The ethics of healing?
So, I was reading shadowandstar LJ, and found a great link to a blog by a shaman called Wintersong, about invoking consent while doing healing work on someone. I tried to comment, but I had to turn it into a full blog post of my own. You can find the journal here.
( My response, which was too big for a comment on Shadowandstar's LJ... )
( My response, which was too big for a comment on Shadowandstar's LJ... )
Ok, to address your questions from my own perspective-
1. I don't 'heal' psychological issues. I send people to a qualified therapist. In fact, I don't treat people unless I know they're already receiving medical treatment, or unless I'm familiar with the physical problem they're having. It's a matter of basic responsibility- we aren't gods, and unless we're qualified therapists or doctors, we shouldn't invade their territory and try to practice what we've no skill at. I mean, we wouldn't ask a non-magical doctor to do a healing spell on us, would we?
2. I figure if I'm healing someone, and they're already receiving healing elsewhere, then I'm butting in and should probably butt out. Magic, like you said, is a balancing act. I completely agree with that stance. Likewise, I agree that healers need to learn more about healing- it's far easier to harm than it is to heal, and a healer MUST know how to do both.
3. Healers who are sick in the head are about as good an idea as having a sniper who's blind- yeah, they may have found a way around their disability and can handle their own lives, but are they really the person for the job? Someone who thinks that homosexuality or being trans is a 'disorder' is someone without the clarity to actively help their client. Their perspective is screwed up.
That being said, how can one be sure that one is healthy enough to heal? The people who feel that way about trans folk and homosexuals think they're right.
My only answer? Knowledge must take precedent over belief. Belief is not good enough to inform any aspect of something that has the capacity to harm another. One needs fact and truth as a basis, tested and verified to destruction so that the only thing left IS truth.
But then, I teach that to my students. I can't count on anyone else being as competent as my students are. All I want to worry about is taking care of mine and me. Less stress that way.
And so far as clients who are mentally unable to effectively advocate for themselves, it comes down to a question- is the situation life-threatening for themselves or others? If so, act and do the best you can. If not, don't.
Beyond that, it's something you should just let them live through and work out on their own. And, we have to be able to own the consequences of a mistake or wrong decision. One problem with having no bar of competence is that we also have nobody over our shoulder making us be responsible.
Which, eventually, means that we end up walking into our own mess at some point. And it doesn't help the client we're screwing over either.
Finally, I guess the rest of my stance is that if a person isn't going to be grateful, it's usually not worth my time. The only time I do something against someone's wishes to 'help' them is when it's really about me. And then I have to decide whether or not the harm I might do is worth the risk. Usually it's not.
*shrugs* But that's me. I can't count on everyone being that way.
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>"it comes down to a question- is the situation life-threatening for themselves or others? If so, act and do the best you can. If not, don't."
I find that one thing these courses are good at is helping people learns skills for assessing a medical/health situation objectively. Which is a skill more healers need.
You clearly treat healing work as a very real tool, which, like a scalpel, is neither good nor bad, it can heal and harm. Maybe this is not the word you would choose, but I want to say that I admire your professionalism.
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