LEWISTON — Two health care providers and educators affiliated with Central Maine Medical Center recently made a presentation at the Ninth International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology in Albuquerque, N.M.

Erica Lovett, M.D., and Meredith Kendall, R.N., presented results from a reiki research project that is ongoing at the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing in Lewiston and at the CMMC oncology nursing unit. Kendall is the principal investigator for the research.

Lovett and Kendall presented a poster on the health benefits of reiki for participants at the Dempsey Center. They attended workshops on clinical care, research and grant-writing while at the conference.

They also participated in a suboxone home detox healing circle at Casa de Salud, a clinic that extends access to affordable, culturally competent conventional and alternative medicine for the uninsured and underserved in Bernalillo County, N.M. Reiki master Paula Terrero of Albuquerque invited Lovett and Kendall to tour the clinic and join the healing circle. During the four-hour healing circle, caregivers offered talk therapy, instruction on suboxone, acupuncture, reiki, and curanderismo.

Lovett is an integrative family medicine physician and faculty member at the CMMC FamilyMedicine Residency. She offers primary care and integrative medicine consults to patients in the greater Lewiston-Auburn area and teaches integrative medicine to the family medicine residents at CMMC.

Kendall is a faculty member at the CMMC College of Nursing and Health Professions, and reiki coordinator at the Dempsey Center.

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