This book is an edited collection of essays by fourteen multicultural women (including a few Anglo women) who are doing work that crosses the boundaries of ecological and social healing. The women are prominent academics, writers and leaders spanning Native American, Indigenous, Asian, African, Latina, Jewish and Multiracial backgrounds. The contributors express a myriad of ways that the relationship between the ecological and social have brought new understanding to their experiences and work in the world. Moreover by working with these edges of awareness, they are identifying new forms of teaching, leading, healing and positive change. Ecological and Social Healing is rooted in these ideas and speaks to an "edge awareness or consciousness." In essence this speaks to the power of integrating multiple and often conflicting views and the transformations that result. As women working across the boundaries of the ecological and social, we have powerful experiences that are creating new forms of healing. This book is rooted in academic theory as well as personal and professional experience, and highlights emerging models and insights. It will appeal to those working, teaching and learning in the fields of social justice, environmental issues, women's studies, spirituality, transformative/environmental/sustainability leadership, and interdisciplinary/intersectionality studies.

Social Healing draws on a transdisciplinary approach—bringing sociology, philosophy, psychology, and spirituality together—to understand health, social suffering and healing in our contemporary world. It shows how we can transform the present discourse and reality of social suffering by multi-dimensional movements of social healing. The author argues for the need for a new art of healing in place of the dominant and pervasive technology and politics of killing. It discusses manifold creative theories and practices of healing in self, society, and the world as well as new movements in social theory, philosophy, and social sciences which deploy creative methods of art and performance in healing our psychic and social wounds. It explores the spiritual, social, ethical, and political dimensions of health and healing. This pioneering work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of social theory, sociology, politics, philosophy, and psychology.

This book is an edited collection of essays by fourteen multicultural women (including a few Anglo women) who are doing work that crosses the boundaries of ecological and social healing. The women are prominent academics, writers and leaders spanning Native American, Indigenous, Asian, African, Latina, Jewish and Multiracial backgrounds. The contributors express a myriad of ways that the relationship between the ecological and social have brought new understanding to their experiences and work in the world. Moreover by working with these edges of awareness, they are identifying new forms of teaching, leading, healing and positive change. Ecological and Social Healing is rooted in these ideas and speaks to an "edge awareness or consciousness." In essence this speaks to the power of integrating multiple and often conflicting views and the transformations that result. As women working across the boundaries of the ecological and social, we have powerful experiences that are creating new forms of healing. This book is rooted in academic theory as well as personal and professional experience, and highlights emerging models and insights. It will appeal to those working, teaching and learning in the fields of social justice, environmental issues, women's studies, spirituality, transformative/environmental/sustainability leadership, and interdisciplinary/intersectionality studies.

How do rituals work? Although this is one of the first questions that people everywhere ask about rituals, little has been written explicitly on the topic. In The Problem of Ritual Efficacy, nine scholars address this issue, ranging across the fields of history, anthropology, medicine, and biblical studies. For "modern" people, the very notion of ritual efficacy is suspicious because rituals are widely thought of as merely symbolic or expressive, so that - by definition - they cannot be efficacious. Nevertheless people in many cultures assume that rituals do indeed "work," and when we take a closer look at who makes claims for ritual efficacy (and who disputes such claims), we learn a great deal about the social and historical contexts of such debates. Moving from the pre-modern era-in which the notion of ritual efficacy was not particularly controversial-into the skeptical present, the authors address a set of debates between positivists, natural scientists, and religious skeptics on the one side, and interpretive social scientists, phenomenologists, and religious believers on the other. Some contributors advance a particular theory of ritual efficacy while others ask whether the question makes any sense at all. This path-breaking interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to readers in anthropology, history, religious studies, humanities and the social sciences broadly defined, and makes an important contribution to the larger conversation about what ritual does and why it matters to think about such things.

An invitation for all nurses to re-engage with the passion and commitment that originally inspired them! "...represents an act of passion for the profession, a window to a personal journey, and an invitation to view the nursing profession's contribution to healing in a Jungian context....The work's value comes from its integration of scientific, creative, and spiritual philosophies as a core context for the complex nurse-patient interaction involved in the promotion of a healing environment....Recommended."--Choice Nursing is at a crossroads, facing shortages of unparalleled proportion at a time when society is experiencing health care challenges of great magnitude. At the center of professional nursing lies the authentic presence of the nurse, the intention and commitment that brings nurses to the profession in the first place. When there is congruence between who nurses are and what they do, nurses bring their souls to work. This balance is experienced as a healing presence that encourages the patient's self-healing capacity. Throughout this book, JoEllen Koerner explores ways--scientific, creative, and spiritual--of understanding the power and impact of this "healing presence" on both the caregiver and those receiving care. Wisdom from the field is presented in a series of reflections from multiple areas of practice. For all nurses and nursing students, the book offers practical application strategies for integrating the nursing process with the nurse's presence and a framework for personal and professional development.

The book goes beyond mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to a holistic approach centered on healing. The book lays at the intersection of peacebuilding, global mental health, and development. In many parts of the world, entire generations live in chronic violence—just surviving. The exposure to violence has long-lasting effects which are not well accounted for in conflict analysis, stabilization efforts, peacebuilding, and governance initiatives. Extreme exposure to violence, abuse, neglect, and marginalization negatively affects levels of resilience and the ability of affecting the transition from violence to peace. A healing-centered peacebuilding approach requires fundamental changes in how systems are designed, organizations function, and practitioners engage with people, their communities, and their institutions. Key elements of the practice-based approach included inclusion, customization and contextualization, breaking cycles of violence, systems thinking, and trauma-informed tools. The approach considers emotional distress to be a critical variable in violent conflict and instability. Trauma is not only a consequence of violence, but also a cause of instability.

Pastoral theologians from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe address, in this book, the issues of leadership, Ubuntu (community), gender-based violence, political violence, healing, and deliverance faced by pastors and ministers in African contexts today. Drawing on biblical, theological, social scientific, and cultural contextual perspectives, these African Christians offer much needed insights to assist in the care and counseling of persons towards healing, health, and well-being.