Healing vs. Curing

The last few weeks have been emotionally heavy at work. I have had numerous clients come in, informing me either of a recent cancer diagnosis for themselves or a loved one, or have recently lost someone to illness. This includes my own family. This past week was especially filled with grief, as clients shared, released, and received during our sessions. On occasion, it was challenging for me to hold back my own tears, feeling my own grief rise to the surface meeting theirs. No matter our path, we inevitably face similar challenges overall.

Time and mortality became the central focus of my bodywork, and the resilience of the human spirit navigating tides of change deeply moved me. While massaging, I listened to my clients talking about how they’re trying to approach life differently. Having conversations with their loved ones, that they were never able to have before. They laugh and cry in catharsis as they venture into the scary unknown places of life and death. Many have a strength that I haven’t witnessed before, and I’m pretty sure this has come as a surprise to them too. In times of uncertainty, we often find a depth and fortitude within, and even in the most challenging circumstances, an opportunity of healing may present itself.

Nowadays, healing is a very charged word. It holds multiple connotations, and each person has their own unique experience and understanding of what that means. As someone who calls themselves a healer, my own relationship with the word has changed over the years as well. One of my absolute favorite classes I took in college finishing up my Anthropology degree was a course called “Illness & Curing” by the amazing Professor Pam Erickson. The class was a study of ethnomedicine (human medicinal traditions) from various cultures, and their intersectionality with society, religion, food, and its overlay with its acceptance or dismissal in western allopathic care. The class was a bridge for me in understanding that medicine, healing, curing and health, are all dependent on the society we live in, which influences how we view what some might think of as primitive or antiquated forms of healing. Many of these medicine practices have been adapted under the umbrella term of “Complementary and Alternative Medicine,” like many of the modalities I offer that you’re familiar with such as, Massage, Reiki, IET ®, Aromatherapy, etc.

But there is a divide that remains between what we know as “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” or “CAMs,” and Western Medicine, dating back to the early stages in the development of modern medicine. It’s kind of funny that Western Medicine has evolved from practices such as Persian/Islamic, Greek/Roman, Egyptian, and older traditions that weren’t just philosophical, but embodied a wide range of approaches to address not only issues within the body but repair the psyche as well. Western Medicine took what made sense to preserve and threw out much of the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of these medicinal ancestors. I won’t get into the social/political/racial and patriarchal prejudices that colored and biased Western Medicine but just know there is a lot more to the story and oppression of much older forms of healing.

While I am a firm believer that all forms of medicine are valid and needed, it’s taken a lot for CAM’s to be included and accepted by our modern health-care system, and there is much more work to be done. Thankfully, we have at least seen an increase of integrative medicine departments in hospitals, Reiki clinics, mindfulness programs, natural stress reduction programs, and an improved general awareness that the human body’s ability to heal is predicated on more than just pills and surgeries.

Which leads me to my next statement, that there is a big difference between “healing” and “curing.” From my point of view, Western Medicine motive is to “cure,” to divide the body into parts and with a laser point focus, find something that either needs to be removed, changed, altered, or destroyed for such curing to occur. We take pain pills or antibiotics to fight infections, remove tumors or reattach arteries, in the hopes to rebalance our system. While this is certainly true for many things, and if my appendices are on the verge of explosion, I would want that sucker out too. Yet I find, sometimes, that Western Medicine leaves us lacking in “healing,” even while the “curing” takes place.

Many of my clients come to me when other methods of treatment haven’t worked. They’re looking for support, for compassion, and for a new perspective on long-term issues. For many of my clients, our work together is part of their self-care maintenance practice. They have health concerns that they need to manage in life, yet navigating their healing is a very different story.

With various clients and students, the transformation or “healing” I have witnessed, has been about arriving in a place of conscious understanding of reality, with clear vision of will, and deep emotional support to move forward in life. Helping each person find their way through troubled times, process emotionally charged situations, and feel safer in their body. Healing is only possible when we feel safe to face what is causing us chaos, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Healing doesn’t mean curing and I had a big lesson in that myself. I’ll never forget the day a new client came in, sat down, and started to cry, revealing they were dying and asking if I could cure them. I was speechless for a moment and could hear the desperation in the client’s voice. I had to tread carefully while explaining I’m not in the business of curing, I can never guarantee that in my work. But what I could help with was helping them feel better in the moment, helping them face their reality, and work with them through what later turned out to be regrets and fears about leaving behind what they felt was an emotional mess.

While we might never fully “heal” from the loss of a loved one or that proverbial broken heart, perhaps even “cure” an illness, what we can take from our experiences and relationships, are the many blessings and cherished times we’ve had in the moment, the very essence of love, of friendship, of fun times, and just being. Important things to keep sight of, for in doing so as we move forward, so we heal and grow. My job as a healer is to support you and help navigate that next step, through bodywork to release the knots, the worries, the tension and the stresses, the grief, and the what ifs that serve no-one. As we walk this wonderful, yet sometimes challenging path of life, so we must take time to nourish and serve ourselves first and foremost, for in healing ourselves, so we heal the world in turn.