Healing Circles Research Articles

What Promotes healing among the wrongfully convicted? Results from a qualitative study of exonerated persons in California

Background: Exonerees are individuals who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime. Later found innocent and released from prison, exonerees often spend decades incarcerated. While limited, research suggests that the unique trauma of wrongful conviction has profound adverse mental health implications which challenge reintegration, well-being and healing. In this study we examined exoneree perceptions of their mental health and coping mechanisms used to support healing. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study utilizing a phenomenological approach to examine shared coping and healing mechanisms among exonerees. Twelve California exonerees participated in semi-structured interviews describing their experiences with coping and healing due to wrongful conviction. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed, transcripts were coded with a hybrid coding scheme utilizing a thematic analysis. Results: Overall findings underscore the lifelong trauma and subsequent adverse mental well-being among wrongfully convicted exonerees, framed in association with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and hypervigilance. Three areas emerged as valuable coping mechanisms for exonerees that support a pathway toward healing: 1) Peer support and building community with other exonerees through organized meetings (convenings and healing circles); 2) Community education to build community awareness through storytelling; and 3) Advocacy engagement in the wrongful conviction movement and criminal justice reform. Conclusions: Complementing comprehensive mental health services with opportunities for peer support, advocacy, and community education through storytelling may help exonerees regain lives lost to their wrongful convictions.

U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Funders' Briefing Program, January 19, 2021.

U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Funders' Briefing Program, January 19, 2021.

Generational and Ancestral Healing in Community: Urban Atabex Herstory

When we take the time to face internalized oppression, anything we want becomes possible. Urban Atabex Organizing and Healing in Community Network invites organizers and agents of change to be in community, to heal from internalized oppression, and to create another world that we know is possible, for ourselves, family, community, and the world. Through community healing circles and liberation workshops, this work is dedicated to ending violence against women of color and fighting to end the triple threat of patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism. The emotional release model is a framework and set of practices for self-healing from internalized oppression and liberation, by centering indigenous earth-based spirituality, Paulo Freire’s methodology, and spirit guided energy work. This orientation to healing creates transformative possibilities and opportunities for intentional community care. Over the past ten years, the workshops and trainings have expanded the collective to include men of color, queer and trans people, and people of European descent in the fight for our liberation. This work has created the possibility of peace and justice in our lifetime.

Connected to the spirit of the frog: An Internet-based survey on Kambô, the secretion of the Amazonian Giant Maki Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor): Motivations for use, settings and subjective experiences.

Background/aim:Kambô is a name for the secretion of the Giant Maki Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), which has been used by indigenous cultures from the Amazonas basin and has recently become popular in alternative healing circles in Western countries, with a certain overlap with psychedelic self-exploration.Methods:We carried out an online-based survey in English (54.92%) and German investigating motivations for using Kambô, settings in which rituals take place, and subjective experiences during and after the application.Results:Participants (n = 386, mean age: 38.08 years, (standard deviation = 9.95)) were well-educated individuals with an increased lifetime prevalence of the use of ayahuasca (67.88%). A plethora of motivations for using Kambô was reported, including general healing, detoxification and spiritual growth. Acute effects included severe physical reactions and mild psychoactive effects, most surprisingly, the feeling of being connected to the frog’s spirit (41.97%), whereas predominantly positive persisting psychological effects were reported. Few participants reported long-lasting physical (2.85%) or mental (1.81%) health problems which they attributed to Kambô. Of the participants, 87.31% reported an increase in personal well-being or life satisfaction, and 64.26% considered Kambô to have been at least of ‘very much’ spiritual significance for their lives.Conclusions:The majority of users claimed beneficial effects including more health-orientated behaviors, whereas only very few participants complained about new health problems which they ascribed to Kambô. In retrospect, Kambô was given a high personal and spiritual significance by many participants. Additional research is needed to determine in how far reported effects are modulated by setting and subjective expectations.

