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

when emotional wounds are healed or remain unhealed. The process is similar to thehealing of a physical wound as outlined in section 2.2.2. Some physical wounds healspontaneously without medical intervention or wound care. Larger and deeper woundsneed medical intervention to aid the healing process and take a longer time for the healingto be achieved. In a similar way, Moodley (2005) and Belcher et al. (2001) concur thatextreme emotional/psychological trauma may need longer grieving and healing time.Sometimes healing can be assisted or accelerated by counselling support, prayer and socialsupport from relatives and friends, as Jeffries (2003) demonstrates in a case study of theWellbridge centre for the elderly, as discussed in Chapter 62.4.2 Spiritual Healing as a health promotion activity.As explained in the introduction, the starting point for this thesis was the absence ofconsideration of spiritual healing, or the role of religious observance, in the healthpromotion courses that the author taught to student nurses. The reverse is also true.Very little of the academic, popular or secular literature on spiritual healing explicitlydiscusses it in terms of health promotion. Nonetheless, as we look at it, we can seehealth promotion models implicit in the very variety of the concepts of the spiritual inspiritual healing. This section considers how we might still develop the basis for ageneral framework for looking at spiritual healing as a health promotion activity. Thisis developed further inCchapters 7, 8, and 9 and further explained in the conclusion.The term „spiritual‟ lends itself to an array of confusion and misunderstandings in thehuman family and in a materialistic world according to Helen Graham (1999). Wong andVinsky (2009) cite Alean Al-Kwenawi and John Graham‟s (1999) sensitive study of theco-operation between Muslim Koranic healers and social workers in occupied Palestine to48