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Indigenous Healing Approaches



Western traditional medicine often seeks one cure to treat as many people as possible. Indigenous traditional healing, by contrast, usually works in a more holistic way to restore the relationship each person has with the earth, plants and animals, the community, and the spirit world. Imbalances in any or all of these areas can combine to bring illness. Indigenous traditional healing approaches tend to focus on the spirit, healing of the heart, collective healing, healing of the land, and clearing energy. Traditional ceremonies, music, dance, song, storytelling, food and drink preparations and spaces, such as sweatlodges play important roles in Indigenous traditional healing practices and approaches.

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Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing

For thousands of years, Native medicine was the only medicine on the North American continent. It is America’s original holistic medicine, a powerful means of healing the body, balancing the emotions, and renewing the spirit.

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The Healing Power of Heritage

Interventions rooted in indigenous traditions are helping to prevent suicide and addiction in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

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A Native American Tribe Is Using Traditional Culture to Fight Addiction

A year and half ago, Gabe Stewart stood in tribal court pleading guilty to felony charges because he stole money from his family to support his opioid addiction. In January, his community honored him for overcoming addiction and watched as his case was dismissed entirely.

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Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet

We are thirteen indigenous grandmothers. . . .

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55 Mental Health Resources for People of Color

While it’s clear that mental health is a cross-cutting issue that affects all communities, providing effective services for people of color requires acknowledging and understanding their different lived realities.

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The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine

Western medicine has not been particularly successful at getting people relief from conditions like depression, chronic pain, migraine headaches, addiction, and PTSD. Dr. Tafur helps us to understand why. Too often, the Western medical approach fails to address the emotional dimension of illness.

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Listening in with . . . Grandmother Flordemayo: Seeding the Future

Born into a lineage of healers in the highlands of Central America and now an indigenous elder, Flordemayo travels internationally, sharing wisdom and teaching respect for the earth. Here, she talks with Unity Magazine editor Katy Koontz about her life and her work.

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The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles

Nicole Redvers, a naturopathic physician and member of the Deninu K'ue First Nation, analyzes modern Western medical practices using evidence-informed Indigenous healing practices and traditions from around the world--from sweat lodges and fermented foods to Ayurvedic doshas and meditation.

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Renowned Alaska Native Healer Blumenstein Hopscotches from Old World to New

In the years that I have had the honor of calling Rita Pitka Blumenstein "Auntie," I have felt privileged every time this renowned healer has invited me into her home.

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Ritual: Power, Healing and Community

In this remarkable book, Malidoma Some explores the essential role ritual plays in maintaining community and examines the structure common to all ritual.

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The information offered here is not a substitute for professional advice. Please proceed with care and caution.

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