http://portland-or.net/healthcare-collective/What-is-a-Healer.pdf
We all are healers - every person has within the power to heal herself, and also to help others to heal. The human organism comes complete with an innate ability for self-healing. When we come into contact with a substance in our environment, the body responds. If that substance is a toxin, the body works to isolate and remove the toxin. Inflammation, heat, swelling, vomiting, fever, diarrhea….there are myriad ways that our bodies work to keep us from danger and to restore balance. A healthy person is not a person who never gets sick, but is a person whose mind and body show balanced and appropriate responses.
In order for health to exist, there are some preconditions that need to be met. We all need: clean air, food and water; shelter, clothing, meaningful relationships, work and activity, expression of our emotions, sexual expression, exercise, an outlet for creativity, etc. When these preconditions cannot be met, our ability to be healthy starts to be compromised, and our bodies’ responses start to be out of balance - recurring headaches, colds that never go away, chronic pain, and so on.
There are endless assaults on our minds and bodies in everyday life that move us further away from being in a state of health and we’ve come to a point where a person needs to consciously make the choice for healthy living and work to ensure that the conditions exist. As Natural Therapists, our role is to work with the bigger picture of health and lifestyle of the people in our care. Our task is to help the people in our care to find the obstacles to health in their lives, to ascertain what preconditions for health might be lacking, to support them in
making the necessary changes, and to help them through the period of rebalancing. A therapist’s role is not to impose anything on the client; the person needing help has to take an active role, if possible, in their own healthcare.
The word "healer" indicates an action and ability. It indicates that the person has the power to impose healing on another person. I don’t doubt that there are individuals whose mere presence and energy can stimulate the healing processes in another person; however I don’t feel entirely comfortable with its general usage to refer to a therapist. As therapists, we are conduits for healing - we use our skills and abilities to help the people in our care, but with our help it is they, as biological organisms and as conscious individuals, who do the healing. Themselves.
Sue Scandale
Feb. 2004
"How much do you charge?"
The honest answer to that question is : "nothing!"
We work as volunteers, and the services we provide are on a non-profit, non-commercial basis.
We don’t charge anything for our services. We do ask, however, for help of all sorts.
We feel that the practice of Natural Therapy can only be effective if it exists and operates outside of the profit-system, as a natural part of the political- economy of the alternative and radical community, within a global and local network of people and organizations based on mutual support, cooperation, exchange of goods and services, and a commitment to serve the higher principles and values involved in the efforts for the Spiritual and Political Liberation of all of humanity.
We believe that the kind of healthcare provided from within the profit system, ultimately leads healthcare providers - even the ones with the very best intentions - to treatments and procedures which promote the exploitation of death and illness by the large corporations and governments. It also leads to methods which maintain a dependence on that kind of healthcare, instead of promoting methods aimed at accomplishing the ultimate goal of all healthcare providers: to make ourselves unnecessary!
We would appreciate your help, greatly!
We ask that people who support our work give only according to ability.
Our greatest need is for volunteer help, especially with secretarial office skills, most specifically with computer typing. We are always in need for help with typing documents in both the hellenic and the english language. We seek this cooperation both from a distance (utilizing faxes and the internet) and from up close, within a close -working relationship with us. Any arrangement is always very welcome!
There are also opportunities to go out for collecting herbs, preparing herbal and homeopathic remedies, cultivating medicinal plants, delivering food or supplies or messages to people in our care, preparing informational pamphlets or researching articles - the works! It’s all open and available to anyone who feels that their own life might be improved by helping to improve the lives of others.
We are always very grateful to all of our benefactors who make our work possible, and to the volunteers, who choose to shoulder some of the work themselves for the mutual benefit of everyone involved. And we are often asked to convey thanks from many of the persons in our care who have benefited over the years from your offerings, who don’t have the ways to thank you directly, especially since much of the donations are anonymous.
Thank you, All !
Petros Evdokas
Sue Scandale
