What is Holistic Therapy
Before we begin this in-depth article, if you prefer to listen to a summary podcast of it,
you can do so here.
What is Holistic Therapy
This article will be brief and to the point. I have seen many definitions of Holistic Therapy or Holistic Therapist, and while some definitions are similar to mine, others are quite far off.
A Simple Definition of Holistic Therapy
For me, Holistic Therapy is a method of accompaniment that takes into account all aspects of being, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
This definition allows for a simple understanding, but if we want to go a bit deeper, we can include the fact that it accompanies the human being in all areas of life:
Social and family relationships
Career or professional activity
Leisure and free time
Health and nutrition
Financial situation
Contribution and service to others
Spiritual life...
We can create other sub-divisions, but these already give a general idea.
The Holistic Therapy Approach
For me, Holistic Therapy is not just about accompanying the individual, but also about guiding them and helping them to overcome their blockages and find their own solutions and strengths. It's about helping them to live a more balanced, serene, and meaningful life.
What is Holistic Therapy for Nancy, a Certified Holistic Therapist and Life Coach?
Nancy, can you share with us what Holistic Therapy means to you?
"For me, the main idea of Holistic Therapy is that everything is within each of us. Everything represents the incredible force that we are capable of unleashing to achieve our goals, the solution to each problem we face or carry, the map to discover the path where we will flourish, the key to breaking free from repetitive patterns, etc...
If it's so simple, why don't we all live our dreams?
And well, because all these treasures are buried in our unconscious. Holistic Therapy, through its consideration of all aspects of being and its many tools, allows us to bring to the surface one by one the elements we are ready to discover and integrate.
The more we are aware, the more we are free.
Our chains are our fears and false beliefs.
To update and deconstruct them, a framework of high benevolence is necessary. A space of attentive listening where no judgment is feared allows us to untangle, thread by thread, what is no longer useful to us.
I particularly appreciate several tools, even if the work on values remains the one by which therapy often begins. It allows us to take stock and become aware of who we are today, which is essential and even provides precious indications of the direction to follow.
The experience of the empty chair in Gestalt therapy is probably one of the ones I use most regularly, as it lends itself to many cases. I remain fascinated by the understandings it brings forth and the connection that is created between the parts that communicate in this context of role-playing interpreted alone but connected to all our conscious and unconscious knowledge.
Helping to formulate thoughts using the subject just ("I" instead of "you" or "we"), the verb just (must or want? be or feel?), and the adjective just (what emotion behind the emotion) seems deceptively simple and yet produces spectacular results.
As someone who often debates with myself in emotional whirlwinds, I like to observe the calming effect of the microscope technique, which makes it clear that self-observation and meditation are allies to train our minds and gain serenity.
When a session has been deep and stirring, I like to propose a moment of hypnosis to end on a relaxing note and, in concert, decide whether to anchor, at the same time, a notion evoked earlier. This sweet note is no less powerful..."
Additional Definitions
Here are some additional definitions that may be useful:
Psychology: The study and corpus of knowledge about psychic facts, behaviors, and mental processes. Psychology is the empirical or intuitive knowledge of feelings, ideas, behaviors, and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize an individual or group.
Psychologist: A person who has a degree in psychology, a discipline that includes many theoretical and practical approaches to the analysis of individual and group psychic facts and their evolution and reorganization.
Psychiatrist: A medical doctor specializing in mental health, practicing psychiatry. He diagnoses, treats, and tries to prevent mental suffering and mental illnesses.
Alternative, Non-Conventional, Holistic, Natural, Soft Medicine: These terms refer to several hundred therapeutic practices whose effectiveness is not demonstrated, i.e., not tested, not superior to a placebo, or insufficiently demonstrated, and are therefore considered pseudo-medicines. They differ from conventional medicine, which is based on scientific facts and has been proven to be effective.
Holistic Therapy
Some definitions before seeing the different approaches used in this Formation:
Holistic therapy is an expression of non-conventional medicine, based on a sense derived from holism, and designating methods that would be based on the notion of a care that takes into account the "wholeness of human being": physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual, or body-spirit, and distinguishes itself from conventional medicine by considering the patient "as a person and not as a patient".
Etymology: Who relates to holism: who is interested in their object as a whole. Holistic therapy would aim to care for the patient "as a whole", to take into account more factors than conventional medicine would.
Foundations: Holistic therapies are often based on empirical knowledge and traditional teachings, from naturopathy to shamanism, for example. They may also integrate conventional currents.
This type of therapy does not have a common protocol, allowing for a multitude of approaches to coexist with conventional currents.
These methods may sometimes be based on a critical underlying view of conventional medicine, which would only treat "the body and not the spirit", for example, or "only symptoms and not causes".
What is Holistic?
Something that is holistic takes into account a whole, analyzes something without dividing it into parts, treats the whole rather than a section. "Holistic" is a synonym. The adjective "holistic" is derived from the concept of holism, developed in the 20th century. It has been used by French anthropologist Louis Dumont (1911-1998), who distinguished between holistic societies and individualistic societies. Louis Dumont speaks of individualism for societies where the individual is the supreme value. In the opposite case, he speaks of holism. Holistic societies are traditional societies: the whole dominates over individual parts. In our modern society, individuals prevail over the whole. This term was constructed on the ancient Greek word ὅλος, "entire". However, the adjective "holistic" is rather used in a therapeutic context: we speak of holistic psychology or holistic medicine (a non-conventional medicine)
