Conference highlights holistic medicine

A conference today at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines will feature a holistic healer, a herbalist, a Tai Chi instructor, and a Master of Divinity who’s also a musician. The all-day, “Heal Thyself, Heal Thy Patient” seminar is aimed at helping healthcare workers develop a plan for harmony in their healthcare environment. Featured speaker Sheila Benjamin is a doctor of metaphysics. She entered the School of Metaphysics after graduating from college with a degree in therapy, and had a dream there was a way to combine them. Benjamin says it’s okay if many healthcare workers come to the all-day conference skeptical of its agenda. Her purpose in this conference is to “rekindle” people who work as doctors, therapists, anyone in the medical field, and reconnect them with the driving force that made them want to go into medicine. Benjamin still works at therapy jobs with hospital and nursing-home patients, and says it’s a unique opportunity. Benjamin calls this work her “walking ministry” because more than teaching about metaphysics it lets her work with people very personally. The workshop will have exercises for recharging energy, coping with distraction in the healthcare environment and exploring ways to relax both patients and their caregivers.