Songfacts®:

• David Keenan is an Irish singer-songwriter signed to the Rubyworks label, home of his countryman, Hozier. At 17, he left home for the UK, where he spent time in the musical trenches busking and playing clubs. Returning to Ireland a more seasoned performer, he built a live following and recorded his debut album, A Beginner's Guide To Bravery, in just five days.
  
  "The Healing" is a cathartic song that brings out his unbridled passion, telling the story of a young man in a "tomb of toxicity and ruin" who is seeking salvation. Keenan told Songfacts the story behind it: "'The Healing' came to me in the post last August. After a relentless number of weeks burning the candle at both ends and then burning it again, my younger brother happened to be in the same space at the same time, both of us reflecting on the other's confusion. It's me reaching out to him and saying I am here for him, but in the process, I was also transported back to my young teenage self when I was full of anger, full of angst and a longing to be heard and a longing to be held."
• The story of the song plays out in the music video, which shows a young version of Keenan leaving home with a guitar, frothing with anger. This young Keenan eventually merges with his present self as the healing begins. Directed by Greg Purcell, the video was shot over two days in the Irish towns of Glendalough and Dundalk.