title: Transformative and restorative processes: revisiting the question of efficacy of indigenous healing.
abstract: Studies of the efficacy of 'traditional' Indigenous healing often fail to consider the epistemologies that underlay specific healing traditions, especially intrinsic notions of efficacy. In this article, I critically engage the concept of efficacy by identifying two somewhat different approaches to the issue of outcome. In 'transformative' healing processes, healing is conceptualized as a journey in which the outcome goal is a transformed individual. Efficacy, then, is about incremental changes toward this goal. In 'restorative' healing processes, the goal is termination of the sickness and the restoration of health; efficacy is conceptualized as a return to a presickness state. These healing processes are illustrated with examples from the Q'eqchi Maya of Belize and Aboriginal peoples of Canada.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. j.waldram@usask.ca
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Waldram
mesh_terms: D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D001531:Belize; D002170:Canada; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D007197:Indians, Central American; D007198:Indians, North American; D004930:Inuit; D008519:Medicine, Traditional