A recent debate on another website moved me to write about the way we guard our territories as professionals. I practised in four main professions over the years. Recently I began to think about the disadvantages of clinging to the idea that there are defined roles for professionals working with people needing encouragement to heal and grow. My role in each profession merged with the role I had practised in others. My education in philosophy and psychology merged with my theological training, my social work training overlapped with counselling and counselling training overlapped with psychotherapy. When I taught, my teaching role could never be limited to teaching. The labels, language and ideas I was taught in one profession found almost exact echoes in the others. I called myself by professional labels that seemed acceptable at the time. I finally came to realise there is no separation of role ideas or practice that lasts, or is appropriate on every occasion. When I attempt to help people I am acutely aware of the need to be expansive, non definitive and curious about every expressed need to have certainty, belonging, and precise rituals for life. Even that format is tentative because my questioning is formed from my own incomplete or supposedly well advised thoughts. Temporary insights from religious, psychological and philosophical notions are respected for the rather magical gates they open in life but there is no finally formed pathway that exists or beckons me. Separating, (for example) science from spirituality, politics from religion, behaviour from emotions, the body from the mind, life coaches from mentors, alternative healing methods from mainstream medicine or private education from the mix of publicly available knowledge seems to me to deny the way the universe works. The notion we can eliminate that which seems negative and discard ideas which go against our chosen belief systems seems the opposite to what most healing processes demand. Surgery may release the intruder from the body (and it is important to do that), but the effects reverberate in other ways. Cartharsis, prayer or meditation may release the energy around the issue but the connections remain in consciousness. Therapy may address emotional strengths and inhibitors but there is no final 'cure'. When taken care of with aroha our imperfections contribute to the journey into the future. The idea we can have ' this' without 'that' is a trap every time we form a definite opinion. Sometimes I wish that, in my field, we had never separately trained psychologists, social workers, counsellors, therapists, or separated volunteers from professionals. Maybe that is far too idealistic but the separation of professions and carefully defined roles has often lead to a focus on the practitioner rather than the person seeking wisdom. Territorial guardianship leads to hierarchies and signposts to 'that which may be also true' are often ignored. In this country we have managed very well compared with some others. We are small enough to share knowledge and disseminate it widely. Health, welfare and spiritually based agents of healing have generally made a huge difference to people's lives in spite of the limits I have pointed to. My mentors appeared in every profession I joined. I remember them as people much more than their wisdom, I remember their generosity of spirit much more than their library of knowledge and I recall their imperfections with an appreciation of their humanity. In the final analysis, their chosen profession or belief system was purely incidental to the way they affected my soul. Why the word soul? Because for me, it has no boundaries and is neither secular nor sacred.
