Healthy Healers Course

Spirituality contributes to our overall health and wellness.  Meda Dewitt Schliefman is going to talk to us about spirituality in our lives and our work. Listen closely as she talks about how traditional healers were prepared from childhood for their role. Listen also as she talks about respect, boundaries, and empathy.

The Spiritual Connection: My Work Is Meaningful

Meda Dewitt-Schleifman, TH
Tribal Healer, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Tlingit

Meda’s talk has several themes related to spirituality.

• Spirituality is our relationship to a higher power, to our inner selves, and to those around us.  Prayer connects us to our higher power and our ancestors. It reminds us to be humble, we don’t have to know everything.
• Each person is on his or her own life journey. Our life journeys are marked by transitions. Our job as healers is to help people through their transitions.
• The traditional value of respect means recognizing the boundaries between our journey and another person’s journey, and respecting the choices and paths made by others.
• It’s important to take care of yourself, to achieve balance by connecting with spirituality, your higher power and inner self, with nature, and with community.

Consider how you currently integrate your spirituality and your work. Using Meda’s words, what would your Healthy Healer theme(s) be? Please explain why you have chosen this for your theme. Compete your activity by writing in your eJournal. 1. Click here to go to your eJournal (Note that you must go to the eJournal for your Group).      eJournal Group 1      eJournal Group 2 2. Click on 'edit' and make your eJournal entry. 3. Click on Save changes