HOLISTIC HEALING

This research reviews the concept of holistic healing. The concept of healing is relevant in a variety of contexts. As an example, people referred to a need for healing at both personal and societal levels in the United States after the terrorist attacks occurred in September 2001. Healing also is relevant in much more personal psychological situations when losses occur or when one's life is disrupted. The most common application of the concept of healing is in relation to recovery from severe illness or severe injury in situations where the loss or risk of loss involves both physical and psychological dimensions. It is in this latter context that the concept of holistic healing is reviewed. The review begins with a consideration of holism and proceeds to the application of holism in the healing process in relation to personal health issues.

Changing social structures are leading to evolving approaches to the delivery of health care. The roles of the various professional providers of health care also are in a state of transition. Societal changes also are occurring that impact the ethical bases of the functioning of health care delivery systems. Throughout American society, such transitions are leading to a growing expression of a desire for holism. Holism refers to a totality in perspective, with sensitivity to all levels or parts that constitute the whole and to their interdependence and relatedness. In

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for and supporting patients as they respond to and manage health and illness requires skilled and compassionate application of scientific knowledge and technology on the part of nurse practitioners. "This knowledgeable and compassionate caring has biopsychosocial-spiritual correlates. � There is scientific evidence to support that caregiving interventions have quantifiable, reproducible physiologic effects" (Wells-Federman 14). If caring for patients is to be sustained by nurses, however, the nurse must "understand the role of healer and recognize that they themselves do not create the change in others but rather participate in the process. Those who care must also recognize that, for knowledgeable and compassionate caring to be sustained, they must be willing to care for themselves and capable of doing so. In other words, they must be willing to awaken their healer within" (Wells-Federman 14). Within a holistic context, nursing interventions such as therapeutic touch and therapeutic massage can be used with patients who are "unable to participate actively in learning and practicing relaxation exercises. Therapeutic touch has been found to reduce anxiety in hospitalized patients, to reduce tension headaches, and to decrease th

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