What is Holistic Therapy and Is It Right for You?

Holistic therapy is an integrative, progressive form of therapy that combines different tools and approaches to fit the needs of the individual client.  The therapist’s goal is to empower clients to take control of their mental, physical and spiritual health to reach their goals through inspiring wellness. This  unique approach looks at how healing the body heals the mind and how healing the mind heals the body.  A holistic therapist will modify standard treatment to fill in specialized gaps.

 Using an integrative methodology, clients can learn to become self-sufficient by choosing health promoting behaviors and working toward lifestyle enhancing changes. Learning to utilize mind-body techniques to decrease threat-based mental habits including anxiety and depression allows the client to take control of their own  lifestyle changes. Understanding the science behind mindfulness and meditation, why it works and how it changes the brain  can provide clients with  meditative practices and encourage them to  introduce a daily practice to ease their symptoms.

 Physical health and its impact on mental health is a tenant of holistic therapy.  Using exercise to strengthen the mind-body connection might include walk and talk therapy, walking meditation, stretching, and yoga or something else to elicit the “ relaxation response”.  Exercise can affect key neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine improving mood, anxiety and depression.   Clients will gain knowledge of restorative sleep, an essential part of our overall health.

 Positive psychology plays an integral part in holistic therapy, it encompasses the science behind gratitude and abundance.  Self-compassion and renewal are the keys to change and can increase resilience  to psychological stress and physical disorders. Clients can master gratitude practices and break free of the vicious cycle of negative thoughts.

During therapy, the focus would include typical issues including triggers, negative thinking patterns, anxiety, depression and relationship-focused challenges.  Holistic therapy will go beyond these issues and also encompass the body and spirit connection; rarely are our issues confined to just one part of our being. Together, the client and therapist will focus on a deeper understanding of the parts that make the whole and work toward consciousness and healing.