The Phenomenon of Healing: Integrating Holistic Responses to Psychological Trauma
Tracks
Room - Stanley B
| Friday, November 10, 2023 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:40 AM |
Overview
Dr Rochelle Hine, Monash University and Charmaine Clarke, Indigie Services
Speaker
Ms Charmaine Clarke
Director
Indigie Services
The Phenomenon of Healing: Integrating Holistic Responses to Psychological Trauma
Abstract
Healing is associated with being free from injury, making whole and restoring to health. The term may be used in relation to physical and/or psychological injury or challenges. It is commonly associated with religion, although has broader application outside of faith-based institutions and understandings. Healing is generally conceptualised as including spiritual connotations, and spirituality is both broader than and independent from religion. Features of spirituality include justice, altruism, a quest for meaning and purpose, connectedness and values.
This presentation will describe an international phenomenological study conducted in Australia, Norway and The Netherlands, exploring the phenomenon of healing in the context of psychological trauma. We focus here on presenting the findings from the Australian data. In Australia, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine participants (seven healers and two people who had intentionally sought out healing), seven of them from rural locations in Victoria and New South Wales. The research team included an Aboriginal researcher who is also a mental health practitioner, who conducted and analysed the interviews with three Aboriginal healers and a Maori healer, living in Australia.
This study emerges from an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the experience of healing. The research team sought to explore how ways of knowing and doing that differ from the Western medical model, may be able to add to and enhance the outcomes and experiences of people who access rural mental health services and systems. Despite a core role and function of mental health services being to support recovery and wellbeing in the context of trauma, healing is not a well-developed or operationalised concept within the clinical mental health domain.
Themes will be reported along with the implications for rural and remote public mental health services (community and inpatient settings), policy development and future research.
This presentation will describe an international phenomenological study conducted in Australia, Norway and The Netherlands, exploring the phenomenon of healing in the context of psychological trauma. We focus here on presenting the findings from the Australian data. In Australia, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine participants (seven healers and two people who had intentionally sought out healing), seven of them from rural locations in Victoria and New South Wales. The research team included an Aboriginal researcher who is also a mental health practitioner, who conducted and analysed the interviews with three Aboriginal healers and a Maori healer, living in Australia.
This study emerges from an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the experience of healing. The research team sought to explore how ways of knowing and doing that differ from the Western medical model, may be able to add to and enhance the outcomes and experiences of people who access rural mental health services and systems. Despite a core role and function of mental health services being to support recovery and wellbeing in the context of trauma, healing is not a well-developed or operationalised concept within the clinical mental health domain.
Themes will be reported along with the implications for rural and remote public mental health services (community and inpatient settings), policy development and future research.
Biography
Charmaine is a Gunditjmara Elder and Stolen Generation Survivor from South West Victoria. She has worked in Aboriginal Affairs for over 30 years in various roles, including working in Mental Health, AOD and Sexual Assault counselling in Victoria, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Recently she has conducted two research projects with her community, looking at Family Violence and the impacts of the Covid Pandemic on their mental health. She currently works as a Cultural Safety Officer and Mental Health Consultant with Health services in Western Victoria and is the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator with Federation University in Ballarat. Charmaine has a passion to bring Aboriginal cultural healing philosophies and practices into the Mental Health space.
Dr Rochelle Hine
Lecturer, School of Rural Health
Monash University
The Phenomenon of Healing: Integrating Holistic Responses to Psychological Trauma
Abstract
Healing is associated with being free from injury, making whole and restoring to health. The term may be used in relation to physical and/or psychological injury or challenges. It is commonly associated with religion, although has broader application outside of faith-based institutions and understandings. Healing is generally conceptualised as including spiritual connotations, and spirituality is both broader than and independent from religion. Features of spirituality include justice, altruism, a quest for meaning and purpose, connectedness and values.
This presentation will describe an international phenomenological study conducted in Australia, Norway and The Netherlands, exploring the phenomenon of healing in the context of psychological trauma. We focus here on presenting the findings from the Australian data. In Australia, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine participants (seven healers and two people who had intentionally sought out healing), seven of them from rural locations in Victoria and New South Wales. The research team included an Aboriginal researcher who is also a mental health practitioner, who conducted and analysed the interviews with three Aboriginal healers and a Maori healer, living in Australia.
This study emerges from an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the experience of healing. The research team sought to explore how ways of knowing and doing that differ from the Western medical model, may be able to add to and enhance the outcomes and experiences of people who access rural mental health services and systems. Despite a core role and function of mental health services being to support recovery and wellbeing in the context of trauma, healing is not a well-developed or operationalised concept within the clinical mental health domain.
Themes will be reported along with the implications for rural and remote public mental health services (community and inpatient settings), policy development and future research.
This presentation will describe an international phenomenological study conducted in Australia, Norway and The Netherlands, exploring the phenomenon of healing in the context of psychological trauma. We focus here on presenting the findings from the Australian data. In Australia, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine participants (seven healers and two people who had intentionally sought out healing), seven of them from rural locations in Victoria and New South Wales. The research team included an Aboriginal researcher who is also a mental health practitioner, who conducted and analysed the interviews with three Aboriginal healers and a Maori healer, living in Australia.
This study emerges from an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the experience of healing. The research team sought to explore how ways of knowing and doing that differ from the Western medical model, may be able to add to and enhance the outcomes and experiences of people who access rural mental health services and systems. Despite a core role and function of mental health services being to support recovery and wellbeing in the context of trauma, healing is not a well-developed or operationalised concept within the clinical mental health domain.
Themes will be reported along with the implications for rural and remote public mental health services (community and inpatient settings), policy development and future research.
Biography
Dr Rochelle Hine is a social worker and academic with over 25 years of practice experience in a range of sectors including women’s health promotion, mental health, education and research, all in rural settings. Rochelle's research is grounded in social justice and deep knowledge of the social, cultural and economic drivers of inequality, focusing predominantly on critical qualitative approaches to exploring the circumstances of people’s lives, collaborating with lived experience experts and other stakeholders.
