Why Healing Groups?

In the pursuit of health and well-being, what is it that "gets one over the hump", out of the dark and back into the light? This is the bottom line.

Modern medicine has evolved into the miracle and powerful force that it has become on the back of "acute" care medicine. Antibiotics cure infections; surgery removes sick and diseased tissue; radiation and chemotherapy can shrink and sometimes even dissolve/resolve cancerous growth. There are many medicines that alleviate suffering and can alter the symptoms of illness.

However, the bulk of disease is NOT acute; it is chronic. It goes on for years and into decades and unfortunately is not amenable to "quick fixes" that are the heart and soul of acute care medicine. This does NOT mean it cannot be worked with and even cured; it absolutely CAN. It just takes a different approach and strategy. If we as a society, culture and people could accept this reality, we would be ready to rocket forward into a new paradigm of healing. We just insist on "hammering away" with the tools that we have and praying for simple solutions rather than looking into the reality and core of chronic disease.

Chronic disease is NOT focal and unidimensional; it becomes woven into the fabric of our being, intimately enmeshed with our mind and spirit, sucking the life force out of both. Once in the clutches of this "complicated" adversary, there is no magic pill. The solution and path free reside in a multidimensional (as opposed to unidimensional), mind/body/spirit approach that is dependent on our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and habitual responses that is by definition "messier" than the cut and dry style of acute care medicine. We can't "figure" our way out (using our minds); we have to feel our way in and then re-create ourselves into a new and authentic being. The new person that we become may look like the old us but there is a depth and focus to the new us that distinguishes us from our past self and re-opens the world to us.

We lose the programming of our youth; we step into our adult selves; and we heal ourselves. We stop grasping for things that do not work for us and find and implement what does work.

In my experience, this process is facilitated by connection with a group of similar beings facing similar challenges. Insight, strength and will are helpful but the real healing comes from interaction and honest, real feedback from our peers. A powerful healer/leader is nice but that is not the source of the shift (as opposed to acute care medicine). The source of the shift is from within but in connection with others who are riding the same train. It is re-connection with our deep and core humanity that "allows" healing to evolve NOT any outside magic pill or procedure. The only way to experience this re-connection is in intimate contact with others who share our roots (other people). When we have the courage to put our open hearts out into the world inhabited by our brothers and sisters, we gain access to the ticket home. We can free ourselves from the painful isolation that IS the fabric of chronic illness. The isolation is the mesh that ensnares and traps us; the re-connection is what liberates us from our private hell.