Healing arts

The Healing Arts include all of the Health Sciences and Alternative Medicine, as well as a host of traditional practices aimed to cure disease, heal injury and promote wellness. These disciplines each have associated bodies of knowledge. The theoretical underpinnings range from biology, magic, philosophy and religion.

In most cases, the practitioner of one of the recognized healing arts is licensed, certified, or ordained in some manner within his or her community, and commits to a code of behavior that offers dedicated service to the client. There are legal restrictions placed on the practice of the healing arts, depending on the particular type and georaphic location of practice.

Scope of the Healing Arts

Practices that are aimed to heal include non-invasive physical manipulations such as massage, the adjustments of the chiropracter, and the various talk therapies of the Freudian psychiatrist, Behavioral psychologist and clergy.

Ingestion of substances, including foods, herbs, and medicines are healing modalities used by many diverse disciplines within the healing arts. In the health sciences, these medicines are the drugs provided by phamacists, diets advocated by nutritionists and in such alternative medicine systems as Traditional Chinese Medicine, these include a large number of herbs as well as preserved portions of animals and other substances.

Invasive practices in the healing arts includes surgery as practiced by physicians licensed in Medicine, but are not limited to these operations. Acupuncture involves the minimally invasive techniques of placing needles. Traditional healers in West Africa who follow juju routinely use scarification and injections as part of their practice.