Acute and subacute psychoactive effects of Kamb\xf4, the secretion of the Amazonian Giant Maki Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor): retrospective reports

Kambô, the secretion of the Amazonian Giant Leaf Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) contains a plethora of bioactive peptides and was originally used by indigenous communities from the Amazon basin as medicine for improving hunting capacities. In the last 20 years, Kambô has spread to Western urban healing circles. To date it is still controversial whether the acute effects of Kambô include alterations of consciousness similar to known psychoactive substance like serotonergic psychedelics. Here we retrospectively assessed psychological effects of Kambô in a sample of anonymous users (n = 22, mean age: 39 years, ± 8.5; 45.5% female), administering standardized questionnaires for the assessment of altered states of consciousness (ASC), including the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) for acute effects and the Persisting Effects Questionnaire (PEQ) and a scale assessing connectedness for subacute effects. The intensity of retrospectively reported acute psychological effects remained on a mild to moderate level, with no psychedelic-type distortions of perception or thinking. Conversely, persisting effects were predominantly described as positive and pleasant, revealing high scores on measures of personal and spiritual significance.

Indigenous Women from the Sixties Scoop Healing Through the Full Moon Ceremony and Storytelling at Winona's Place.

The Sixties Scoop refers to the policies and practices in Canada from the 1950s to 1980s of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their birth families and communities. Cultural disconnection, loss of identity, and lower social connectedness were outcomes for Sixties Scoop survivors. My project focused on establishing a healing environment at the YWCA Toronto Winona’s Place for Indigenous women who were Sixties Scoop survivors and interested in learning more about the Sixties Scoop. Community-Based Research principles were followed and included working with Indigenous community members. Our project consisted of 8 weekly two-hour healing circles culminating in a Full Moon Ceremony. Through feedback forms and two-hour focus groups, data was collected on the project’s strengths, areas for improvement, and information on resources needed by the women to create a healing environment. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The healing circles and Full Moon Ceremony allowed the women to engage with a Knowledge Carrier and Winona community members, learn about Indigenous teachings and cultures, and work through painful experiences with community members. Although many of the women experienced hardships and trauma, they remained interested in healing and reconnecting to Indigenous cultures. The women shared what they had learned through teachings, how the sessions positively impacted their well-being, how they would apply cultural knowledge into their healing journeys, and offered recommendations on how Winona’s Place could better support them. We demonstrated the significance of Indigenous healing approaches for improving health and well-being among our participants, who have experienced trauma. Cultural connection to Indigeineity is rarely considered, or offered, in mainstream health services. Indigenous healing models and perspectives are important in creating and implementing Indigenous-specific health services and promotion programs. My project hopes to emphasize the importance of decolonizing public health systems and addressing the Calls to Action related to health.

Healing Circles: An Intervention for Canadian Indigenous Mothers & Children Affected by IPV

Healing Circles: An Intervention for Canadian Indigenous Mothers & Children Affected by IPV

Walking Alongside to Find the Healing Pathways: Learning Through a Community Mobilization Process in Indigenous Communities

Background: In this paper, we describe how we developed a conceptual model of the pathway from the cycle of violence to the circle of healing, through our exploration of a community mobilization process in Indigenous communities in Canada. Indigenous communities in Canada have experienced multiple traumas since first contact, with systematic harms across generations. Research has shown that community-based prevention programs for Indigenous populations can be effective in addressing a range of health challenges. Methods: For over 20 years, the Canadian Red Cross has been working with Indigenous communities in violence prevention to address present day challenges. Through a partnership research grant, we have been working to identify, understand document, community processes that address the cycle of violence rooted in colonization and promote healing rooted in Indigenous traditions. Findings: A comprehensive literature review revealed that multiple layers of harm have accumulated and cascaded to explain the deep disruptions in Indigenous community, family, and individual wellbeing. The community stories helped us understand the cycle of violence from colonization that created physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disruption in domains of Indigenous wellbeing. This understanding of disruptions enabled us to consider the pathways that allow wellness to emerge within these four domains. After identifying the pathway to wellness, we realized that a relational lens was essential for the circle of healing. Interpretation: We came to understand that if colonization had disrupted all my relations, then healing and wellness could be understood as a re-integration of all my relations. We believe that our conceptual model can provide guidance to those working with and within diverse Indigenous communities around the world to address the layers of harm from colonization and create culturally relevant pathways to healing and wellness. Funding Statement: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada #895-2011-1013. Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: This research was approved by the Aboriginal Research Ethics Review Advisory Group of the Human Participants Review Committee, York University.

