San healing trance dance

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Namibia and Botswana

What it is

This is not a psychotherapy. It is a living communal healing tradition of the Ju/'hoansi, one of several San peoples of southern Africa. Ethnographers describe it as the central ritual of Ju/'hoan life: an all-night community event through which the community keeps harmony and consensus. In…

Format

• The tradition itself has no phases for a therapist to follow. The framework below is the psychotherapist's own course of work, built around the structure of the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI). No source gives session counts for this population; the numbers are guidance only.
• Format. Individual sessions, often with a family member or other informant present with consent; a Ju/'hoan-speaking (or other San-language) interpreter where the client prefers; flexible scheduling and outreach where clients live far from services.

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?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• 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

• your own hesitation to act out of cultural deference. It is working when safety improves and the client stays engaged.
• moralising; treating alcohol problems as a cultural trait. It is working when the client sets goals in their own terms.
• professional benefit flowing one way. It is working when the client and community see the work and agree with how they are shown.
• confidentiality pressure; power differences by age or gender. It is working when relationships the client named become less strained.
• the client protecting you from their anger; your own guilt steering the session. It is working when the client can disagree with you and say what does not help.

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.