Contact healing

1. Introduction

Version followed: contact healing as taught and regulated by the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU): the healing medium working under the SNU Healing Code of Conduct, trained through the SH1 course and the Healing Accreditation Scheme. Two reference frames are used alongside it: the Healing Trust's published training outline, and the UK National Occupational Standard CNH25 "Provide Healing to clients" (Skills for Health, 2010), which sets out the healing session step by step. Where these differ, the difference is named.

What it is. Contact healing is one of the forms of spiritual healing practised in Spiritualist churches. In the SNU's definition, as quoted by affiliated churches, healing is "the use of forces and energies from the world of Spirit", channelled through the healer by the laying on of hands. The healer may work with hands on the body, near the body, or by prayer or thought at a distance [source: Oldbury Spiritualist Centre; Blackwood Spiritualist Church]. Contact healing is the hands-on form: the healer asks permission and then places hands on the recipient, who stays clothed [source: Blackwood Spiritualist Church; Oldbury Spiritualist Centre].

How change is said to happen (attributed). In the Spiritualist account, healing energy comes from the spirit world. The healer is a channel for it, not its source, and physical contact creates "a bond or blending" so that the energies can flow [source: Oldbury Spiritualist Centre]. CNH25 describes healing as a non-invasive complementary therapy for "the body, mind and spirit". It says healing transmits a natural energy that is believed to support the body's own capacity to heal, and that the healer's thought and intention matter [source: SFHCNH25; Skills for Health CNH25 page]. No faith is required of the person receiving healing [source: Blackwood Spiritualist Church]. These are the practice's own beliefs, reported here without endorsing or dismissing them.

What it is not. Contact healing is not a treatment for any physical or mental illness. Spiritualist churches tell recipients to keep up any treatment their GP has prescribed [source: Blackwood Spiritualist Church]. Evidence status in one line: no established evidence that it treats disease; systematic reviews of healing trials found the studies too methodologically limited for firm conclusions, and it is offered for comfort, relaxation and support [source: Astin, Harkness & Ernst 2000; Crawford, Sparber & Jonas 2003].

For the psychotherapist. Contact healing is a religious and complementary practice with its own accreditation route. A psychotherapist can train in it as a member of an organisation. However, the organisations' published materials do not describe how to combine it with psychotherapy [uncertain: not verified]. All guidance on combining the two in this guide is marked [synthesis].

2. Framework

Contact healing has no multi-session treatment protocol. Each session is a self-contained act of healing in a fixed sequence. The sequence below follows CNH25's performance criteria, with SNU and church practice added where sources give it [source: SFHCNH25; Oldbury; Blackwood].

Single-session sequence

1. Prepare the setting and the healer. The setting must meet professional codes and the law. The healer must look professional and be fit to practise. Healer self-preparation in CNH25 covers relaxation, meditation, breathing and self-awareness [source: SFHCNH25 PC1–2, K6].
2. Attunement. The healer attunes to the source of healing. This is a named element of SH1 ("Attunement and Holistic Potential") and of CNH25 (knowledge item K7). How attunement is done is [uncertain: not verified].
3. Greet, explain and obtain consent. Explain what may happen during and after the session. Healing is given only when invited by the recipient or the recipient's representative [source: SNU Code of Conduct listing; SFHCNH25 PC3–4].
4. Position the recipient, seated (chair) or lying (couch), for comfort and to avoid injury [source: SFHCNH25 PC5, K9.5; Healing Trust training outline (chair/couch)].
5. Initial contact. With permission, the healer places a hand on the recipient's shoulders or holds their hands [source: Oldbury].
6. The act of healing. Hands rest gently on the body with permission, or are held near it, never on an embarrassing area. The healer adjusts as the recipient's needs change and checks on their wellbeing throughout [source: Oldbury; SFHCNH25 PC7–10].
7. Conclude the session and check the recipient is fit to travel [source: SFHCNH25 PC11].
8. Feedback, aftercare advice and records [source: SFHCNH25 PC12–14].

Format and session count. In Spiritualist churches, healing is usually given at an open weekly healing session, always with other healers and recipients present. Recipients may sit and relax without receiving healing [source: Oldbury]. Private one-to-one settings also exist (CNH25 allows a chair or a couch). No source gives a number of sessions; people return as they wish. No session duration is set out in the sources used here.

