Towards home: Creating a place for holistic healing in wellness promotion

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived-experience of nurses engaged in holistic energy-field healing practice with a view to proposing the potential role of such practitioners in integrative wellness promotion practice within an emerging Primary Health Care environment. The specific research question was 'Is it possible that solutions exist that we have not adequately examined?'

The five nurses interviewed for this research used energy-field modalities in wellness promotion practice, including Reflexology, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Acupuncture, Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique, prayer, and bio-energetic therapy. A qualitative reflexive methodology of storytelling and mandala drawing was chosen to reflect the wholeness of the transformative process experienced by participants in the transition from the biomedical to the holistic world view. Reflexive methodology provides for situating the data within the context of personal histories, in order to make connections between personal lives and personal careers, and to understand personal influences on professional practice. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).