A Place of Healing: Working with Nature and Soul at the End of Life

In this companion volume to Mortally Wounded: Stories of Soul Pain, Death, and Healing, palliative care specialist Dr. Michael Kearney demonstrates that while the medical model has undoubted strengths in easing pain, it is limited in its ability to alleviate the psychological and spiritual suffering that often accompanies far advanced and terminal illness. Complementing physical treatment with such depth approaches as dream-work, poetry, divination, and a revitalized connection with nature, Kearney allows us to begin to integrate scientific and psychological metaphors. Through research and imaginative reconstructions of the mythology and rites of ancient Greek Asklepian healing, Kearney helps us envision a way of recognizing and caring for the soul in its most critical moments. He offers suggestions for workshop activities along with case histories from his own experience. He concludes by proposing a new model for the healing of suffering which draws on the best practices of both the medical and Asklepian traditions.This book deserves a wide readership. Michael Kearney is taking us to new depths and new heights. He takes us beyond the usual holistic care rhetoric. He takes us into uncharted territory and we find ourselves thankful for a guide who so uniquely combines breadth of vision, insight, sensitivity and humility, not to mention clarity of thought and expression. ~Balfour Mount, Eric M. Flanders Professor of Palliative Medicine, McGill University, Montreal Read more