Healing with Purpose.



I am a nurse and have practiced my profession for 23 years in a variety of institutional and community settings. In the institutional sector my primary area of practice was critical care. I have spent 17 of my 23 years in either tertiary or community based critical care units comprising both medical and surgical/trauma client populations. I always enjoyed the work within a critical care environment. The attraction to this area of nursing came from my own fascination with the logic and "simplicity" of the sciences and my own skills in the area of analytical thinking and problem solving.
Critical care is an environment that deeply embraces the sciences and the thinking processes that are required to engage in the complex analysis and problem solving that is required to resolve the multiplicity of physiologic problems being experienced by the client. This type of medicine and nursing require the use of complex mathematical formulas, highly evolved pharmacological preparations and sophisticated machinery. The use of mathematics and technology to provide data for decision making and the application of complex treatment modalities make critical care a unique area of medicine and an area where the integration of mind, body and spirit are particularly challenging.
Traditional medicine and often nursing continue to insist that the cause of disease can be found in one place or through one investigation strategy. As practitioners of the healing arts we often accept the outcome of dis-ease within the mind/body/spirit triad. However, our care delivery systems are woefully ill equipped to deliver health care services that address the integration of mind/body/spirit and base the approach on partnering with the client and the complimentary practitioners. Although nursing has accepted treatment modalities such as therapeutic touch we are still quite skeptical about other forms of intervention. We still tend to utilize those alternatives in client groups who are not likely to respond to traditional interventions. Palliative care and mental health are two groups who we often feel it is safe to expose to alternative therapy because the outcome is known and/or out of the control of more traditional and understood treatment modalities or traditional medicine has already exhausted its repertoire. Working in an environment that is founded in principles of true science does not often lend itself to spiritual musings or the exploration of alternative treatment modalities. Thankfully much of that is changing. The work of physicians like Bernie Segal or nursing theorists like Jean Watson have moved the medical and nursing communities towards a more open and accepting posture in terms of alternative or complimentary therapies.
My experiences in traditional environments began to teach me that science, although certainly necessary for the treatment of many disease conditions, did not have all of the answers. All of the mathematics and machinery and all of the combined talents of the many skilled practitioners I have been privileged to work with over my career have often been insufficient to the challenge of relieving distress and disease for many clients. I have observed on many, many occasions that clients, who should have died, did not and those who should have responded to our efforts died for no reason we could explain. Most practitioners of traditional medicine will tell stories of clients who defied the odds or who were unaffected by the combined efforts, talents and sophisticated treatments of a modern hospital. We could never come to an understanding of how that came to be and many of us simply explained it as "not his turn" or "some things are not up to us".
Surely then, I began to wonder, there must be something we are missing or we do not fully understand. The impact of the client’s belief system and personal "will" could clearly impact on the outcome. But, how did that work?
I was first introduced to Richard and the concept of Bio-Energy Therapy in June of 1998. Possessing an open mind and a healthy skepticism, I listened to Richard’s explanation of quantum physics and its concomitant impact on disease processes and healing modalities. Similar to critical care, the attraction of this Bio Energy theory is its basis in logic and science. Science has clearly demonstrated the existence of energy within the body and its physical manifestation outside the body. In critical care and traditional healthcare we treat and manipulate energy in the form of drugs, machines and the application of mathematical formulas for determining, for example, the strength of heart contractions and lung capacities. Bio-Energy Therapy uses similar processes for the diagnosis and treatment of dis-ease. However, the distinct difference with this form of treatment is the integration of mind, body and spirit as fundamental to the process of diagnosis and treatment. My experiences in critical care and now, working within a community setting, have illustrated the impact of dis-integration of the mind, body, spirit triad. The world of community care is significantly different from our traditional forms of "health" care in that the medical model of one-cause-one-cure has not yet been institutionalized in this setting. The use of alternative or complimentary therapies is seen as a viable adjunct to traditional medicine, in large part because the client has the option of applying his or her own belief system to the self-management of health care. In addition, the complexities of "life in the 90’s" and the daily assault to the human body and spirit are often resistant to or not compliant with, a simple, one-cause-one cure approach.
My own experience with Bio Energy and Richard’s treatment or therapy has been enormously positive. In terms of my body I had been to a traditional medical practitioner for the treatment of chronic knee pain. From a mind/spirit perspective I was working towards the resolution of personal issues and I had sought the help of a traditionally trained counselor. Both individuals were helpful within the scope of their respective area of expertise. The physician offered surgery and the counselor medication. Neither alternative was inviting so, I learned to live with the pain and to deal with the personal issues with the use of self-healing, episodic counseling and "tincture of time".
In discussion with Richard and following two energy treatments, the chronic knee pain resolved, as did the acute distress I was experiencing with the personal issues. Now I admit to being surprised and still skeptical. After all, how could those issues and that kind of chronic pain be so quickly relieved with only "conversation" and the application of energy? As I continued to explore this Bio-Energy Therapy and Richard’s approach to the resolution of personal issues he began to teach me how to link with universal energy, to understand the interdependent relationship with mind/body/spirit and how to change my perspective on problematic personal issues. I began to realize that the role of traditional medicine although very necessary in many cases is only a part of holistic health care. In addition the explanation of energy fields, chakras and the integration and interplay between and among energy fields resonated with what I understood of eastern medicine. As a cautionary note I will share that this form of therapy is not a "quick fix" in terms of personal issues or challenges as this is the arduous domain of self-work. However, it does equip the client with the tools to understand causal properties and to develop techniques and thought processes that allow the client to view the issue from a health and integrated perspective.
Bio-Energy Therapy is one of the most empowering healing strategies I have ever encountered.
Coming from a background in science and critical care I was quite prepared to relegate Bio Energy to the "this makes no sense and I don’t understand it" compartment. Originally, it was something not to be taken seriously. After learning, questioning and discovering the foundation of the Bio Energy process, and experiencing the positive outcome it has had on my health, I would invite traditional health care practitioners to put aside the temptation to dismiss "bio-energy" and changing thoughts as a treatment modality and to truly explore Bio-Energy Therapy. I believe the effort will be not only personally rewarding but beneficial to development of true mind/body spirit healing practices.
Heather Bruce RN, BScN. (age 45) Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, October 1998
The Journey to Self-Empowerment with Bio-Energy Therapy



