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What is the Traditional Healers Fellowship?
In 1976 a group of Traditional Healers formed an interest group which in 1982
became known as the Natural Path Society.
The aim of this Society was to:
- Promote health through the use of Traditional Healing.
- Promote and protect the practice of Traditional Healing.
- Maintain and elevate the reputation of Traditional Healing.
- Secure a high standard of knowledge and proficiency in the art,
science and philosophy of Traditional Healing.
- Protect the rights of its members.
- Forge links between Traditional Healers worldwide.
- Act as a forum for Traditional Healers and foster the interexchange
of professional knowledge and skills between Traditional Healers.
Because of its international focus, operation
as a local incorporated society became more and more impractical as time went on
and in 1992 the Traditional Healers Charter™ was established in order to provide
a written agreed professional standard for Traditional Healers and to provide
formal recognition for Traditional Healers
worldwide.
This Charter details the criteria of
practice relating to the Traditional Healing profession and provides accord in,
and recognition of:
- The level of education and training required for practitioners of
Traditional Healing.
- Ethics and standards of professional practice for Traditional
Healers.
- Continuing professional education and other ongoing requirements for
Traditional Healers.
In 2002 the Traditional Healers Charter became
affiliated with the Traditional Medicine Network and in 2004 the Traditional
Healers Fellowship took on the administration of the Traditional Healers
Charter. This provided added resources including those needed for the
publication of printed periodicals and for a presence on the World Wide
Web.
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What is a Chartered Member?
A Chartered Membership is an solemn agreement
between the Traditional Healer and the Traditional Healers Fellowship, and
therefore with other Traditional Healers. This concept is extremely
ancient. The text of such an agreement or charter was first published in
classical Greece around the 5th. Century BC as a part the Hippocratic writings.
It is in the form of an oath that a practitioner of medicine would give in the
presence of his peers, and went as follows:
THE OATH.
I
swear by Apollo the Physician and Aesclepios and Hygeia and Panacea and
all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil
according to my ability and judgment this oath and this
covenant:
To hold
him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life
in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share
of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male
lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without
fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all
the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me
and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath
according to the medical law, but unto no one
else.
I will apply
dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and
judgment; I will keep them from harm and
injustice.
I will
neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a
suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an
abortive remedy.
In
purity and holiness I will guard life and my
art.
I will not use the
knife, not even of sufferers from the stone, but will withdraw in favour
of such men as are engaged in this
work.
Whatever houses I
may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all
intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual
relations with both female and male persons, be they free or
slaves.
What I may see
or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in
regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I
will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken
about.
If I fulfil this
oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art,
being honoured with fame among all men for all time to come; if I
transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my
lot. |
It is likely that this "covenant and
oath" was already ancient during the days of Hippocrates, as it forswears
surgery, something that was generally practiced by the physicians of that time
but was shunned by the Traditional Healers of Aesclepios' time some 700 or so
years earlier. Whatever the case may have been, this oath contains both
affirmations and prohibitions that should still apply today to all those
sincerely engaged in the service of man, by the treatment of their diseases and
is certainly valid for today's Traditional
Healer.
The Traditional Healers Charter fulfils
the same role as that ancient oath and covenant for today's Traditional
Healers.
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The Benefits of Chartered Membership.
- By subscribing to be a Chartered member you help to protect the interests
and reputation of Traditional Healers worldwide.
- By being a Chartered member you support and provide evidence of the high
level of education and training of Traditional Healers.
- The certificate issued by the Traditional Healers Fellowship to indicate
your Chartered status, provides evidence of your commitment to high standards
of practice and ethics to your clients and the public.
- The Traditional Healers Fellowship provides linkages with other
Traditional Healers for the purpose of the exchange of ideas and for the
pooling of traditional healing resources.
- The Traditional Healers Fellowship respects and supports indigenous and
ethnic healing practices and promotes and supports their right to exist and to
evolve according to their cultural needs.
- The Traditional Healers Fellowship promotes recognition, respect, equality
and unity among all Traditional Healers, irrespective of their ethnic and
religious background.
- Being a Chartered member will enable you to personally contribute to
Traditional Healing on a worldwide basis through the publication of articles
and by providing support to other Traditional Healers.*
* Please note that publications of the Traditional Healers Fellowship
are at this point in time only available in English.
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How to Become a Chartered Member.
You may apply by telephone, by email or by
mail to the Post Office Box given below and an application form will be
forwarded to you. Application forms will be forwarded either by fax or by email
as a PDF file, or by mail. If you wish to have the applications forms sent by
mail, please send a stamped, self addressed envelope if in Australia, overseas
applicants must enclose international postal coupons for the value of AUD$5.00
with their letter.
Completed application forms
accompanied by supporting documentation, two identical passport size
photographs and the current application fee (please enquire) must be
returned to the address below, documents sent by fax or other electronic means
will not be accepted. Please note that the application fee is
non-refundable.
You will be notified as soon as
possible of the Education and Standards Board decision regarding your acceptance
as a Chartered member. Once accepted for Chartered membership,
your credentials will be issued and sent by mail upon receipt of the yearly
membership fee. Chartered membership credentials (certificates) are valid for
one calendar year only.
At the beginning of each
subsequent calendar year, a new agreement that confirms that you are still in
accord with the requirements of the Traditional Healers Charter, will be sent to
you. This must then be returned by you appropriately signed, together with two
passport size photographs and the yearly membership fee, upon which the
credentials for the following year will be forwarded to
you.
Below is a broad outline of the Traditional
Healers Fellowship currently recommended guidelines for acceptance as a
Chartered Traditional Healer:
- A formal recognised qualification in the particular area of Traditional
Healing in countries and in places where such training is available,
equivalent to at least 4 years full-time study, or,
- In countries where training as set out in 1. is not available, supported
evidence of the successful completion of an apprenticeship with a recognised
Traditional Healer at a level deemed acceptable by the particular healing
traditions, or,
- The completion of a combination of relevant courses or a combination of 1.
and 2. as deemed acceptable by the Council.
- Areas of required expertise: i. traditional philosophy; ii. traditional
diagnostics; iii. nutrition therapy; iv. traditional internal medicine; v.
traditional physical therapy; and vi. traditional psychotherapeutics. A
background in modern medical science subjects will be required for applicants
that live in countries or places where such training is accessible.
See
also: Approaches to Traditional
Healing 
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For an Application Form and Further Information please
contact:
Traditional Healers Fellowship.
P.O. Box 432,
Elizabeth, South
Australia 5112.
Phone/Fax: (08) 8254 8602
Int'l. phone/fax:
+ 61 8 8254 8602
Email:
Copyright © Traditional Medicine Network 2003.
