***Networking As Healing - Part 2.

The Council for Healing (CfH)nnThe 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. nnLed 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] nnThe 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. n nThe 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. nnMany 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. nnMany 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. n nnThe 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.n nThe American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) embraces nursing as a lifestyle and a profession and provides a means to create bonds within the nursing community.nLucia Thornton, RN, MSN, AHN-BC, AHNA President Elect, Fresno, California nnAmerican 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. nWayne Mylin, New Jersey nnThe 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. nDan Lemberger, D.C., Louisville, Colorado nnRepresentative 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. nBerney Williams, PhD, Lawrence, Kansas n nHealing 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. nMary Frost, RN, MS, HNC, CHTP, CHTI, CHt, Lakewood, Colorado nnMedical 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. nRev. Cay Randall-May, PhD, Phoenix, Arizona nnPrayer 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. nRev. Cay Randall-May, PhD, Phoenix, Arizona nnNoetic 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. nScott Walker, MD, Albuquerque, New Mexico nnSelf-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. nRev. Martina C. Steiger, ThD, BEd, MA, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada nnTherapeutic 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. nnNurse 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. nRebecca Good, MA, RNC, ACRN, LPC, QTTT, Salt Lake City, Utah n nWholistic Healing, Addressing: Spirit - offering spiritual healing and introducing careseekers to ways of connecting with their own spiritual awareness and healing; nRelationships - offering psychotherapy to deal with issues of caressekers with other people and with the environment; nMind - inviting new ways of understanding self and developing creative ways to relate to the world; nEmotions - developing ways to identify emotional blocks and excesses from current and past situations and to deal with them constructively; nBody - learning to listen to what the body is saying, then dealing with stressors that challenge the body's coping mechanisms.[12] nDaniel J Benor, MD, ABHM, Canada nnThe 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.