'Healing' does not mean 'Cure''

As a Complementary Therapist one always has to be careful of using the word 'healing' in any context for fear of misleading a client and giving false hope. Therapists according to current rules and regulations are NOT healer's. I absolutely agree with this. It is a bold statement that if allowed to become a truth just might lead to a God complex in the wrong hands.
However that doesn't necessarily mean that a 'healing' doesn't take place when a client enters a therapeutic space with a therapist. I firmly believe that it is my clients that do the healing for themselves. The human body has the capacity to heal itself if we give it the time it needs and with assistance from both conventional and complementary medicine.
In the years I have been a therapist I have encountered people with the same disease on the same treatment, while one gets better, the other falls in to decline. It is clear under such circumstances that other factors are at play here. The person's home life, their mental attitude towards the disease and ultimately their desire for life. A positive mental attitude goes along way when treating diseases such as cancer.
It is important to define what a 'healing' can be from a complementary medicine perspective. I think that in conventional medicine 'healing' is often confused with 'cure'. This is simply not the case with complementary medicine. We might define a healing as someone feeling more positive about life after a series of Reiki treatments, even though their illness might still be there. On one level they have healed emotionally even if they can't change their physical state.
The healing process is dependent on many factors some physical and some environmental. For example my nine month old daughter who was born premature has spent her whole life in hospital. She is fed her nutrition via a surgical line in her body and her milk is given through a nasal gastric tube. She is allowed outside of her hospital room for short periods of time when she is not wired up to her equipment. We have walks in the park and trips to coffee shops. The change of environment has had an amazing effect on her. She is happier in herself and is getting the opportunity to feel the sun on her skin and smell the blossom of spring. It is acknowledged by everyone involved with her care that her daily trips out are beneficial to her wellbeing. However I doubt that any medical professional would make the link between these visits out and any kind of healing process that might take place, mentally or physically.
Healing through complementary medicine is often subtle, but occasionally dramatic. It is not about curing, it is about allowing the client the space to develop an understanding of how their body, mind and emotions are all interlinked. By them making subtle changes in their perception of their 'self' they are able to stimulate the healing process.