Nurses who practice reiki/shamanic healing?

bienevolent · Feb 11, 2016

I'm interested in participating in your assignment if it's not due yet!

cayenne06, MSN, CNM · Feb 19, 2016

This is a good opportunity to set aside your personal beliefs about things like reiki/spiritual healing and approach the topic with a skeptical eye. Actively seek out references that do not align with your belief system and look at the information with an open mind. I'd start by doing a search on sciencebasedmedicine.org- it's a good site to find easily digestible information with great references to click through to.

I did home birth for years and used to actively utilize homeopathy, acupressure, reiki, reflexology and herbal medicine in my practice. Through the years, I have changed drastically in my views on these modalities. I would be more than happy to speak with you on my career path, if you are interested in a different perspective.

friendlylark · Mar 5, 2016

Hi cayenne06. This is very interesting to me, that you would switch paths and views on these modalities. I am very interested in healing touch and aromatherapy. Tell us more about what changed your mind and views on these modalities. I am beginning my journey into discovering more about holistic medicine, and would like to understand the pros and cons from an experienced provider.

Are you still doing home births?

cayenne06, MSN, CNM · Apr 16, 2016

i work full time for Planned Parenthood now, so am not doing births.

My changing views have evolved slowly over time, as I have become more scientifically literate and experienced in the field. I realized there was something off, when I really started to think about how strongly I valued science in most every aspect of my life, but yet was so quick to dismiss medical science in favor of prescientific and/or pseudoscientific belief systems.

I remember one time reading on a nonvaxxing mommy message board, and seeing a conversation about chemtrails which then further devolved into anthropogenic climate change denial and mass conspiracies. That woke me up a little, enough to take a step back and wonder where, exactly, my beliefs about alternative medicine were coming from. I was a tree hugging hippy type as a teenager and a rejection of mainstream medicine fit in perfectly with my belief that natural was better. I believed that vaccines were bad, because it fit in with my world view. I believed in homeopathy because I didn't understand enough about science to realize how insane it was, and the idea of a vital force appealed to my naturalistic spirituality. I was deeply drawn to the naturalistic fallacy, and my ignorance led me to believe I actually understood the issues in a way that mainstream health care somehow did not- dunning kruger is always lurking lol.

Here I was, defending climate science because I trust the process and understood I was laughably unqualified to fully understand the data myself... but yet I was dismissing the medical consensus because.... I really like nature? Because I don't like the idea of giving my kid a shot? Once I really became aware of that contradiction within myself, all my closely held beliefs became fair game as I became devoted to the process of scientific skepticism, and working to understand the world from a perspective far broader than my own personal bias.

Anyway, teal deer lol. My attitude toward medicine changed as a result of my devotion to the scientific method of understanding our world, coupled with a deep desire to provide effective and compassionate care for my patients. A lot of it was just the normal process of getting wiser with age. We are all kinda dumb in our 20s. And I am sure 40 year old me will shake her head at my current self as well :)