Are healing ceremonies useful for enhancing quality of life?

Bridging realms: Western client perspectives on psychotherapy inspired by Indigenous healing

CONTEXT

The decolonial turn in psychology criticizes conventional Western psychotherapeutic frameworks and seeks to decolonize therapeutic practices by considering diverse cultural perspectives. Indigenous healing has been increasingly used in the psychotherapy of ethnic communities, but also in the psychotherapy of Western clients. The research questions of the present study were focused on how Western clients experience the therapies inspired by Indigenous healing.

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to explore the motivations, experiences, and mental health outcomes of participants of therapies inspired by Indigenous healing with a focus on issues related to intercultural transfer of therapeutic practice.

DESIGN

Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to gather narratives from 28 participants. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

Participants reported the following long-lasting outcomes of Indigenous therapies: increased well-being, calm, satisfaction with life, better emotion regulation, coping with stress, behavioral control, problem solving, decision making as well as a more sensitive and deeper experience of reality. Conventional Western psychotherapy was perceived as conversation-based, while Indigenous therapy was perceived as experience-based and more complex. The integration of experiences from Indigenous therapies was more difficult in the Western sociocultural environment compared to participation in the place of their origin, within the community of Indigenous people.

CONCLUSION

Indigenous healing has beneficial outcomes for Western clients, but the integration of these experiences is quite difficult and requires systematic psychotherapeutic support in the Western cultural environment.

'Spirituality' in Health Studies: Competing Spiritualities and the Elevated Status of Mindfulness

The article investigates discourses of 'spirituality' in the field of Health Studies, among scholarly voices and the voices of the practitioners and patients these studies reflect. It examines current trends in contemporary spirituality as well as links with debates involving science, religion and secularisation. The article argues that, in the public domain, 'spirituality' is beginning to denote a collective practice rather than an individual search for meaning. Furthermore, the article identifies some common understandings of spirituality in the context of Health Studies and health environments, such as it being a tool that can facilitate closeness and emotional exchanges. Finally, it proposes that the success and, as I will show, elevated status of 'mindfulness' in this field points to 'competing spiritualities', despite shared understandings.

Modified African Ngoma Healing Ceremony for Stress Reduction: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE

Indigenous people's ceremonies using rhythm and dance have been used for countless generations throughout the world for healing, conflict resolution, social bonding, and spiritual experience. A previous study reported that a ceremony based on the Central African ngoma tradition was favorably received by a group of Americans. The present trial compared the effects of the modified ngoma ceremony (Ngoma) with those of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in a randomized pilot study.

METHODS

Twenty-one women were randomized to either Ngoma or MBSR. Both groups had sessions on a weekly basis for 8 weeks and completed questionnaires at baseline, week 8, and 1 month after the intervention. Participants completed questionnaires, which included self-report of depressive and anxiety symptoms, health status (e.g., quality of life and functioning), social bonding, and perception of the credibility of the two interventions.

RESULTS

Both groups showed improvements in depression, anxiety, emotional well being, and social functioning as measured by respective scales. Social bonding also increased in both groups during the study and may be a mechanism for both interventions. Participants found both interventions credible.

CONCLUSIONS

In this pilot study, Ngoma showed significant and durable beneficial effects comparable to MBSR. The effects of Ngoma and other indigenous rhythm-dance ceremonies on distress and health status in western culture should be investigated in larger clinical studies.

Effectiveness of traditional healers in treating mental disorders: a systematic review

Traditional healers form a major part of the mental health workforce worldwide. Despite this, little systematic examination has been done of their effectiveness in treating mental illness or alleviating psychological distress. In this Review, we aim to fill this gap, with a focus on quantitative outcomes. We searched four databases and reference lists for papers that explicitly measured the effectiveness of traditional healers on mental illness and psychological distress. Eligible papers were assessed for quality, and outcomes and other details were extracted with the use of a standardised template. 32 eligible papers from 20 countries were included. The published literature on this topic is heterogeneous and studies are generally of poor quality, although some findings emerge more consistently. Some evidence suggests that traditional healers can provide an effective psychosocial intervention. Their interventions might help to relieve distress and improve mild symptoms in common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. However, little evidence exists to suggest that they change the course of severe mental illnesses such as bipolar and psychotic disorders. Nevertheless, qualitative changes that are captured poorly by conventional rating scales might be as important as the quantitative changes reviewed here. We conclude by outlining the challenges involved in assessing the effectiveness of traditional healers.