Page 198 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

“To Do No Harm” Spiritual Care and Ethnomedical Competence 167

In one case, we were under a tree and news traveled fast that a “psy-
chological” session was happening. In these sessions, I allowed sur-
vivors to ventilate, and I normalized traumatic reactions (survivor’s
guilt, insomnia, and emotional numbness being among the reactions
that people shared openly.)
Finally, traditional, time-honored healing practices involving touch,
laying on of hands, and energy psychology appeared to be in demand by
primary victims. During this project, my EC was not robust, and I did
not make an assessment of how traditional healers were being utilized in
Nagapattinam. Ranjan, a traditional healer, mentor, and friend with whom
I had been traveling—after finding no opportunities through me and my
PFA training work—took his own initiative and began providing healing
sessions in the same room with volunteer psychiatrists. His services were
touted by consumers who found a form of healing that resulted in restful-
ness and comfort. A line of consumers formed for Ranjan’s 10- to 25-min-
ute healing sessions, and this line continued to grow during the days of
his stay in Nagapattinam. As mentioned in another piece (Shah, 2007a), by
not partnering with Ranjan from the beginning in more integrative work,
I believe I missed an important EC opportunity. Yet, like flowing water’s
ability to find lower ground and eventually meet up with other bodies of
water, the healing work of Ranjan found its way to the tsunami-affected
without much institutional backing.

Tsunami in Sri Lanka (Subacute Phase)

I interviewed Harshada David Wagner (personal interview, March 5,
2008), a New York City–based meditation teacher who innovated and
implemented psychospiritual aid beginning 2 weeks post–tsunami. While
his Sri Lankan pediatrician wife provided medical aid, Wagner worked
via Banyan Education (his consulting firm). The following are excerpts from
the interview prefaced with headings describing important psychosocial and
spiritual resiliency principles that worked for the disaster setting:

1. Partnering with local workers to channel, amplify, and adapt interven-
tions. Locals “take the temperature” of the larger community and cul-
turally adapt the work in concentric circles:
Arriving January 12, we developed a 6-week project involving
youth and parents in a number of little coastal villages around
the town of Akarapattu, in Ampara District on the Eastern coast.