An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

drawing together my health professional and life experiences as well as researching thepeople who form a large part of my life. I, like them, brought experience and ideas, likeLévi-Strauss‟s (1966) bricoleur, from anywhere that seemed to work. The thesis hasitself taken a bricolage approach which includes several disciplines where literature andthe arts are used to construct models and narratives of healing from a diverse range ofsources. This diversity includes literature on healing from many levels, both academicand popular, concerning medicine, nursing, theology, sociology and anthropology.During my professional and Christian life, teaching health promotion to nurses andother allied health professionals, and as a member of a Pentecostal church, theseparation of spiritual healing from other health practices was identified. It was notappropriately addressed in the classroom, or the church where it appeared to be inisolation from any statutory health input. Clients did not and still do not feel that theycould mention their beliefs to their health professionals and the latter are not allowed tomention spiritual healing. This was particularly alienating where the clients were blackand the health professionals white. It is argued that the black and ethnic minoritypopulation feel marginalised in the way they receive healthcare in the same way theyfeel marginalised in the workplace.Awareness of the lack of research and the existence of a neglected oral tradition withinthe Pentecostal black majority churches was also a motivating factor. I wanted to makea contribution to knowledge by adding some insight and possibly literature on thesubject of the spiritual healing which is regularly practised in church services but notaddressed in the classroom of health professionals or health promotion authors. Beyondthe research, I wished personally to give some input to endeavours to bridge the gap307