What Is Holistic Healing?
Many of us have heard about holistic healing and alternative medicine but aren't entirely sure what they are. The American Holistic Health Association (AHHA) defines holistic health as an approach that encourages the following; balance and integrations of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects; establishment of respectful, cooperative relationships with others and the environment; wellness-oriented lifestyle choices; self participation in health decisions and the healing process. These are pretty wide guidelines, which open the door for a variety of interpretations of what holistic healing entails.
Basically holistic healing approaches wellness through all parts of the individual as opposed to solely the physical aspect. Holistic healing addresses the physical manifestation of illness by treating the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the body. The cornerstone of holism is the concept that the whole is made up of interdependent parts. Holistic healers look at the "whole person" in order to evaluate their physical symptoms; the symptom is used as a guide to look below the surface for the root cause. Holistic physicians expend as much effort in establishing what kind of patient has a disease as they do in establishing what kind of disease a patient has.
If you are interested in a career as a holistic practitioner, you must first become qualified in one or more methods of delivering healthcare, such as chiropractic, massage therapy, medicine, naturopathy, or psychology. Then you add on the holistic qualities and philosophy. Holistic physicians encourage patients to evoke the healing power of love, hope, humor and enthusiasm, and to release the toxic consequences of hostility, shame, greed, depression, and prolonged fear, anger, and grief.
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