Fostering a healing presence and investigating its mediators.
Sharon I McDonough-Means, Mary Jo Kreitzer, Iris R. Bell
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2004 DOI: 10.1089/1075553042245890 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Holistic health Mental healing Self care Attitude to health Communication Empathy Professional-patient relations Spirituality Models, psychological Research design Quality of life Mind-body relations, metaphysical |
| Key points | Proposes that healing presence is an interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal-to-transcendent phenomenon producing beneficial, therapeutic, or spiritual change in both healer and healee, and argues for a systemic model treating the healer, healee, and healing effect as entangled, to be studied through an integrated qualitative-quantitative research design. |
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is the exploration and explication of the complex phenomena of "healing presence" and of appropriately supportive theoretical approaches to integrate emerging models for research design. Healing presence is described as an interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal to transcendent phenomenon that leads to a beneficial, therapeutic, and/or positive spiritual change within another individual (healee) and also within the healer. An integrated framework merging knowledge from diverse fields of research develops the multiple elements of healing presence, the healer, the healee's capacity for response and the healing effect as an entangled phenomenon. A conceptual systemic model is presented, and questions and dilemmas that emerge are delineated. An integrated qualitative-quantitative research design is proposed. A systemic relationship model, which includes the healer, the healee, and persons within the healee's environment is presented. The challenges are substantial, but the research questions are meaningful and worthwhile. The goal is to foster healing at bio-psycho-social-spiritual levels of the human being.