Thai traditional medicine and mor phi

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Thailand (Isan for mor phi)

What it is

This entry covers two different things. Neither is a psychotherapy.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Regulator. The Thai Traditional Medical Council (TTMC) implements the Thai Traditional Medical Professions Act B.E. 2556 (2013). It registers and licenses TTM practitioners, runs the licensing examination, sets standard curricula, certifies schools, and enforces the professional Code of Conduct.
• Practitioner categories. There are licensed TTM practitioners and licensed applied TTM practitioners. Applied TTM is TTM practised with science-based knowledge, and it may use medical scientific equipment under TTMC rules.
• Training. There are two four-year bachelor's degrees: Bachelor of Thai Traditional Medicine (B.TM., offered at 24 universities) and Bachelor of Applied Thai Traditional Medicine (B.ATM., 11 universities). TTMC-certified institutes and licensed TTM facilities also train in one or more branches.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• isolation, debt bondage, and visa-related fear of services. It is working when the client has a support network across both settings.
• dissociation or flashbacks after sessions. Reports of boundary violations. It is working when the client describes body treatment as within their control.
• family members speaking for the client. Plans that leave out the client's own preferences. It is working when the client and the family follow the same plan.
• an interpreter from the same small community (risk to confidentiality and of accusation). The interpreter's own reactions to spirit topics. It is working when the client's terms are recorded…
• family accounts that blame the client or another person, which may be an early accusation dynamic (see 4.10). It is working when the client and the family's accounts are both recorded and their…

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.