[Paper name and/or number]
Jonathan practices Native American healing. He has practiced for approximately 23 years. The scope of his practice combines spiritual healing based on native American traditions which differ according to tribal affiliation and personal beliefs and knowledge. Jonathan studied traditional Western medicine as a student for several years but did not complete his college degree. He instead chose to seek out and learn traditional medicine based on his own culture (Sioux) and this coincided with his return to South Dakota to seek out extended family members to learn specific aspects of traditional medicine. While not a full Native American, Jonathan explained during our interview that he had always felt a personal connection with traditional healing practices and towards the end of his unsuccessful career in Western medicine, he realized that his path was to learn more about these traditions. For a period of approximately ten years, he immersed himself in traditional Native American healing methods, learning primarily from older people.
Jonathan told me during our interview that he feels very strongly that health and wellbeing of people and animals should be a holistic process that does not rely on a sole method of treatment.
Jonathan explained that Native American healing varies according to certain tribal practices. As a healer with Sioux heritage, he learned from elders among his tribe but gradually incorporated some of the fundamental modern treatments he had learned as a student at medical school. Specifically, his practice combines very spiritual elements (in which he teaches his patients the value of rest and relaxation techniques, regardless of their belief systems), with good diet according to their particular needs. Spirituality is very important in his practice, and he regularly offers prayer, traditional songs and music to convey a healing energy to his patients. He offers traditional medicines in the form of herbal tinctures and incorporates traditional ritualistic objects and symbols in the rooms where he practices to promote healing synergy.
One of the components of his healing methodology which I found particularly interesting was Jonathan’s commitment to a holistic approach to patients’ health and wellbeing. He mentioned this specifically during the first part of our interview and appeared very resolute about this. When I queried him again about it, he told me that his exposure to the study of Western medicine had contributed to his knowledge of this approach. Many of his patients have complex health issues which go beyond what he sometimes felt could not be helped by traditional practices on their own. He gave me the example of a woman patient with advanced lung cancer which was benefitting from weekly prayer and traditional healing energy but required modern pharmaceutical assistance to reduce pain and symptoms. He told me that the combined ‘holistic’ approach had promoted a powerful synergy of healing for the woman, and had restored her spiritual harmony in a way that Western medicine alone could not do.
Practitioners practicing allopathic medicine alone are often uncomfortable with any traditional medicine because of its intangible nature. But as Jonathan pointed out to me, allopathic care alone is often lacking in a dimension that people increasingly seek to restore their own personal spiritual harmony and promote a wellbeing using traditional ways.
Additional Questions and Answers
What does health mean to the healer?
Health is a holistic process, involving the restoration of mind, body and spirit through the use of traditional methods.
Why does the healer practice his health-seeking behavior?
What is the relationship of the healer’s health behaviors with Western biomedicine?
The healer has a positive relationship with Western biomedicine and allopathic practice. Having studied it in his early career, he is aware that there are some instances where modern Western medicine is appropriate. Although he respects Western medicine and Western treatments, he is of the opinion that it is not holistic or comprehensive and does not focus on spiritual wellbeing.
Write a quote from the interview and outline your analysis of its significance.
“Native American healing focuses on restoring the physical and spiritual wellbeing of a person.” This type of healing, along with many other traditional methods, recognizes that it is not only allopathic medicine on its own which can make a person well. It highlights the shortcomings of Western medicine.