Moving between forms. The forms are not stages. The recipient's consent decides between contact healing, near-the-body (hands-off) healing and distant or absent healing [source: Oldbury; Blackwood]. If touch is declined at any point, switch to hands-off healing.

Training route for the healer.

• SNU. Register as an SNU Trainee Healer. Complete SH1 Spiritualist Healing, the academic element of the Healing Accreditation Scheme (HAS). SH1 taken on its own stays valid for five years towards entry to HAS. SH1 covers nine areas:
  • history of Modern Spiritualism and the SNU;
  • teachings of Spiritualism;
  • responsibilities of a Spiritualist healing medium;
  • healing potential;
  • attunement and holistic potential;
  • the HAS;
  • the Healing Code of Conduct;
  • the SNU;
  • trance healing, anatomy and physiology.
  [source: SNU foundation courses page]. An affiliated church describes training as lasting at least two years, with practical and theoretical parts, including greeting the patient and the law on healing. Registered healers carry a card showing their registration number and renewal date [source: Blackwood]. Trainees on a two-year programme may assist at church healing sessions [source: Oldbury]. Mentoring, logbook and assessment details are [uncertain: not verified].
• Healing Trust. About two years of training in four Parts as a Student Member, with mentoring and a log of every healing, ending with an assessment panel; successful students become registered Healer Members, who work to the Trust's Code of Conduct and carry professional liability insurance [source: Healing Trust Training Overview; FAQ Training; Healing].
• Occupational standard. CNH25 sets out what a competent healer does and must know, including the law, consent, not diagnosing, referral, and basic anatomy and physiology [source: SFHCNH25].

Who certifies. The SNU accredits Spiritualist healing mediums and keeps a directory of accredited healers [source: SNU healing page]. The Healing Trust admits Healer Members after its assessment panel [source: Healing Trust Training Overview]. Statutory regulation of healers, and the place of healing on voluntary registers such as CNHC, are not covered by the sources here [uncertain].

3. Guiding principles

• Healing only by invitation. Healing is given only when the recipient or their representative asks for it [source: SNU Code of Conduct listing]. In practice: never offer healing to a therapy client unprompted. Let the client raise it, and record that they did [synthesis].
• The Code of Conduct is binding. For SNU healing mediums the Code is compulsory, and insurance applies only when healing follows it [source: SNU Code of Conduct listing]. In practice: work strictly within your organisation's Code. Departing from it removes your insurance cover.
• Permission before touch, and no embarrassing areas. Contact begins only with permission and is never made on an embarrassing area of the body [source: Oldbury; Blackwood]. In practice: name exactly where your hands will go before touching, and keep to the shoulders, hands and similar neutral areas.
• The right to stop. Recipients can stop at any time by saying so [source: Oldbury]. In practice: tell the client this before you start, and check in again during the session.
• A hands-off option is always available. If the person prefers not to be touched, the healer works with hands a few inches from the body [source: Oldbury; Blackwood]. In practice: offer hands-off healing as an equal choice, not a lesser one.
• Clothed. Recipients do not remove clothing, apart from perhaps an outer coat [source: Oldbury]. In practice: never ask a client to undress or loosen clothing.
• The healer is a channel (attributed). Healing energy is understood as coming from Spirit, not from the healer [source: Oldbury]. In practice: avoid claiming personal power, and avoid creating dependence on you.
• No faith required. Healing does not need the recipient to believe in it [source: Blackwood]. In practice: never present a lack of belief as a reason a session "did not work" [synthesis].
• No diagnosis, and medical care continues. CNH25 lists not diagnosing as core knowledge and requires medical referral where it is essential [source: SFHCNH25 K3, K11]. Recipients are told to continue prescribed treatment [source: Blackwood]. In practice: never comment on illness, medication or prognosis. Refer such questions to the client's doctor.
• Open to all. Healing is offered regardless of race, colour or creed [source: Blackwood]. In practice: offer it without discrimination, and make clear that a client's beliefs are not a condition.
• Respect for the person. The healer respects dignity, privacy, autonomy, culture, rights and beliefs, and keeps confidentiality within the law [source: SFHCNH25 K3]. In practice: treat healing records like clinical records.
• Know the law and the healer's position of trust. The healer must know the law on consent, vulnerable groups and commercial practice, and their duty of care [source: SFHCNH25 K2]. In practice: apply safeguarding procedures as you would in therapy.
• Know your limits, and decline or seek supervision when needed. The healer must know when to decline a client, when to seek advice and when supervision is needed [source: SFHCNH25 K11]. In practice: take any healing work with therapy clients to supervision.
• Keep roles separate (psychotherapist-specific). In practice: by default, do not give contact healing to your own psychotherapy clients. If you do, agree a separate contract and get separate consent, and discuss it in supervision. Check your professional body's guidance on touch and on complementary practice [synthesis; professional-body positions: uncertain, not verified].

