one of many models for what i hope to become

recent quotes i like

"Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." - ? | | | | | | |
"If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice. " - shane claiborne | | | | | | |
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell ||||||
"On Facebook, no one can hear you scream." - I dont know ||||||
"The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it." - Machiavelli ||||||

"what is straight? a line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it is curved like a road through the mountains." - Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

the term "folk therapist" might be a bit off as i hope to study mainstream scientific approaches to therapy but i also would like to incorporate some of the other schools of thought mentioned:

Babaylan is a term identifying an indigenous Filipino religious leader, who functions as a healer... Although the role and function of a babaylan is open to both sexes, most babaylans from the pre-hispanic era are female....

"The babaylan in Filipino indigenous tradition is a person who is gifted to heal the spirit and the body; a woman who serves the community through her role as a folk therapist, wisdom-keeper and philosopher; a woman who provides stability to the community’s social structure; a woman who can access the spirit realm and other states of consciousness and traffic easily in and out of these worlds; a woman who has vast knowledge of healing therapies".[1] In addition to this, a babaylan is someone who "intercedes for the community and individuals" and is also someone who "serves." ...

The babaylan, predominantly women (men had to be like women to perform this societal function), was the "specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature....a pro(to)-scientist..." Prior to, during and after the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1898, the male babaylans of Dios Buhawi and Papa Isio of Negros Occidental participated in the struggle to throw off the Spanish yoke. Their primary agenda was religious freedom and agrarian reform...