Delivery of Peer Support Through a Self-Management mHealth Intervention (Healing Circles) in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of hospitalization and death around the world. The prevalence of CVD is increasing and, therefore, development and investigation of effective programs to help people better self-manage their CVD and prevent secondary complications are needed.ObjectiveIn this paper, we report on a protocol to evaluate Healing Circles—an evidence-based and patient-informed peer support mobile health program designed to facilitate self-management and support patients in their recovery from and management of CVD. We hypothesize that individuals with CVD who use Healing Circles will experience greater improvements to their self-management ability than individuals receiving usual care.MethodsIn this single-blinded (assessor) randomized controlled trial, 250 community-living individuals with CVD will be randomized on a 1:1 basis to either Healing Circles or Usual Care. The primary outcome of self-management will be measured using the Health Education Impact Questionnaire version 3.0. Secondary outcomes include self-efficacy with chronic disease management, health-related quality of life, health resource use and costs, and electronic health literacy. Measurements will be taken at the baseline and every 6 months for 24 months.ResultsThe study started recruitment in September 2017. Individuals are currently being recruited for participation, and existing participants are currently on follow-up. Measurements will be taken every 6 months until the study end, which is anticipated in December 2019.ConclusionsHealing Circles is a novel program aimed toward improving self-management through peer support. Given our real-world study design, our findings will be readily translatable into practice. If the results support our hypothesis, it will indicate that Healing Circles is an effective intervention for improving self-management and reducing health care use.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03159325; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03159325 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/74DvxVKUd)International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/12322

Breaking the silence of racism injuries: a community-driven study

PurposeInjuries resulting from racism are largely hidden by silence. Community services to provide healing from racism are missing in at least one Canadian city. The purpose of this paper is to identify the injuries suffered by immigrants who experienced racism and discuss the development of culturally appropriate programs and tools to address injuries from racism.Design/methodology/approachParticipants representing visible minorities service providers from non-profit, public-funded organizations in a major Canadian city took part in two focus groups. Data from focus groups were thematically analyzed.FindingsRacism produces traumatic and persistent psychological, social and intergenerational injuries. An ostensible gap exists in services, professional education and skills to address the psycho-social effects of this complex problem. The complicity of silence in both dominant and subordinated groups contributes to its perpetuation. A dearth of screening and assessment instruments is a barrier in identifying individuals whose mental health and addiction problems may have underlying racism-related etiology. Creation of community healing circles is recommended as a preferred method over individual “treatment” to expose and deconstruct racism, strengthen ethnic identity and intergenerational healing.Research limitations/implicationsThese qualitative findings were generated based on the perspectives of a small purposive sample (n=8) of immigrant service providers and immigrants from one Canadian city. Many of these findings are consistent with the existing literature on internalized racism and racism injuries. Generalizability to the wider population of the province and of Canada requires further research.Practical implicationsPractitioners in health and social care as well as educators need to understand the injuries and internalized effects of racism to provide appropriate services and leadership. Development of anti-racism professional knowledge and skills, healing circles, and assessment instruments will contribute to deconstructing racism and mitigating its injuries.Originality/valueCommunity-driven studies exploring racism and the lack of services to address the issue are scarce. This study pulls together the experience of service providers and their insights on ways to break the detrimental silence surrounding racism.

Response to “Thinking About Our Work: What Do We Mean by ‘Mental Health’?”

