Fritjof Capra and others have pointed out that contemporary healthcare often has difficulty with the phenomena of healing. However, as we shall see, this is not always the case.
In biomedical discourses, healing is generally used to describe the body’s intrinsic ability to mend a wound or a broken bone. But when complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners or the general public use the word they often mean something different and much more “holistic”; it may involve mending again, but mending of our whole selves, including concepts such as the (re)integration of body, mind, and soul [1].
The word “healing” can be used as a noun (e.g., “I have had healing”), a verb (e.g., “I am healing you”), or an adjective (e.g., “this is a healing environment”). Furthermore, it can be used to refer to individuals, to groups and communities, to animals and plants, to the environment, or the whole world.