Personal Empowerment & The Future of Healing
Personal Empowerment: The Western paradigm of healing - with its emphasis on scientific 'proof,' authority, reductionism, predictability, uniformity and repetition - is at odds with the way living beings naturally heal. It relies upon the "authority" - a doctor, teacher, expert - to instruct the "patient." From this perspective, authority is necessary to the process of healing and is placed in an exalted or dominant position over the client. In new models of healing, the emphasis will be on real-world results and experience, personal empowerment, shared stories, collaboration, diversity, divergence and personal, unique journeys of healing. From this perspective, the client is central to their healing experience and the teacher and expert is there to educate, guide and inspire their healing; the professional is beside - not over or above - the client in a role of trusted support, experience and presence.
In the narrative of fear, scarcity and victimhood, individuals are conditioned to be passive onlookers to their own health and well-being... waiting for a prescription, giving up their autonomy and expecting others to fix them without any contribution on their part. While these models uphold the status quo and consolidate power and resources in the hands of corporate entities, shareholders, pharmaceutical companies and the politicians they support, we see quite plainly in the epidemic rates of addiction, mental illness, depression and suicide that these models are not working for the majority of society.
In the future, personal responsibility for one's own health, empowerment and education will be key. Increasingly, we as healing artists and health professionals won't serve to fix or make our clients dependent upon us; instead, we will be teaching, guiding and empowering our clients on how to heal and remain healthy in a lasting way. Healing will move from passivity and prescriptions to proactivity and personal daily healing practices.
Society-wide change and culture shift is big, hard work - like turning a massive ship against strong currents. It will happen over the course of decades and generations thanks to the small, incremental efforts of each and every one of us using our little oars in unison toward a shared future.
What will those actions look like?
Bringing our clients into community and interaction with one another.
Creating virtual offerings that unite people around the country and world.
Not answering every question our client asks us, but insisting they participate in their own research, education and healing.
Empowering our clients with the tools to offer peer-to-peer support rather than making ourselves necessary to their ongoing process.
Not positioning ourselves as the lone "expert", the "best, or the "only" way to heal.
Developing deep, lasting relationships with our clients that don't begin and end on the hour.
Creating arcs and pathways for healing that allow for different paces, diversity and divergences - containers and frameworks that provide enough structure for people to feel safe, but allow room and spaciousness for originality, creativity and spontaneity in healing.
Lastly, it's important to remember that the healers and health professionals who are the most daring, called, and willing to be the first to jump ship and begin rowing in a new direction will receive much scorn, resistance, judgment, ridicule, and attacks from those who most benefit by the established order. Throughout history, those who threaten the existing systems receive the most scrutiny and shaming. The more of us who are visibly offering new models - using our voices and normalizing community models of empowered healing - the more we lift up, protect and support each other. Let's support and root on the doctor who is brave enough to opt out of the exploitive, unethical insurance company system, the licensed therapist who gives up her credential to be able to serve her clients in a more authentic and effective way, and the indigenous healers who may not have scientific western credentials but have healed people for generations.
Remember to take a long view --- this change will take generations, and we are keepers of a flame that stretches both back and before us in time. Be deliberate, dedicated, tenacious... but patient and always remembering you are not alone. Returning people to their personal volition, intuition and healing is highly uncomfortable for many people who are stuck in a passive victim-mentality; it is not your job to save, fix or rescue people... even - and especially when - they seem to insist upon it. :)
To step into our future requires a different path than those roads currently visible. When we bravely step into the unknown or experiment with how we serve, we give permission and inspire every other healer to as well.