4. Intervention inventory

Interventions 4.1–4.14 are the elements the SNU, its affiliated churches, the Healing Trust outline and CNH25 describe. Interventions 4.15–4.18 are the psychotherapist's own additions and are marked [synthesis]. The organisations publish no scripts; all example language is illustrative.

4.1 Healer self-preparation

• Purpose: Arrive fit, calm and focused before any healing. CNH25 lists relaxation, meditation, self-awareness, breathing and keeping up the healer's own wellbeing [source: SFHCNH25 PC2, K6].
• Steps:
  1. Check you are physically and emotionally fit to practise. Do not give healing when unwell, distressed, or affected by a client's material [source: SFHCNH25 PC2].
  2. Use your own relaxation, meditation or breathing practice to settle before the session [source: SFHCNH25 K6].
  3. If you are also the client's therapist, set the therapist role aside deliberately, and notice any pull to "fix" the client [synthesis].
  4. Check that your appearance and conduct suit the setting, and in a hospital follow its rules [source: SFHCNH25 PC2, K4].
• Example language (illustrative), to yourself: "I'm here to offer this session, not to solve their problem."
• Watch for: fatigue, irritation, or a personal investment in a result. Any of these means postpone. The CNH25 knowledge item on the effects of the process on the healer implies the healer needs to look after themselves [source: SFHCNH25 K8.4].

4.2 Preparing the setting

• Purpose: A safe, calm, professionally compliant space [source: SFHCNH25 PC1].
• Steps:
  1. Check the space, chair or couch, and anything else used against your organisation's code and the law [source: SFHCNH25 PC1].
  2. Church setting: healing is given with other healers and recipients present, often with gentle music. People may sit and relax without receiving healing [source: Oldbury].
  3. Private setting: use a room where others can be called on if needed and the door can be opened easily. Follow your body's chaperone guidance. Chaperone rules specific to contact healing are [uncertain: not verified]; this point is [synthesis].
  4. Have water and a seat for afterwards so the recipient can re-orient [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "You're welcome to just sit for a few minutes before we start."
• Watch for: Being alone behind a closed door with a vulnerable recipient increases risk to both of you. Prefer visible or shared settings [synthesis].

4.3 Greeting, explanation and informed consent

• Purpose: The recipient knows what will happen and freely invites healing. Healing is given only on invitation [source: SNU Code of Conduct listing; SFHCNH25 PC3–4, K3.7].
• Steps:
  1. Greet the recipient. "Greeting the patient" is a named element of SNU training [source: Blackwood].
  2. Explain what spiritual healing is, as the tradition understands it, and say that no belief is required [source: Blackwood].
  3. Explain the options: hands on the shoulders or holding hands, hands resting gently on the body, or hands a few inches away; seated or lying; staying clothed apart from perhaps a coat [source: Oldbury; Blackwood; SFHCNH25 K9.5].
  4. State the limits:
     • healing is complementary;
     • you will not diagnose;
     • prescribed treatment should continue;
     • evidence status: no established evidence that it treats disease [source: Blackwood; SFHCNH25 K3; evidence wording: uncertain, not verified].
  5. Explain what may happen during and after the session [source: SFHCNH25 PC3].
  6. Get explicit consent to each element, including any touch, and record it [source: SFHCNH25 PC4, PC14].
  7. Say that they can stop at any time by saying so [source: Oldbury].
• Example language (illustrative): "In this tradition the healer sees themselves as a channel for healing energy. You don't need to believe that for it to be offered. It doesn't replace anything your doctor has prescribed. I'd start with a hand on each shoulder, and only with your OK. If you'd rather not be touched, I can keep my hands a few inches away. You can say 'stop' at any point."
• Watch for: consent given to please you, or with hesitation; unrealistic hopes, such as a cure; a representative consenting for an adult who can consent for themselves. With children, apply safeguarding rules, parental consent and the child's own assent [synthesis; vulnerable-groups law: SFHCNH25 K2].

