Your self heal also heals your companion, so taking an extra 10sec between fights isn't that bad.

Haven't played Republic yet, but the storylines on Sith seems to lead to the fact that they all want to kill each other. May or may not lead to the fall of the empire, but seems to head in the direction of one master and one apprentice. Only level 15 on my Sith Warrior, and I've already had to kill other sith.