The Culture of the 'In-Between' Healer: A Pilot Project

Abstract

This paper addresses questions of cluture and identity arising around healers whose practice draws strongly from cultures other than their culture of origin. Using data from interviews with four Western-born practitioners who offer traditional healing modalities from non-Western cultures, the paper explores the personal and professional meaning that is accorded to the culturally foreign modality by the Western therapist. To examine teh process of meaning making that such a therapist undergoes, the paper charts the stages of the therapists' development as non-Western healers. Based on the interview data, these stages include the therapists' disillusionment with the mainstream healing modality in their culture of origin, their sense of wonderment at the possibilities of the non-Western modality they chose, the reception they receive in the culture of the healing therapy, and eventually the way in which they locate themselves culturally with respect to their local health care settings as well as to the culture of the healing art itself. By tracing the healer's cultural journey in relationship to the culture of the healing art itself, the paper examines the politics of authenticity, expropriation, and belonging through a description of the cultural commonalities shared by these culturally "in-between" healers.