Ua neeb khu: a Hmong American healing ceremony.

Ua neeb khu (pronounced "oo-ah neng kue") is a ceremonial healing practice engaged in by Hmong Americans for the treatment of various health problems involving spiritually focused concerns that only a shaman practitioner is qualified to treat. A qualitative ethnographic case study method with participant observation was used to analyze a spiritual healing ceremony performed by a shaman healer (txiv neeb) for an elderly Hmong American male residing in a midwestern city in the United States. The healing ritual was filmed and reviewed with the shaman healer to identify symbolic meanings and processes.