Sister Eileen McKenzie explores different cultural aspects of healing

 

By the sun and the moon, traditional Chinese medicine and Franciscanism are in alignment. While the correlation may not be readily apparent, the FSPA who have embraced holistic therapies as part of their personal health care practices are striking a balance between the yin of St. Francis’ Sister Moon and the yang of Brother Sun.

This connection makes perfect sense to licensed acupuncturist, Sister Eileen McKenzie, RN. “So much about Franciscanism is about relationships and creation, about being in balance and in harmony,” she says. “That’s what natural medicine and holistic therapies are all about—achieving harmony in your environment by striking a balance within yourself and with your relationships. In Chinese medicine, harmony is health and balance; when yin and yang are in harmony, then you have health.”

Sister Eileen currently performs a modality of traditional Chinese medicine—acupuncture therapy—for 50 sisters at St. Rose Convent, Villa St. Joseph and her private La Crosse, Wis., practice, FSPA Holistic Healing. Acupuncture helps to maintain a patient’s immune and organ systems, improve overall health, and treat and prevent illness. Most of her patients seek treatment for pain, chronic conditions like arthritis and allergies, and for symptoms like sleeplessness and ringing in the ears. Thin stainless steel needles are “gently” inserted into the body at various pressure points, stimulating areas in the body affected by different illnesses and promoting the flow of energy, or Qi (pronounced Chee). “When Qi isn’t moving, you feel pain,” says Sister Eileen. “Acupuncture is stimulation therapy to promote the flow of Qi and to help the body get back into balance.”

It’s an ancient therapy that spoke to Sister Eileen as she navigated the direction her health ministries would take. A nurse since 1992 (who went on to profess her final vows in 2008), she was teaching within the profession and discerning religious life with FSPA when “. . . I felt what I understood to be a vocational and ministerial call that I was compelled to look into. Traditional Chinese medicine was really interesting to me for it has such a long history in human existence.” Acupuncture is over 3,000 years old “that we know of from written documents,” says Sister Eileen. “I thought, with such a long history, there must be something to it.”

With the support of the FSPA community, she earned a master’s degree in Oriental Medicine from the Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and is nationally certified in Chinese herbology and acupuncture. Sister Eileen has also been involved in integrative medicine research. “They went hand in hand for me because I knew that although complementary and alternative therapies were popular among at least a portion of the population, they weren’t going to get anywhere in our health care system without an evidence base.”

While the health care industry may just be warming up to the methods of traditional Chinese medicine, FSPA began to welcome it quite some time ago. Sister Eileen cites the work of Sister Deb Schwab, who has been providing massage therapy for the sisters for maybe 20 years, “since long before it was popular.” Former St. Rose massage therapist Patsy Martinson and Sister Marian Massman, she says, also provided holistic support by teaching the sisters Qigong, T’ai Chi Chih, healing touch, yoga, and how to balance their chakras. “This community has been rather innovative in most of their traditional ministries and this is just the next step,” says Sister Eileen. “We have for some time recognized our call to be a loving presence to a suffering world. Holistic health care, which strives to integrate the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, relational and environmental impact on our sense of well-being, is a natural growth in our FSPA health care ministry.”

Sister Eileen reserves nearly 30 hours each week to provide acupuncture for the FSPA; she currently logs a waiting list for her services. This past October when traction treatments proved too costly for Sister Margaret Heil (who began suffering from tingling, numbness and pain in her head about a year ago), she sought treatment from Sister Eileen. Tracking her calendar each morning between weekly visits, Sister Margaret noticed the pain beginning to fade. She awoke one morning at the end of November to find the tingling and the headache gone, and continues treatment to maintain control over the pain. “Without a doubt,” says Sister Margaret, “acupuncture has helped me more than anything else.”

According to Deb Lamoreaux, director of nursing at the Villa, holistic treatment for pain has remarkable outcomes for many of the sisters. “Acupuncture is one way to possibly reduce or completely avoid pain medications. It really yields no side effects, while traditional medications can have many negative impacts on elderly people.” A long-term care professional in the La Crosse area since 1977, Deb says that financial restrictions usually preclude government aided facilities from offering complementary care. Having access to it on-site is the brass ring. “I know of no other facility in the area that is able to offer acupuncture, massage therapy, healing touch and other holistic treatments in-house on a regular basis,” says Deb. “The sisters of the Villa are blessed to have access to Sister Eileen’s care.”

Combining affordable holistic health care with complementary medicine research continues to be a ministerial priority for Sister Eileen. In partnership with Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in La Crosse, she is implementing a pilot acupuncture program that may very well be the first of its kind. “We’re offering cancer patients, survivors and their caregivers acupuncture in a group setting for a reduced fee, making it affordable and accessible for friends and family members to heal together,” Sister Eileen says. “As far as I know, this has not been done in a hospital setting.” Striving further to track acupuncture results, she recently worked with a group of practitioners to publish an article on data collection in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. “I’m interested in treatment outcomes; how and why people come for care,” she says.

The FSPA community is a shining example of how and why acupuncture can be a part of life lived in wellness and health. “I have witnessed our sisters contemplating and living life as fully as possible, no matter what their circumstances. We can offer real hope to a population that’s living with pain, and demonstrate how alternative treatments for it can bring us to a deeper sense of spirituality and relationship,” says Sister Eileen. “I’m just really aware that our sisters embody such an existence, and I feel gifted to be a part of it.”