As stated in the course description, “our ideas about and experiences of health, ‘dis-ease,’ and medicine are profoundly shaped by culture.” In compliance with this theory, we discussed our medicinal upbringings and backgrounds, and how these influence our choice of healing practices today. Our experiences included topics of mental health, oncology, and alternative medicine, among others. In this paper, we will review these anecdotes and reflect on the similarities and differences between our histories with illness and healing. Rachel began by describing the upbringing of her father, and the beliefs he brought to her family. Growing up, Rachel’s father, Fred, was raised in a strict Pentecostal home in Texas. His parents did not believe in
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As a toddler Thomas began having seizures, as many as a hundred per day, and it soon became apparent that he was developmentally disabled. The pairing of the two conditions meant a lot of hospital visits, tests, and medication, that Samantha’s mom never thought would be a part of her life. Deciding to take matters into her own hands her mother took Thomas to see a craniosacral therapist, as well as discontinuing the heavy doses of medication doctors had prescribed for him. Craniosacral therapy is an alternative medical treatment involving gentle manipulation of the skull and sacrum in order to impact the nervous system and energy flow. After the first session the seizures stopped and have not come back …show more content…
At this point her mother needed to trust western biomedicine as it was the only viable treatment for Iris’ condition. Luckily, by this time, Samantha’s mother was already familiar with the practice of craniosacral and had become good friends with Thomas’ therapist. His therapist offered to treat Iris once a week for the duration of her chemotherapy at no charge. Samantha’s mother firmly believes that it is this treatment that, while not curing her cancer, kept Iris from suffering usual effects of chemotherapy. Thankfully Iris has been cancer free for many years. Because of her background in western biomedicine as well as alternative medicine Samantha is fairly comfortable in both spheres and knows that they can often complement each other. She believes that people should not immediately discount therapies and treatments that may sound strange, especially if there are no adverse
As a toddler Thomas began having seizures, as many as a hundred per day, and it soon became apparent that he was developmentally disabled. The pairing of the two conditions meant a lot of hospital visits, tests, and medication, that Samantha’s mom never thought would be a part of her life. Deciding to take matters into her own hands her mother took Thomas to see a craniosacral therapist, as well as discontinuing the heavy doses of medication doctors had prescribed for him. Craniosacral therapy is an alternative medical treatment involving gentle manipulation of the skull and sacrum in order to impact the nervous system and energy flow. After the first session the seizures stopped and have not come back …show more content…
At this point her mother needed to trust western biomedicine as it was the only viable treatment for Iris’ condition. Luckily, by this time, Samantha’s mother was already familiar with the practice of craniosacral and had become good friends with Thomas’ therapist. His therapist offered to treat Iris once a week for the duration of her chemotherapy at no charge. Samantha’s mother firmly believes that it is this treatment that, while not curing her cancer, kept Iris from suffering usual effects of chemotherapy. Thankfully Iris has been cancer free for many years. Because of her background in western biomedicine as well as alternative medicine Samantha is fairly comfortable in both spheres and knows that they can often complement each other. She believes that people should not immediately discount therapies and treatments that may sound strange, especially if there are no adverse