What is Healing?

The word heal comes from the Old English hælan, meaning "to make whole." At its essence, healing is a return to wholeness—individually and collectively. It is not just the absence of pain or illness, but a deep integration of mind, body, heart, and spirit into a coherent, harmonious whole.

Each of us walks a path toward this wholeness. Healing is not a straight line; it is an unfolding, an ongoing invitation to welcome and embrace all parts of who we are. As we begin to integrate our many facets—wounds, strengths, dreams, shadows—we cultivate inner coherence and a deeper connection to each other, to the Earth, and to the sacred.

Embracing the Full Spectrum of Experience

True healing asks us to welcome the full spectrum of human emotion. It means saying yes to joy, love, and awe, while also making space for grief, pain, and sorrow. Healing is not about removing the difficult parts of our experience but learning to hold them with compassion, alongside the beauty and light.

To walk the path of wholeness is to honour both the highs and the lows. It is the ability to witness our suffering without being consumed by it, and to celebrate joy without becoming attached to it. From this place of presence, we begin to move through life with more grace and less resistance.

The Dance of Duality and Polarity

Life moves in cycles. We experience everything through contrast—light and dark, expansion and contraction, birth and death. These polarities are not mistakes, but essential aspects of nature’s rhythm.

During a shamanic journey, I was shown a vision of a forest regenerating itself in fast motion. Trees decayed and returned to the earth, feeding new life. Growth emerged from death, and the cycle continued. It reminded me that transformation is not separate from loss. It is born from it.

When we resist these natural cycles, we become stuck. Healing requires that we allow change to move through us. It calls us to honour the dance of opposites and trust the wisdom embedded in every turning.

Facing Our Shadows with Courage

At times, it may feel easier to avoid our pain, especially in a culture that values positivity and transcendence. Some of us seek comfort in spiritual practice as a way to bypass the discomfort of grief or trauma. But true healing cannot happen unless we are willing to face the shadow.

It takes courage to sit with grief, to acknowledge what hurts, and to meet the wounds we carry with tenderness. Avoidance only buries our pain deeper. Over time, what is unacknowledged becomes the source of fragmentation within us.

Healing invites us to bring compassionate awareness to the parts of ourselves we would rather ignore. Only through presence can we begin to integrate and transform them.

The Ever-Changing Flow of Life

One of the greatest sources of suffering is the belief that pain is permanent. When we fear we’ll never emerge from a difficult experience, we instinctively try to escape it. But everything in life is in motion. Just as the seasons turn and the tide recedes, our inner landscape is always shifting.

When we recognise this, we learn to meet each moment as it is, without holding on or pushing away. We trust that pain will pass, just as joy does. From this understanding comes freedom—a deeper acceptance of life's impermanence and a gentler way of being with ourselves.

Moving Toward Wholeness

To deny any part of our experience, whether pain or bliss, is to create separation within ourselves. While spiritual practices can bring moments of transcendence, those moments remain incomplete if we have not tended to the wounds we carry.

True peace arises not from escape, but from integration. When we stop turning away from discomfort, when we stop chasing only the light, we begin to embody a fuller, more grounded presence. Healing comes through meeting the heart of our suffering with compassion and patience, and allowing it to be part of our wholeness.

We do not heal by fixing what is broken. We heal by remembering that we were never broken to begin with. Healing is a process of reclaiming who we truly are and embracing life, in all its seasons, with an open and willing heart.

About Jules De Vitto 

Jules De Vitto is a transpersonal coach, trainer, and experienced educator with over 18 years of study and practice in the fields of psychology, coaching, therapy, and education. She holds a BSc in Psychology, an MA in Education, and an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness, and Spirituality. Jules specialises in guiding individuals through deep emotional and spiritual transformation, supporting them to align with their authentic power and life purpose.

With a strong foundation in transpersonal approaches, Jules draws on integrative methods that honour the intersection of psychology, consciousness, and spiritual growth. She is a Reiki Master and Teacher and has completed Michael Harner’s Shamanic Practitioner Training through the Foundation of Shamanic Studies, as well as a Grief Ritual Leadership Training with Francis Weller. Her work is rooted in years of personal and professional engagement with transformative healing modalities.