Presentation abstracts.

Traditional healing is as old as human history. Approximately 80% of the world’s population depends on it. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that Western healers and their traditional counterparts appreciate each other. Traditional healing is based on animalism, the belief that there is a universal soul that resides in and connects all things, animate and inanimate. Although human life is often defined in discrete physical, social, psychological, and spiritual terms, in traditional healing, spiritualism is paramount to its success. The individual’s balance or lack of balance with the universe determines his or her well-being. The spiritual world seems to be the supervising force of pharmacology. Healers acquire their abilities through the intercession of cosmic powers. Psychotherapeutic professionals can enhance their skills by being more open to the therapeutic beliefs and practices of traditional healers. Many universities in the United States and other countries offer courses and programs in traditional healing, in order to help therapists learn how they can incorporate in their work some of the techniques used by healers in non-Western countries. More needs to be done to promote this effort, since the majority of people of the world will probably continue to rely on traditional medicine administered by traditional healers. At first blush, traditional and modern healers are dissimilar. However, in reality the techniques of therapy used everywhere in the world have a lot in common. Citizens of a given culture favour certain types of therapies, because the methods are compatible with their cultural values and expectations.