Native American Healing & Medicine

From the Native American perspective, healing rather than curing is the most important aspect of medicine. Healing includes the making whole of the individual through the establishment, enhancement, or restoration of well-being and harmony within the individual. From this perspective when an individual is sick, rather than simply being prescribed an antibiotic, a healer would pray with the patient and ask the Great Spirit for help. The patient is surrounded with love and support as they attend a healing ceremony. Thus connection to peo0ple, nature, and spirit is emphasized. In this manner, the Native American healing is a holistic medicine. For the Native American, healing, spiritual development and quality of life cannot be separated from other life aspects to include politics and economics. Harmony with the Earth is essential for health. Within this perspective, there is a great deal of diversity regarding techniques, ceremonies, and practices that take place in tribal cultures and the talents of healers also vary. However, there are several intervention categories that are universally important among healers such as smudging, prayer, music, counseling, massage, ceremony, herbs, and vision-seeking (Cohen, 2003).

Cohen (2003) presents descriptions of the common therapeutic methods used by the American Indian healer with regard to their connection to the healing process (pp. 146-147). Vision-seeking, dreaming, and fasting are used to help the healer and patien

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e. An approach to bridge cultures and develop practices to treat all was developed. The author treated 116 patients with traditional Native American healers and 80% showed significant and long-term benefits from the program. The control group consisted of patients from the author's emergency room practice and this group showed less improvement. The program lasted from seven to 10 days and proved to be effective and cost efficient. The program is descried as an approach that combined spiritual, mental, and physical aspects that are treated with counseling and ceremony within a dynamic energy system. The healing effects of prayer are included as were hypnosis/imagery, body therapy, projective techniques (use of Native American images, shields, and animal images), and ceremony. Native American concepts about healing were included in the program. The healer believes that healing takes time and time is healing. The healer must have enough time to give to the patient, which included hours of contact, and this in itself is considered healing. Too little or too much time are equally damaging. Healers also believe that healing takes place within the context of the relationship and it is the quality of the relationship that help

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