Response to “Thinking About Our Work: What Do We Mean by ‘Mental Health’?” Justin Hecht1 issn 0362-4021 © 2017 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 41, No. 2, Summer 2017 155 1 Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and private practice, San Francisco. Correspondence should be addressed to Justin Hecht, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, 401 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143. E-mail: justin@justinhecht.com. I would like personally and professionally to endorse the spirit and substance of Lee Kassan’s brief comment on the problems with the increasing medicalization of psychotherapy. I’d like to do so in the context of my personal life and my professional thoughts. As I was thinking about how to respond, I thought about how I spend my weekend, and how this relates to group psychotherapy. My partner, Erik, and I are lucky enough to live in the Sonoma County wine country, north of San Francisco. It’s a beautiful, tranquil region of vineyards, redwoods, and (in good years) rivers. On most Friday mornings, I go to a serene old church in Santa Rosa and meet with a group that ranges in size from six to 10 people. The church was built from two giant redwood trees and has a soft, warm glow of reddish brown. (I like to think that the spirit of the tree is with us somehow.) We sit in a circle and meditate and pray and take turns reading from the Book of Common Prayer. All of us are seeking comfort, guidance, and direction from something larger than ourselves, and we help each other out, sharing bits and pieces of our lives. Something in me senses that I am walking in the footsteps of many, many generations of my ancestors. Even though the old scriptures don’t always make complete sense to me, the feeling of belonging, tradition, and continuity is deeply healing, grounding, and sustaining. On most Saturday mornings, I drive along the Russian River to Guerneville, a funky old frontier town popular with bikers, and go up a winding, narrow road to a cabin with a bamboo-floored Zendo in the basement. There, I sit in silent meditation with a group that also ranges from six to 10 people. After we sit in silence for 156 hecht 35 minutes, we take a brief break and hear from Tony, our priest, a gentle ex-hippie whose life experiences help him translate the dharma into relevant and helpful talks. We also share helpful advice about propane deliveries and water levels. I’ve come to think of these two groups on Friday and Saturday mornings as very much my psychotherapy groups. Psyche, after all, is the Greek word for “soul,” and therapy means “to heal, to wait on, to attend to.” All of us in these two groups are seeking to heal or attend to our souls. When I was in Philadelphia for graduate school, I used to like to go to Quaker meetings, where I would sit with the friends and wait to speak “until the spirit moved me.” I mention these three kinds of experiences because I believe that they represent the archetypal roots of group soul healing—group psychotherapy. As Kassan writes, most of us have known times of disconnection and unhappiness in our own lives. And most of our clients seek to work with us to alleviate the pain that they are facing , to grow in wisdom and in hope that we will be able to provide a perspective on what ails them. It’s my feeling that when we medicalize this very human need to connect and to work on our souls, not only do we objectify our clients in a harmful way but we also lose our own connection with our ancestors, our traditions, and our innate human need to be part of a healing circle. My hope is that we can embrace the ancient archetypal roots of what we are doing and, in so doing, be present in a deeply soulful way for those who seek our assistance. ...

Using Mobile-Health to Connect Women with Cardiovascular Disease and Improve Self-Management

Healing Circles is a consumer m-health solution developed to facilitate peer support and self-management by connecting people with CVD in groups of five to nine people. Women with CVD (obstructive coronary artery disease) were included in this single group, pre/post study if they owned an iPhone/iPad with at least iOS 7.0. Participants (n = 21) used the Healing Circles program for a 10-week period. Self-management, social support, and health-related quality-of-life outcomes were assessed before and after the use of the program. User experiences and satisfaction were obtained during an exit interview. After 10 weeks of using the Healing Circles program, statistically significant improvements were observed in the participants' health behaviors (p = 0.04), self-monitoring (p = 0.04), social support (p = 0.01), and social integration (p = 0.002). As well, many women had a level of high satisfaction with the concept of using m-health for the delivery of peer support. The delivery of peer and self-management support using m-health technologies is well received and may improve self-management and social support. More research is needed to test hypotheses of the effect of the Healing Circles program on clinical outcomes.

Baltimore Health Department Helps Affected Citizens After Riots

Baltimore Health Department Helps Affected Citizens After Riots

‘Whatever you want to believe’: kaleidoscopic individualism and ayahuasca healing in Australia

Over the last fifteen years the use of the indigenous Amazonian psychoactive beverage ayahuasca has been reimagined in alternative healing circles of Western countries. This paper explores the practice of ayahuasca neoshamanism in Australia and examines ways in which acts of vomiting and ecstatic trance‐visions involve heightened affective states and moral projects of healing. Aspects of everyday life are purged, rearticulated, and reconstituted in rituals where codes of conduct and discursive exchange encourage practices of personal evaluation and reflexivity that appear to index ideologies of individualism. Through exploring social and discursive prohibitions and forms of sensory organisation, the practice of drinking ayahuasca in Australia is shown to be constituted by ritual conventions that define the individual as autonomous and responsible in relation to ecstatic trance and articulations of wellbeing.

