by Patti Desert, LCSW-C, CEMDR, CP

Click here to contact Patti and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

The word holistic has been used to describe health care practices that include acupuncture, massage therapy, Reiki, naturopathy, and homeopathy. These practices attempt to bring harmony to the physical, energetic, and/or nutritional states of individuals.

Holistic Psychotherapy also seeks to bring balance between these systems. However, as with all psychotherapy, its primary focus is the treatment of psychological and emotional pain that manifests in depression, anxiety, trauma and related disorders. It is the way in which holistic psychotherapy treats these disorders that marks its departure from conventional psychotherapy and denotes its singular effectiveness.

Generally speaking traditional psychotherapy focuses on problematic thoughts and behavior, interprets the underlining meaning of these thoughts and behavior, and then provides solutions that are practiced by clients and adjusted as circumstances warrant.
Unlike traditional psychotherapy, Holistic Psychotherapy optimally fosters growth and healing by noting the synergistic relationship between all the ways we experience ourselves and the world—thinking, feeling, doing, and sensing. Holistic practitioners then channel this knowledge through methods that support the healthy interaction between the processes of the thinking mind, the feeling body, and the emotionally laden spirit to bring growth and healing. Read the rest of this entry