Editor’s note: The following article was previously published in One Earth Magazine Issue No. 16, Winter 1994/95. 

In collaboration with the Findhorn Foundation, our May 1994 conference, ‘Medical Marriage: the New Partnership between Orthodox and Complementary Medicine’, was an unqualified success and was attended by doctors, healers, nurses, midwives, aromatherapists, acupuncturists, homoeopaths, counsellors, social work­ers, osteopaths, medical students and interested members of the public. The second conference in the series ‘Holistic Health Care for the 21st Century’, this event was dedicated to exploring the possibilities of co-operation between orthodox and non-orthodox practition­ers and to heightening the awareness of human spirit in matters of health and disease.

The event was approved for Postgraduate Education Allowance (PGEA) in the categories of Health Promotion and Disease Management. Under this scheme, British doctors could apply for funding to attend the event and accumulate 6.5 of the 10 points they are obliged to gain each year in professional education. The content consisted of 7 plenary sessions, 3 work­shop sessions (with a choice of 7-8 differ­ent workshops) and 3 ‘small group’ ses­sions. The atmosphere was both profes­sional yet informal and enhanced by the community atmosphere of the Findhorn Foundation.

The conference opened with Dr David T Reilly, Consultant Physician in Charge at the Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital. His 20 years of clinical practice and more than 10 years’ experience of clini­cal trials made his talk, ‘Integrated Health Care-a Change in Emphasis’ full and thought-provoking. The change in emphasis he feels we must make is away from ‘strutting’ and being ‘more holistic than thou’, towards an appreciation of the mystery of healing and the power of the self-healing effect (usually called placebo effect). He gave several examples of individuals who had responded well to a combination of treatments. His presentation, peppered with cartoons, visual aids and convincing results or clinical trials, all presented with a mixture of humour and humility, was for some the highlight of the confer­ence. Ultimately, he made a persuasive case for his belief that “the heart of the matter is not the therapy, it’s the healing that takes place.”

The next morning Dr Julian Kenyon of the Centre for the Study of Comp­lementary Medicine spoke about, ‘The Role of Scientific Research in Bringing Orthodox and Complementary Med­icine Together’. The primary objective of his Centre is to reduce the mistrust between orthodox and complement­ary practitioners and to build bridges of clinical co-operation between them, based largely on research. He men­tioned the importance of the audit and appraisal of complementary treatments via clinical notes which could become the raw material for assessing effective­ness and costs. He spoke frankly of the fear that doctors have with regard to complementary therapies and the dan­ger that, unless complementary therapists organise themselves and communicate in a way that doctors can understand, the medical establishment might well ‘steam-roller’ them. The way forward according to Dr Kenyon is to establish group clinics, clear ethical codes and legislation concerning com­plementary medicines, to teach comple­mentary therapies in medical schools and to set up joint research projects. He also encouraged complementary thera­pists to join together to standardise accreditation and to build solidarity in their disciplines.

Dr Patch Adams, an extremely tall and rather flamboyant clown, doctor and social activist, challenged us with ‘Patients as Friends: The New Partnership between Doctors and Patients’. His lively talk, interspersed with juggling, jokes and poetry was full of insights. He began by talking about the concept of ‘professional distance’ and the so-called danger of transference, as taught in medical schools. In his experience, patients were routinely described not by name but by ailments (for instance, “Today we are going to examine the acute appendicitis in Room 103”) and a doctor and ten students might suddenly appear unannounced in a patient’s room, “whip off the covers and allow various students to prod and poke the patient and talk about him/her as if they were not present”. Upon qualifying from medical school, Patch and other graduates set up a healing com­munity where patients, doctors, family and residents lived, worked, played, ate and shared together, developing inti­mate friendships as an essential aspect of healing. This has now grown into the Gesundheit Institute which is on the verge of building the first “silly hospital” on its own land in Virginia, USA.

Dr Cornelia Fellner shared her expe­rience of ‘Cooperation: the Way Forward in Health Care’. Her Holistic Medical Practice is a living example of the co-operation which is possible between complementary and orthodox medicine, NHS and private practice and between patient and doctor. For the past 4 years she has run a weekly Practitioners’ Group (based on the work of Dr Balint) for peer support and supervision, where experiences are shared and cases discussed jointly, with a view to offering the best care to the patient and to educating each other about the different approaches. In her opinion, in any co-operative venture there is still a need for someone with clinical judgement, a skill which only doctors and nurses develop in acute care. Dr Fellner recommended practi­tioners to adhere to strict professional standards which should include ethics, open communication and a willingness to trust in the effectiveness of other ther­apies and the skill of colleagues. Co­-operation with the patient should include developing a relationship of the kind offered by the old-fashioned family doctor who is a companion through the different stages of life, as well as education and encouragement towards self-responsibility.

