Alternative Treatments

The wellness of the body and mind are intrinsically connected according to Elon University professor of religious studies Pamela Winfield. She began teaching a course in the intersection of religion and healing over a half-decade ago, but expressed that since the appearance of COVID-19, she values the class with extra significance and urgency. 

Throughout the semester, her students explore topics such as acupuncture, energy healing and other practices rooted in Eastern religious healing, taking particular interest in Buddhist responses to the pandemic. She describes such treatments as complementary and alternative practices (CAM) that in the U.S., often work alongside Western biomedical models. Many of these practices are aimed at the physical release of stress, having mental effects as well according to the model of whole-being wellness described by Winfield.

Looking from Eastern religious perspectives, Winfield stressed that alternative explanations and reactions to COVID do not necessarily contradict medical ones and can work alongside one another.

“In Buddhism, they will not say that's your karma,” said Winfield. “No, nobody deserves this. It's not like your past actions are causing you illness now in the present. No, in the 21st century, we're pretty okay with germ theory.”

From a different lens, Winfield explained that practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have attempted to break down COVID-19 using age-old systems of diagnosis.

“TCM is an energy based medical system,” Winfield said. “They just have a different kind of vocabulary.”

Describing the symptoms making up the disease broken up to prioritize organs and binary descriptors, TCM practitioners may describe COVID as  dampness affecting the lung. As such, suggested treatments would focus on resolving such a dampness in the lungs, much like Western treatment. 

As such, alternative treatments may be practiced alongside Western medicine and are meant to act as additional commodities, not replacements for physical and mental health.

Massage Therapy

In a corner of Burlington, North Carolina’s Holly Hill Mall, Therapeutic Massage acts as a tranquil oasis. Simply named describing the totality of their services, the storefront is clean and augmented by calming music.

Offering massages as well as foot reflexology, their practices are grounded in Chinese medicine. Signage inside the storefront explains their philosophy.

Massages are based on the idea of zang and fu organs, the signage explains, which in TCM, are forms of classifying the organs that one’s qi, or energy, uses to pass through the body. For clients who book a body treatment ranging from 30 to 120 minutes, the massage therapists will focus on these organs as channels for energy, resulting in a deep massage that they describe as a “good hurt.”

Massages to the back, neck, head or otherwise are geared at relieving bodily tension, but may also affect mental stress as well. According to massage therapist Susan, the body and mind are connected and treating one may impact the other. 

With a more targeted modality, foot reflexology even claims to target different areas of the body and the brain, as shown in the interactive map below.

Reiki

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, reiki is a form of energy-based healing during which practitioners hover their hands over a client’s body to direct their internal energy. Based in Eastern theories that people’s health is rooted in systems of energy, this practice is meant to facilitate healing without any physical touch. 

Despite its deep history, reiki is considered an experimental practice—one without any dangers but also without concretely proven benefits. In theory, this form of energy therapy is meant to target pain, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve comfort and relaxation.

Despite claims against reiki’s efficacy, Christina Healey reports many success stories in her short career as a reiki master and practitioner.

After an intense spiritual awakening, Healey, a Long Island based Elon parent, described finding a talent for energy healing. 

“Recently, I discovered that I felt the sensation of energy in my hands. And I didn't know what to do with it,” she said. “Finally, I got connected with a woman who taught Reiki and I thought, '’what the heck, let me try to take the class and see where it goes.’ … And it resonated with me.”

Now having taken many classes and received the credential necessary to qualify her as a master, Healey has begun practicing reiki on others.

As a practice with no touch, Healey sees reiki as benefitting the “spiritual body” rather than the physical one, though it may have physical and mental effects. She claimed that her clients have reported eased bodily tensions and pain alleviation, as well as feelings of relaxation and a mental centering effect. Though reiki is an act on the spiritual body, Healey explained that spiritual people need a physical body to feel the spiritual results.

“When I'm giving Reiki to someone, it's bringing their body into harmony and alignment,” she said. “I don't make a diagnosis. … I just tried to support with the Reiki and with the energy.”

Healey does so by feeling her patients’ energy, she said, sharing a story of feeling a build-up of energy in a patient who later disclosed having irritable bowel syndrome. 

“I would never want to claim that Reiki is a cure all or for anything,” said Healey, “but it's definitely a beautiful support. And I think having that experience of going through the awakening allowed me to feel the things in other people so I can help them.”