| This ethnographic study explores an innovative experiment within the evolving field of integrative medicine known as the healing circle, as developed by a group of biomedical and alternative health practitioners in northern California. The original intent of the circle was to surmount the perceived shortcoming in many integrative clinics of trivializing alternative healing practices as mere treatment options, under the auspices of biomedicine. The practitioners sought to create a more level playing field, in which an actual blending or harmonizing of disparate medical world views could be accomplished. The goal was to better serve patients with complex chronic disease by offering them an expanded array of healing options, a generous time for hearing their narratives, and the convenience of receiving viewpoints from practitioners of multiple modalities (e.g., ayurvedic, traditional Chinese medicine, herbalism, homeopathy) in one place, at one time. What emerged in this well-intended effort were escalating tensions and difficulties inherent in the attempt to negotiate understandings of widely opposing philosophies and epistemologies. Lack of skills and awareness in communicating, negotiating, and mediating among different disciplines derailed their best efforts. The resulting tension that arose from unreconciled differences was avoided about half-way through this fieldwork, as the core group of circle practitioners abandoned this multiple modality approach for one in which the milieu was strictly intended to facilitate the meaning of the client's illness. This revised circle achieved a new solidarity among the remaining practitioners, but met with an uneven response from clients, who often wanted the original promise of the healing circle---a diversity of healing approaches---without the burden of deciphering their illnesses' meaning. |