4.4 Positioning the recipient

• Purpose: Comfort and injury prevention for both people [source: SFHCNH25 PC5].
• Steps:
  1. Offer a chair or a couch. Healing Trust training covers healing with the client seated (Part Two) and on a treatment couch (Part Three) [source: Healing Trust Training Overview; SFHCNH25 K9.5].
  2. Default to seated for a first session. Lying down can feel more exposed [synthesis].
  3. Adjust your own stance to avoid strain [source: SFHCNH25 PC5].
• Example language (illustrative): "Would you prefer to sit, or to lie on the couch? Many people find sitting easiest the first time."
• Watch for: discomfort, and anxiety about lying down. Adjust or stay seated.

4.5 Attunement (attributed)

• Purpose: In the tradition, the healer attunes to the source of healing energy before and during healing. It is part of SH1 ("Attunement and Holistic Potential") and of CNH25 K7: the source and route of healing energy, and the consequences of attunement [source: SNU foundation courses page; SFHCNH25 K7]. In the account of Harry Edwards, first president of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers (now the Healing Trust), attunement is the healer's mental link both to the healing source and to the recipient; he set no ritual routine or prayer for reaching it [source: Psi Encyclopedia, Harry Edwards].
• Steps: The SNU and the Healing Trust teach the method in their own training and publish no steps [uncertain: current organisational method unpublished]. Learn it within your organisation's course. Do not improvise it from secondary descriptions.
• Example language (illustrative), to the recipient: "I'll take a quiet moment to prepare before I begin."
• Watch for: the recipient waiting anxiously during silence. Say in advance that you will pause [synthesis].

4.6 Initial contact

• Purpose: In the tradition's account, to establish "a bond or blending" that lets the healing energies flow [source: Oldbury].
• Steps:
  1. Ask permission again just before touching [source: Oldbury].
  2. Place a hand on the recipient's shoulders, or hold their hands [source: Oldbury].
  3. Keep the contact light and still, and watch the recipient's response [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm going to rest my hands on your shoulders now. Is that still OK?"
• Watch for: stiffening, holding the breath, flinching or a startle. Lift your hands and offer hands-off healing.

4.7 Contact (hands-on) healing

• Purpose: The laying on of hands that the SNU defines as spiritual healing [source: Blackwood; Oldbury].
• Steps:
  1. With permission, rest your hands gently on the body, through clothing [source: Oldbury].
  2. Keep to neutral areas, such as the shoulders, upper back, arms and hands. Never touch an embarrassing area of the body [source: Oldbury]. Never touch genital, breast or buttock areas, and nothing about the touch may be sexual [synthesis, consistent with source].
  3. Before you move your hands to a new area, name it and ask again [synthesis].
  4. Keep checking the recipient's wellbeing, and adapt to their needs and reactions [source: SFHCNH25 PC8–10].
• Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to move my hands to your upper back. Is that OK, or shall I stay where I am?"
• Watch for: any sign of discomfort, dissociation or arousal, in either person. If you see it, stop the touch, return to hands-off healing or end, and discuss it in supervision [synthesis].

4.8 Near-the-body (hands-off) healing

• Purpose: Healing without touch, for anyone who declines contact or at any point when touch stops being welcome [source: Oldbury; Blackwood].
• Steps:
  1. Hold your hands a few inches from the body: sources describe 2–3 inches, or within three inches [source: Oldbury; Blackwood].
  2. Say roughly where your hands are, so the recipient is not startled [synthesis].
  3. Follow the same checking and adjusting as for contact healing [source: SFHCNH25 PC8–10].
• Example language (illustrative): "My hands are near your shoulders now, not touching. I'll let you know if I move them."
• Watch for: hands near the face or body can still feel intrusive. Keep hands away from the face unless the recipient agrees [synthesis].

