Wounded Healers? Hmm . . . "I see the words 'wounded healer' sometimes. What is that?" The idea of the "wounded healer" actually comes from the writings of psychiatrist Carl Jung, who used the term to describe therapists who identified with their patients on a deeply personal basis--usually because of similar abuse experiences. But in natural health, the term is most often used to describe someone who became a practitioner of some type of alternative medicine because of a long-standing or very serious medical condition that modern, technology-based medicine could not effectively address. "The 'wounded healer' stereotype is insulting in that it implies that 'real' healers have to have experienced some great trauma or personal health crisis to be effective." At first glance, the idea of the wounded healer seems quite charming. After all, what could be more noble than becoming a healer in order to spare others from a similar experience? But look a bit deeper and you'll understand why some people--and I'm included--find the idea just a tad insulting. Ultimately, the idea of a "wounded healer" implies that only someone who has experienced a very serious (or even life-threatening) illness is fully qualified to counsel others. If that were really the case, all branches of medicine--natural and alternative--would be severely handicapped by the lack of "real" healers. There's little doubt that a physician who also a cancer survivor might bring a certain perspective to his practice but to take the idea of a "wounded healer" to the point of suggesting that only people with past histories of horrific abuse or triumphs over life-threatening diseases are "real" healers is insensitive and insulting.