Anthroposophical nursing empowers.

I was so delighted to see an article on anthroposophical nursing (p24) in the February issue of Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand. I had totally lost hope in nursing as a career choice until I found this course and finished my anthroposophical diploma (DPAN) in 2004.

Since then, working with all my clients has taken on a deeper meaning and I feel so much more empowered in my dealings with my family's health as well. Working with illness in the light of an anthroposophical approach has allowed me to see illness as part of an individual's destiny, not merely symptoms to be suppressed.

For the past three years I have been travelling to the United States to work in an anthroposophical clinic, where clients stay for two weeks and work with the anthroposophical doctors, nurses and other therapists to achieve a deeper understanding of their illness, eating biodynamic food and regaining a sense of rhythm in their lives. I am not paid for my time at the clinic. The trust running the Rudolf Steiner Retreat Centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, pays my airfare. I am so grateful to be able to work in such an atmosphere and to be able to learn so much more about the anthroposophic approach to medicine.

I also enjoy working with supportive healing substances that are made in such an holistic way--Weleda and Wala products--some made at Weleda in Havelock North, and using my anthroposophical nursing knowledge to give body oilings, hydrotherapy and compresses. I give heartfelt thanks to the women who trained me and hope that every therapy I give carries the spiritual aspect crucial to this complementary nursing model.

Adrienne Henry, RN, DPAN, Motueka