4.9 Distant healing with the recipient present

• Purpose: Healing sent "by power of thought" to someone in the room who is not receiving contact healing [source: Blackwood]. It suits people who want no touch and no hands near them.
• Steps:
  1. Agree this form with the recipient.
  2. Sit at a comfortable distance.
  3. Proceed as your training teaches [source: Blackwood; method detail: uncertain, not verified].
• Example language (illustrative): "I'll sit over here and won't touch you or come close. Just rest as you are."
• Watch for: unease with silence, or with being watched. Offer to have their eyes open, or soft background music [synthesis].

4.10 Absent healing

• Purpose: Healing for someone who is not physically present, by "prayer or thought from a distance" [source: Oldbury; Blackwood]. CNH25 covers absent healing with its own steps: environment, preparing the client, the act, concluding and feedback [source: SFHCNH25 K10].
• Steps:
  1. Get the recipient's invitation, or their representative's. Healing is given only on invitation [source: SNU Code of Conduct listing].
  2. Prepare the recipient by explaining what absent healing is [source: SFHCNH25 K10.2].
  3. Carry out absent healing as your organisation teaches. In Harry Edwards's historical practice, the healer attuned and passed on the absent person's name and condition to the healing source, without any contact [source: Psi Encyclopedia, Harry Edwards]; current SNU and Healing Trust methods are [uncertain: unpublished].
  4. Ask for and respond to feedback [source: SFHCNH25 K10.5].
• Example language (illustrative): "Absent healing means healers hold you in their thoughts at a set time. You don't need to do anything. Would you like that?"
• Watch for: requests to send healing to a third party who has not agreed. Decline unless there is a lawful representative, and keep in mind the invitation rule [source: SNU Code listing; synthesis].

4.11 Monitoring and adjusting during healing

• Purpose: Keep the recipient safe and comfortable, and respond to their reactions [source: SFHCNH25 PC8–10].
• Steps:
  1. Watch their breathing, posture, facial expression and tears [synthesis].
  2. Check in briefly, especially after the first contact or a change of hand position [synthesis].
  3. Adapt as their needs change: switch to hands-off, pause or stop [source: SFHCNH25 PC8].
  4. Reassure them where needed [source: SFHCNH25 PC10].
• Example language (illustrative): "How are you doing? We can carry on, change to no touch, or stop."
• Watch for:
  • strong emotion;
  • feeling faint or dizzy;
  • memories surfacing;
  • signs of dissociation, such as a fixed gaze, slowed responses or seeming far away.
  Respond as in 4.17 [synthesis].

4.12 Concluding and fitness to travel

• Purpose: End clearly and make sure the recipient is safe to leave [source: SFHCNH25 PC11].
• Steps:
  1. Say that the session is ending before you remove your hands [synthesis].
  2. Remove your hands slowly, and step back [synthesis].
  3. Give the recipient time to sit up and re-orient. Offer water [synthesis].
  4. Check they are alert and fit to travel [source: SFHCNH25 PC11].
• Example language (illustrative): "We're coming to the end now. I'm lifting my hands away. Take your time, and when you're ready, have a look around the room."
• Watch for: light-headedness, drowsiness or disorientation. Keep the person until it passes [synthesis].

4.13 Feedback and aftercare advice

• Purpose: Hear the recipient's experience and give clear, accurate aftercare [source: SFHCNH25 PC12–13].
• Steps:
  1. Ask about their experience, at a level and pace that suits them [source: SFHCNH25 PC12].
  2. Accept whatever they report, including nothing, without interpreting it as a medical effect [synthesis].
  3. Remind them to continue any prescribed medical treatment [source: Blackwood].
  4. Make no promises about results [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "What was that like for you? Whatever you noticed, or didn't, is fine. Please keep on with anything your doctor has prescribed."
• Watch for:
  • a client reading the session as proof that they can stop medical treatment;
  • intense or unsettling reports.
  Either one calls for a referral to a doctor or a follow-up conversation [synthesis].

