomington: iUniverse
Booth, Howard 1998 Health, Healing and Wholeness: the Ongoing Quest. Berkhamstead: Arthur James.
Graham, Rochelle, Litt Flora, and Irwin Wayne, 1998, Healing from the Heart. Kelowna, BC Canada: Wood Lake Books Inc.
*This blog was originally published in March 2019