Spiritual healer, psychiatrist and author Dr Daniel J Benor drew together the themes of co-operation and research in speaking about, ‘The Experiences of the UK Doctor-Healer Network’. His recent work, Healing Research: Holistic Energy Medicine and Spirituality reveals an impressive number of controlled studies on spiritual healing. Even though “doc­tors don’t like to work without a theory,” according to Dr Benor, in Britain we are leading the way towards integrating healing into medical practice. Since the late 70s, healers have been working in hospitals and their ‘Code of Conduct’ also helps to increase their acceptance by doctors. One of the functions of the UK Doctor-Healer Network is to encourage the orthodox practitioner who discovers his/her own healing powers to feel confi­dent in using them. Several doctors at the conference commented that Dr Benor’s talk had opened their eyes to new possibilities and had affirmed their own intuitive healing ability.

Teresa Hale, economist, spoke about the Hale Clinic, now in its seventh year. About 120 consultants, including 20 doctors. treat some 4,000 patients every month. The clinic is working towards developing contracts with fund-holding doc­tors. A research pro­gramme with a London hospital is in progress using complementary medicine to assist elder­ly stroke patients and another one will soon start with childhood asthma. Studies at the clinic have shown that, overall, complementary medicine is much more cost-effective than orthodox treatments, largely because of the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. Cost-effective­ness, suggests Teresa Hale, is the banner under which we can bring in a totally new dimension to heal­ing.

Caroline Myss, author, international speaker, teacher and medical intuitive, concluded the conference in style with, ‘What Does it Take to Heal? A Combination of Forces’. In this case, the forces include subtle energies, forgiveness and above all, the individual’s will­ingness to break old habits and give up their addiction to pain. Her fast-paced, witty delivery and mind-boggling ideas served to wake up the audience as she described the necessity of “liberating our ‘prana’ (life energy) which is at present largely occupied with feeding past pain and resentments, and moving into ‘pre­sent time’. One of our biggest obstacles to doing this lies in our language of inti­macy which is currently based on “woundology”: new acquaintances develop (and then sustain) their rela­tionship by comparing and sharing emotional wounds from the past, which pre­vents them from living in the present. Forgiveness is the only way to release the past but unfortunately many of us live with the fear that when we truly forgive someone we might lose them. The fric­tion caused by having new awareness and yet still holding on to old behaviour patterns can often bring about illness, which is a challenge that many of us, including spiritual seekers, face today. For many, Caroline Myss’ presentation pulled all the strands together as she made a strong statement for self-responsibility and the will to change as essential ingredients to health.

Some 27 workshops were offered dur­ing the conference covering the follow­ing topics: holistic childbirth, education and accreditation for complementary practitioners, insurance, subtle energies, psychoimmunology, the health of our children, law, practical aspects of co­-operation, how to get the care you want, energy medicine, multidisciplinary case conferences, clinical trials and audit and the joy or caring.

Looking to the future, plans are now well under way for the next conference in the series which will explore commu­nity and its power to facilitate healing and improve life quality: ‘The Healing Potential of Community’ will take place from Saturday 27 to Monday 29 May 1995. Postgraduate Education Allowance (PGEA) has been applied for.

Recent biomedical research shows that close social relationships promote health and longevity. This was well known to our predecessors in healing who lived and worked in close-knit communities, but this ancient knowledge has been neglected by our highly technological, fragmented society where loneliness and isolation underlie many illnesses. New models are emerging, however, and will be presented here under:

1. Attending to illness: looking at inno­vation in ‘disease care’, using humour, the arts, community, support groups and attention to social and physical environ­ments.

2. Health Focused Care: as demonstrated by Peckham’s Pioneer Health Centre in the I930s and 50s, indepen­dent community health projects in Scotland and the health care system of the Findhorn Found­ation Community.

3. The Collective: asking how the collective helps or hinders the health of the individual, how to create community and how we can apply knowl­edge or ancient healing traditions to contemporary culture.

The conference will be followed by a four-day workshop entitled ‘Healing in Community: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Practice’, which will explore. experientially, the community-based worldview and methods or traditional shamans and indigenous folk-healers.

by Katie Lloyd

Katie Lloyd is a Director of Holistic Health Care Ltd and was co-ordinator of Education and Public Relations until November of this year. She has been with the project since its early days in 1990.