The Confederation of Healing Organisations – Who Are We?

The Confederation of Healing Organisations (CHO) is a registered Charity whose key purpose is to advance the practice of Healing as a therapy.

The CHO is administered by an independent Board of trustees. Healing organisations whose policies reflect its aims can apply to become Member Organisations to support and become involved in its work.

We work in the fields of education, healer training, interface with the medical profession, providing funds for research, providing information to the general public and to institutions, and support to its Member Organisations.

Objectives: In collaboration with member organisations the CHO has undertaken a wide ranging review of policy initiatives concerning education; research and promotion in regard to healing; increasing public and professional awareness of healing as a complementary therapy alongside mainstream medicine; and promoting the employment of healers in hospitals in primary care, in hospices and nursing homes in accordance with the wishes of its founder.

Member Organisations. Healing organisations that have joined the CHO in support of its aim to advance the cause of healing represent a combined membership of 8,000 with over 500 students. Member organisations to date are:

Welcome. The CHO welcomes inquiries from healing organisations who would like to join the CHO in support of its mission, and from organisations that are not primary healing organisations but support the practice of healing. Membership fee for full membership is £52.00 per annum, and for associate membership £40.00 per annum.

Collaborative Links. In pursuit of its aim to advance the cause of healing in every possible way the CHO has established constructive links with the following organisations:

  • University of Westminster
  • University of Northampton
  • Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Health
  • Doctor-Healer Network
  • Parliamentary Group for Integrated and Complementary Healthcare

Historical Background

The CHO was founded in 1984 by Denis Haviland, a prominent industrialist, after receiving treatment from a healer and experiencing significant relief for a health condition from which he was suffering. It was his ambition that healing should be made available through doctors and on the National Health Service and he was surprised to find that healers were not nationally represented by one body, notwithstanding the similarity of practices evident among healing organisations. Thus the CHO was formed as an umbrella body with the purpose of promoting healing and encouraging closer relations between healing communities.

Its achievements have been

  • To develop and promote a Code of Conduct for healers in consultation with the GMC, the BMA and the Royal Colleges
  • To institute complaints and disciplinary procedures within its member organisations
  • To establish advanced training programmes for healers culminating in the launch of the CBQ for healers
  • To establish the principle of mandatory malpractice and liability insurance cover for healers
  • To lobby the political and medical establishments. The CHO was instrumental in securing a change in policy to enable healers to work with patients under the supervision of their doctor.
  • To open a dialogue with healers in Europe

These initiatives raised the public profile of touch and distant healing throughout the UK and Europe, and contributed significantly to the importance it was accorded in the House of Lords Complementary and Alternative Medicine Report in November 2000.

Two events changed the direction in which the CHO was going

  • a bequest from the founder prompted a review of the CHO’s activities
  • CHO became a founder member of UK Healers, the umbrella body set up to negotiate the formal regulation of healing, and responsibility for the Code of Conduct, disciplinary procedures and training standards passed to the new body.

The Present

A review of our activities following the bequest resulted in the decision to change our status from an unincorporated charity to an incorporated charity limited by guarantee. In effect, although retaining its name, in September 2007 the CHO became a new charity with a new direction and an independent Board of Trustees. In November 2007 the CHO held its first Development Day as a new charity in collaboration with representatives of its member organisations to explore a wide range of ideas concerning the most effective way in which the CHO can advance the cause of healing. Besides advancing educational objectives the CHO is keen to support research into healing as in the following review demonstrates.

The CHO and Healing Research

Every healer knows that healing works because their clients feel better, their symptoms of tiredness, pain, or aching are less severe or may even have disappeared, and their medical prognosis may even have improved. Those who receive healing for mental distress brought on by their unhappy circumstances often feel as if a burden has been lifted and they can face life again. All healers hold the belief that the act of healing involves the transfer of ‘healing energy’ through themselves into the client where it reactivates the client’s own healing systems as if recharging their physical and mental batteries. Sceptics accept that many clients do feel better after receiving healing, but say that there is no such thing as ‘healing energy’ and any improvement is due to a combination of placebo response together with a co-incident improvement of their condition that would have occurred anyway, hence the need for research.