4.14 Records, referral and declining

• Purpose: Accurate records, and recognising when healing should not go ahead [source: SFHCNH25 PC14, K11].
• Steps:
  1. Record the date, consent (including to touch), the form used, the recipient's reactions, feedback and aftercare given [source: SFHCNH25 PC14].
  2. Refer to a doctor where medical referral is essential, for example new, worsening or unexplained symptoms [source: SFHCNH25 K11.1; examples: synthesis].
  3. Decline where you lack the experience, or where healing is not appropriate. Seek advice or supervision [source: SFHCNH25 K11].
• Example language (illustrative): "What you're describing needs a doctor to look at it. I'd like you to see your GP before we do any more healing."
• Watch for: pressure to give healing in place of medical assessment. Hold the line.

4.15 Assessing a psychotherapy client's request for healing [synthesis]

• Purpose: Decide whether contact healing has any place alongside therapy, and if so, in what form.
• Steps:
  1. Explore what the client hopes for (comfort, spiritual connection, cure, relief from touch hunger) and what healing means within their beliefs.
  2. Screen for:
     • a trauma history involving touch;
     • current dissociation;
     • psychosis or unusual beliefs about energy or spirits that healing could reinforce;
     • eroticised transference;
     • high dependency.
  3. Weigh the dual-role risk. Usually refer to an accredited healer outside your practice, through the SNU or Healing Trust directories, rather than giving healing yourself.
  4. If you do give it, agree a separate written contract, kept apart from therapy sessions, and discuss it in supervision.
• Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like healing matters to you. Before we decide anything, what are you hoping it would give you?"
• Watch for: healing being sought to avoid painful therapy work, or in the hope of physical closeness with the therapist.

4.16 Hands-off default for trauma survivors [synthesis]

• Purpose: The sources give no trauma-specific steps. This adaptation comes from general trauma-informed practice.
• Steps:
  1. Default to near-the-body or distant healing.
  2. Agree a stop signal in advance: a word or a raised hand.
  3. Keep their eyes open if they prefer. Keep the door visible, and sit beside or in front of them, not behind.
  4. Introduce touch, if at all, only in a later session, at the client's own request, starting with hands held or a hand on one shoulder.
• Example language (illustrative): "We'll start with no touch at all. If you ever want to stop, just raise your hand."
• Watch for: freezing or compliance. A survivor may not say "stop", so watch the body, not only the words.

4.17 Responding to strong reactions or dissociation [synthesis]

• Purpose: Restore safety and orientation if the session triggers distress.
• Steps:
  1. Stop touching and step back.
  2. Speak the client's name, the date and the place.
  3. Invite them to notice their feet on the floor and the objects in the room.
  4. Once they are oriented, explore what happened. In therapy, link it to the treatment plan.
  5. Record what happened and consider whether healing should continue.
• Example language (illustrative): "I've stopped and moved back. You're here in this room, it's Tuesday. Can you feel the chair under you?"
• Watch for: delayed reactions afterwards. Offer a follow-up contact.

4.18 Debriefing healing within psychotherapy [synthesis]

• Purpose: Where a client receives healing elsewhere, integrate what it meant to them without endorsing or dismissing it.
• Steps:
  1. Ask about it routinely and without judgement, and record it.
  2. Explore their experience: comfort, felt connection, grief, belonging to the church community.
  3. Check that medical care is continuing. With consent, coordinate with their doctor if needed.
  4. Watch for exploitation: high fees, pressure, or isolation from other support.
• Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned going to healing at your church. What does it give you?"
• Watch for: stopping medical treatment, or financial or group pressure. Respond as in section 5.

5. Handling problems

The sources address declining clients, medical referral, supervision and special requests in general terms only [source: SFHCNH25 K11]. Everything else below is [synthesis].