Healing Circles and Restorative Justice: Learning from Non-Anglo American Traditions

Anthropologists, other social scientists and critical legal scholars have argued persuasively that the judicial structure in the United States is characterized by Anglo-centric court proceedings an...

Healing circles: an ethnographic study of the interactions among health and healing practitioners from multiple disciplines.

“Healing circle” is a term that has been employed by a group of Northern California integrative medicine researchers as we embarked on an 8-year ethnographic study. As a clinical medical anthropologist and registered nurse specializing in integrative practice and behavioral health, I undertook this study with colleagues from various health disciplines.

Introducing healing circles and talking circles into primary care.

We report on the incorporation of a North American aboriginal procedure called "the talking circle" into primary care in areas serving this population. Communication is regulated through the passing of a talking piece (an object of special meaning or symbolism to the circle facilitator, who is usually called the circle keeper). Twelve hundred people participated in talking circles in which 415 attended 4 sessions and completed pre- and postquestionnaires. Outcome measures included baseline and end Measure Your Medical Outcome Profile version 2 forms. Participation in at least 4 talking circles resulted in a statistically significant improvement in reported symptoms and overall quality of life (p < 0.001 and effect sizes ranging from 0.75 to 1.19). The talking circle is a useful tool to use with Native Americans. It may be useful as a means to reduce health care costs by providing other alternative settings to deal with stress-related and other life problems.

The emergence of restorative justice in Sri Lanka: a review essay

Within the framework of retributive justice, crime is understood as an offence against the State and is defined as a violation of law. It represents the punitive approach of reaction to crime, where the offenders are considered as an unwanted group who should be punished. However, with the development of criminology, offenders are identified as the persons needing rehabilitation and reintegration into the society as law abiding citizens. This novel thinking has paved the way to the establishment of the concept of restorative justice where crime is understood to be an infringement on man and human relationship. It involves reintegration of both the offender and victim within the community. The restorative justice principle could be found in community service orders, probation, parole, and other noncustodial measures as alternatives to the traditional incarceration, victim offender mediation, sentencing, peacemaking and healing circles, police cautions, and active participation of victims in the criminal justice process, and so on. This article evaluates Sri Lanka's transformation from retributive justice to restorative justice by incorporating the above-mentioned means and methods to the criminal justice system. Further, it examines how these innovations have affected the crime rate in Sri Lanka.

Apology in Restorative and Juvenile Justice

In this article, we present a mixed method study that we undertook as part of a programme of research to explore the utility of the multidimensional theory of apology developed by Slocum et al. in explaining the function of apologies in family group conferences, healing circles, juvenile justice conferencing and victim offender mediation [Slocum, D., Allan, A., & Allan, M.M. (2011). An emerging theory of apology. Australian Journal of Psychology, 62(2), 83–92]. Slocum et al. theorize that an acceptable apology consists of at least one of three components, each of which has a focus continuum that ranges from an exclusive self focus to a self–other focus. The results of Experiment One were counterintuitive in that participants rated the offender significantly more sorrowful and perceived the offender to be significantly more focused on the needs of victims in the self-focused condition than in the self–other-focused condition. The analysis of the qualitative data, however, indicated that participants perceived the formulation of the self–other apology as demeaning and not age appropriate, and this may have influenced the quantitative findings. When the vignette was changed in Experiment Two to address these limitations, the self–other apology was significantly more likely to be rated as sincere and acceptable than the self-focused apology. The association between apology focus and forgiveness, however, was not significant. An investigation of the qualitative data suggests that this may be because some people forgive for their own sake and not that of the offender. Together the results of the study indicate that the multidimensional theory can be useful to guide both research and practice in respect of juvenile justice.

Circle of healing

Patients gain optimum benefit from an eclectic and all-encompassing support team, says Stephen Wright