Collaborative Research Links.

On behalf of the healing movement the CHO actively invites funding inquiries from researchers working in university and/or NHS departments who wish to carry out research where any positive outcomes cannot be attributed to chance, placebo response, or other non healing explanation. To date we have agreed to part fund the following project:

University of Leeds. Clinical Trials Research Unit

Title of Project.The Neonatal Trial – a randomised, controlled trial comparing adjunct ‘spiritual healing’ with ‘usual care’ in neonates.

Chief Researcher. Dr Su Mason, Principal Research Fellow, Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Leeds.

Description. Severely ill premature babies, all receiving the full range of medical and nursing care, will be divided into two, randomly selected, groups. One group will receive twice weekly ‘contact’ healing with the healer present together with distant healing on the other days, and the other group will act as control. Comparative medical assessments over several months will demonstrate whether healing has any demonstrable effect on reduction in death rate and degree of improvement, for example in oxygen requirements, in the survivors.

Overall period of trial from inception to completed analysis – 40 months

Research proposals under Board consideration

University of Northampton. School of Social Sciences

Title of Study. Healer-Healee Interaction: An EEG – Correlation Study

Research Team.Professor H Walach, Research Professor, Dr T Hinterberger, Senior Research Fellow, U Mochty MA, Researcher.

Description. A study, using EEG frequency profiles, to discover whether the brainwaves of healers and healees come into synchrony during a healing session, implying direct mind to mind interaction..

University of Northampton. School of Social Sciences.

Title of Study. Healer – Coma patient interaction: An EEG Study

Research Team. Professor H Walach, Research professor, Dr T Hinterberger, Senior Research Fellow, U Mochty MA, Researcher

Description. A study, using EEG, to discover whether healing intention can increase brain activity and cognition in patients suffering from coma or persistent vegetative state (PVS).

Exploratory talks on future collaboration in healing research

University of Westminster. School of Integrated Health.

In liaison with: Professor David Peters, Clinical Director, Dr B Isbell, Head of Department.

Research Overview

Nearly 200 studies have been published on the effect of healing intention, or intention to affect, compared to controls. To eliminate placebo response many have been directed at affecting enzyme reaction rates, fungal growth or inhibition, bacterial multiplication rates, cancer cell inhibition, germination of salt stressed seeds, rate of plant growth and wound healing rates in animals. In humans, studies have been done on relieving depression; reducing migraine attacks and other headache conditions; relieving respiratory and arthritic conditions; supporting cancer treatment, and so on. All these studies have been collated and ranked in Daniel J Benor’s (2001) Spiritual Healing: Scientific validation of a Healing Revolution, available from Amazon or Waterstones, or direct from Benor’s website. This book includes valuable sections on healing in historical perspective, healer’s views on healing and methods of healing and is fully referenced. In summary, Benor finds that of 191 controlled studies, 124 (65%) demonstrated a statistically significant effect. Selecting 50 high standard studies he found 38 (76%) were statistically significant. A meta analysis of 100 distant healing studies found 23 high standard studies of which 13 (57%) demonstrated significantly positive effects. Research findings to date indicate that healing may be a therapeutic agent in its own right, independent of placebo response although, because of the nature of the healer – client relationship, this is bound to be involved.

In our ‘evidence based’ society, more research is needed to establish the nature of healing, the best way to select and train effective healers, and the circumstances most conducive to healing. If, as healers believe, healing works, then it needs to be available for those who need it whether in intensive care, hospital wards, hospices, nursing homes, GP surgeries, and at home. The CHO, together with its member organisations, is dedicated to the advancement of the healing movement from research to practice.

In Answer to your Introductory Question

This review of our aims and activities brings us full circle in answer to the opening question of - The Confederation Of Healing Organisations – Who Are We? Now you know – would your organisation like to join us and support our aims on behalf of our Member Organisations and the whole healing movement?

All enquires to: Diane Schooley, Administrator diane.schooley@btinternet.com

Telephone: 01584 890662

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