• Touch becomes unwelcome partway through.
  • Stop at once and move to hands-off healing, or end the session [source: Oldbury, right to stop].
  • Do not ask for reasons.
  • Record it, and next time start with no touch [synthesis].
• A request for touch to an intimate area, or any sexualised response.
  • Decline plainly. Contact is never made on an embarrassing area [source: Oldbury].
  • End the session if needed, document it, and take it to supervision.
  • If the recipient is your therapy client, consider stopping healing altogether and working with the transference in therapy [synthesis].
• A wish to stop medical treatment or delay seeing a doctor.
  • Restate that prescribed treatment continues [source: Blackwood].
  • Never advise on medicines; direct the person to their prescriber or pharmacist.
  • Explore the fears behind the wish.
  • With consent, contact their doctor.
  • If a child is being kept from medical care, follow safeguarding procedures [synthesis].
• Expectation of cure, or disappointment when none comes.
  • Repeat that healing is complementary and makes no promises.
  • Help the person grieve the hoped-for outcome.
  • Never attribute a lack of benefit to a lack of faith; no faith is required [source: Blackwood].
• A client who feels "nothing" and thinks they did it wrong.
  • Normalise this. There is nothing for the recipient to do.
  • Ask what they would like next: another session, a different form, or none.
• Dependence: wanting healing very often, or only from you.
  • Recall the tradition's own view that the healer is a channel, not the source [source: Oldbury].
  • Encourage the client's own coping resources.
  • Explore the attachment in therapy.
• Overwhelm, flashbacks or dissociation.
  • Use 4.17.
  • Review the screening in 4.15.
  • Move to hands-off or distant forms, or pause healing.
• Spiritual distress: fear of spirits or possession, or feeling judged.
  • Describe Spiritualist beliefs as the tradition's own, with no pressure to adopt them.
  • If the fears are intense or new, assess for psychosis or an obsessional presentation.
  • Refer to the client's own faith leader if they wish.
• Rupture: the client feels you pushed healing, or feels judged for wanting it.
  • Acknowledge it openly.
  • Restate that healing is offered only on invitation [source: SNU Code listing] and that therapy continues either way.
• Dual-role conflict, such as therapy clients at your church healing session.
  • Agree in advance how you will handle meeting each other there.
  • Offer referral to another healer.
  • Keep confidentiality.
• Requests for absent healing for third parties, especially children or people without capacity.
  • Healing is given only on invitation from the recipient or their representative [source: SNU Code listing].
  • Check who has authority to ask, and apply the law on vulnerable groups [source: SFHCNH25 K2].
• Money, pressure or group dynamics.
  • Church healing is often given freely. Watch for escalating fees, upselling of courses, or pressure to join or isolate.
  • Do not sell healing, courses or products to your therapy clients; manage conflicts of interest under your professional code [synthesis].
• Insurance and scope.
  • SNU insurance applies only when healing follows the Code of Conduct [source: SNU Code listing].
  • Check whether your therapy indemnity covers healing at all. Assume it does not until your insurer confirms [synthesis].
• Law and advertising.
  • The SNU publishes a "Healing and the Law" text [source: SNU Code listing]. Its contents, and UK law on claims for treating disease, are not summarised here [uncertain].
  • Never advertise healing as treating any illness.

Sources

Pages consulted:

• Spiritualists' National Union: SNU healing
• SNU: Foundation courses, healing (SH1 Spiritualist Healing)
• SNU shop listing: Code of Conduct and Healing and the Law
• Skills for Health: SFHCNH25 Provide healing to clients (National Occupational Standard, PDF)
• Skills for Health: CNH25 competence details
• Oldbury Spiritualist Centre: Spiritual healing
• Blackwood Spiritualist Church: Healing
• The Healing Trust: Training Overview; The Healing Trust: FAQ Training; The Healing Trust: Healing
• Church of England House of Bishops: Guidelines for good practice in the healing ministry (2000). This is for comparison only. It sets out a different tradition's principles: touch should be "appropriate, considerate and courteous", no ministry is given against a person's will, informed consent applies, and practitioners cooperate with healthcare professionals.
• Astin JA, Harkness E, Ernst E (2000). The efficacy of "distant healing": a systematic review of randomized trials. Annals of Internal Medicine 132(11):903–910 (abstract)
• Crawford C, Sparber AG, Jonas WB (2003). A systematic review of the quality of research on hands-on and distance healing: clinical and laboratory studies. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (abstract)
• Hume S. Harry Edwards. Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research
• SNU shop: healing products (states the Healing Code of Conduct is compulsory for all Registered Healing Mediums)

Not covered by the sources above [uncertain]:

• the full text of the SNU Healing Code of Conduct;
• professional-body positions (BACP, UKCP, APA) on touch and on complementary practice;
• the current organisational methods of attunement and absent healing, which are taught in training only.