Are You Called to Be a Course-Based Healer or Psychotherapist?

The function of everyone on earth is to be a healer and psychotherapist.

“Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for” [CE T-9.III.9:1]. “Your function on earth is healing” [CE T-12.X.5:2].

“How could a separate profession [the profession of psychotherapy] be one in which everyone is engaged? And how could any limits [such as saying that psychotherapy can be done only during these hours, in these offices, by these trained professionals] be laid on an interaction in which everyone is both patient and therapist in every relationship in which he enters? Yet practically speaking, it can still be said that there are those who devote themselves primarily to healing of one sort or another as their chief function” (P-3.II.1:2-6).

The attraction of grandiosity

Often we are attracted to one of these roles in part or in whole because we see being a healer or therapist as a special role that will make us really special. The following questions are designed to get us in touch with this pull.

1. What are your private fantasies of being in one or both of these roles?
2. Have you had thoughts/hopes that being a healer would bring fame? If so, please write down a specific scenario that you have entertained.
3. Have you had thoughts/hopes that being a healer would bring money? If so, how much per hour have you dreamt of making?
4. Have you had thoughts/hopes that being a healer would give you a higher status, either in society or in spiritual circles? Have you entertained any specific images of this?
5. Have you had fantasies of your patients showering you with gratitude?
6. Have you pictured being a healer making you special in God's eyes, or in Jesus'? Do you see being a healer making you part of a spiritual elite?
7. If you were told that you would never get a penny for healing, but that your monetary needs would be supplied another way, would you still want to do it?
8. If you were told that you would never become famous or get a higher social status for being a healer, would you still want to do it?
9. If you have wanted to be a healer in one or both of these forms, in all honesty, what do you think are the things that have attracted you?

Signs that you might have a calling to be either a spiritual healer or psychotherapist

At this point those who are convinced that they are called into one of these roles will share some of the signs that let them know about this calling. Please write down the ones that seem relevant to you.

Are you willing to…

• be an exemplary Course student as the basis for the healing you give?
• practice what you preach and become a living example of sanity, forgiveness and love?
• enter into whatever training it takes, even if that means years?
• learn how to give tirelessly, selflessly, but not consider it a sacrifice?
• learn how to see your patients as your complete equals?
• learn how to overlook all differences between you and your patients and see the perfect in the most diseased person?
• learn how to join with even the most apparently repulsive patients?
• exercise responsibility toward your patients as if, in a sense, they were your own children?
• be in it just for the blessing of knowing that you have helped a brother along his way to God?
• let Someone Else be in charge of your life, including the form your function takes, your training, and your specific words and deeds with your patients?

Think about somebody who you would like to give healing to. This can be someone who's sick physically, or it can be someone who needs any kind of healing. Think of a particular individual, someone besides yourself. Now, if you will, see that person in your mind's eye before you. Picture their body. See the signs of their sickness on their body. It may just be the look of depression on their face. Now, in your mind, say to them, "You are not a body. You are free of the body's limits. You are not a body." Then in your mind's eye, see that body vanish from before your eyes. Then behind it, imagine a dark cloud, which represents their mind, their thought system. Then say to them, "You are not your beliefs. You are not your choices. You are free of your mind's defects and sins." And imagine that dark cloud evaporating. Now, as a symbol, imagine this great shining light before you—you might want to do this as the arc of light that turns into a circle, that fills in, etc.—a symbol of Who that person really is. Say to them, "You are as God created you. You are as God created you." Finally, realize that there is no gap between you and them. You are this light, too. Say to them, "There is no gap between my mind and yours." And lastly, speak these words from the Manual, “Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness in the place of this?” [CE M-5.III.2:12-13]. “Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness in the place of this?” ------------------------------------- If you enjoyed this article, you might like this one! To learn more about our community of A Course in Miracles students, visit Course Companions.