Are you asking yourself if Holistic Mental Health treatment is for me? Are you feeling like your body is aging quickly and not functioning well? Do you experience self-doubt? Is it causing you to lose sleep and increase anxiety within yourself? Are you experiencing confusion, brain fog, lethargy, lack of purpose, and low worth? Have you started to disconnect yourself from others or feel left out of things your friends and family are doing? If any of these questions resonate with you, keep reading.
The Holistic perspective is about healing the whole body.
Holistic medicine is a treatment that looks at the person as a whole rather than just treating a specific health condition. Holistic providers also aim to help you be proactive and prevent health problems by covering the health of the body, mind, and spirit. The philosophy behind it is based on balance and calmness. Through integrative medicine, holistic practitioners seek to combine traditional and alternative therapies to achieve complete health and overall wellness.
Holistic Mental Health.
A holistic approach to mental health means supporting the whole person, not just their psychological needs. We take into consideration your physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. Each person experiences and recovers from mental illness differently, which can be influenced by several factors such as age, gender, culture, heritage, language, beliefs, sexual and gender identity, relationship status, life experiences, and beliefs.
The Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual parts.
As a person, we each have multiple layers that should be addressed in the therapy process to get a well-rounded wellness plan. When we look at a person with a holistic lens we consider many things, but I want to focus on four (4) areas, the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual parts.
Our physical part is our skin and everything under the skin, the brain, organs, and everything else. It represents our physical experience in the world, our physiology, and our ability to heal. When we are unbalanced the body ages faster, is more susceptible to weakness, and loses its elasticity and its ability to rebound. We also experience organ dysfunction, problems with absorption and elimination, and a feeling of tightness, heaviness, and strain on our bone structure. When we are balanced our body reacts in a way of openness, flexibility, and health. We would be free from pain with incorporating simple movements, meditation, walking, massage, barefoot or barehand earth play (dirt, water, soil, sand), yoga, stretching, and weight-bearing exercises. These are just some of the practices that allow you to feel the strength in your own body and the collaboration of all things physical are holistic ways to bring the physical body into balance.
Our emotional part consists of our nervous system, hormones, touch, water and secretion (tears), and water absorption (bloating or clinging to and not letting go, feelings of inadequacy and trying to grasp. keep/control things too tight). Our emotional state is represented by the stillness or turbulence in our thoughts and dream states. The emotional part represents the bridge between the physical and mental parts of our bodies. This is where our experience of the world is processed and interpreted. It also represents our emotions and our relationship with all things. If our emotional parts are balanced, we are inclusive, empathetic, open, honest, with little or no judgment of others and generous with our help. Cortisol, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone will be more balanced and regular. Our blood sugar will be better regulated, heart rate regular and slow, and blood pressure balanced. The body does not retain water neither is it excessively dehydrated. Finally, the emotional part becomes balanced when we know the importance of hormonal balance. We find this in yoga, especially restorative and hatha yoga, sauna, light detox, or fasting (with adrenal and liver support), and more touch and intimacy, which are essential. Forgiveness and the act of forgiveness are also very important. Understanding the value of emotional intelligence, not just mental intelligence, is at the heart of empathic and adrenal health.
On to our mental part. This is where our thoughts, attitudes, judgments, and biases reside, and also how we perceive our self-worth and worth in the world. Our mental part is home to all things intellectual, including analytical thinking, the way we process information, the way we learn in school, and the way we use words. This includes focus, clarity, direction, and contribution to creativity and society. It is the key to bringing thoughts to realization. When our mental part is in balance, we will be able to actively engage in problem-solving, concise communication, and innovations that achieve clear and simplistic results, as well as strengthening the ability to solve problems, both emotional or physical problems, in a direct and supportive manner. When we are out of balance with the mental part, we feel confused, have brain fog, quick loss of ideas, lethargy, lack of purpose, neurosis, doubt, lack of work ethic, and feelings of belittlement and worth. Ways to mentally balance are to moderate cardio, engage in talk therapy with an emotionally intelligent therapist, and emotional and spiritual contacts for balance. The type of person who lives mainly in the mental part tends to overthink and push too hard, not letting go of emotional conflicts, and not easily or often forgiving. They may need to Get Rooted (i.e. dig into with old emotional issues from the early years to re-establish a firm foundation) and often need emotional release, which often comes from strong emotional support or communication, and a mentor who can guide them with tools such as positive thinking mantra or positive stress reliever skills.
Lastly, the spiritual part is the connection to all things to what we call God, some may use the universe, the beyond, the divine, a higher power, or the higher self. This provides protection, union, help, and guidance from an outside source. It connects us to all that is. Many do not understand or acknowledge this aspect exists. It represents the unity of all living things, including the union between our soul, life experience, and destiny. This is not about going to a house of worship. It has little to do with religion and more with your connection to someone or something bigger than you. When our spirit is in balance we get to experience calm, fearless, highly creativity, and ability to operate without limits—paired with the fortitude and support to create action from ideas. Along with this comes the acknowledgment that there’s a higher force guiding and protecting us. The spiritual part represents the synthesis and balance of the other three (physical, mental and emotional)—it is very similar to the idea that we are greater than the sum of our parts. We are mind body and spirit. When you are not balanced spiritually, you experience feeling disconnected from the understanding that we are all one and increase the feeling or thinking that we can do things on our own or alone, and in doing so increase the burden upon self. There’s also a heavy focus and over-reliance on doing, controlling, and grasping an exterior reference or relationship. Ways to bring one into balance spiritually may be through meditation, breath work, gratitude, humility, generosity, and the act of selflessly giving—seeing others as you see (or wish to see) yourself, and acting accordingly.
With this being said, the thing that holistic treatment provides is a complete and renewed awareness of self and how all parts of us interconnect and impact the other parts of ourselves.
The holistic approach offers a different perspective on how to embrace the journey of healing. Our wellness cannot be minimized to just a singular area. We are complex human beings and deserve to explore all parts of ourselves. When we open ourselves to looking at these possibilities we allow healing to begin to take place.
“Wellness encompasses a healthy body, a sound mind, and a tranquil spirit. Enjoy the journey as you strive for wellness.”– Laurette Gagnon Beaulieu
So if you feel a holistic approach to your healing is just what you are looking for BOOK A 15 min Consultation call with me and let’s start on your journey of healing.
Still unsure? If you want to learn more, subscribe to my podcast, Getting Rooted for discussions about healing from trauma and interviews with thought-leaders in the fields of trauma, mindfulness, yoga, and other holistic approaches to healing.
I can’t wait to hear from you or see you in the comments on my social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
-Be Well-
Jeanine
