Integrative Therapy
Integrative therapy is an approach to wellness that recognizes the interconnection between mind, body and spirit. My client's difficulties, whether physical or emotional, can be considered within the larger web of life. Presenting complaints often point to the need to correct imbalances that exist within other vital aspects of your life. Second, you possess innate mental resources that can be used to restore your balance, harmony, and health.
My practice of integrative therapy blends my training in psychoanalytic psychology, object relations, and self psychology with trauma studies, energy healing and the teachings and practices drawn from ancient healing traditions such as yoga therapy and meditation and includes the following modalities modified for each individual:
- Stress reduction utilizing meditation and breathing techniques
- Nutritional counseling based on training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN)
- Yoga therapy individualized to meet the needs of the client
- Reiki which is an energy healing practice to promote balance
- Essential oil therapy to increase emotional and physical health
- Hypnotherapy
Holistic, unconventional, alternative, complementary, and integrative medicines have commonly been defined as therapies usually not taught at U.S. medical schools or widely available at U.S. hospitals. At the same time, these therapies are quickly growing in public interest.
Americans are increasingly turning to practitioners who share their beliefs in these therapies, which incorporate a wellness-based, whole-person approach to medicine. These patients aren’t necessarily abandoning Western medicine; they tend to be highly educated individuals with chronic symptoms who want to integrate "complementary and alternative" medicine (CAM) into their traditional health care.
The government has responded to the public’s growing interest in CAM by upgrading the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Alternative Medicine to the National Center for CAM (NCCAM). It has dramatically increased NCCAM’s budget, has established research centers and an Information Clearing House, and is directly funding research projects.
As part of the health information program for the public, the NCCAM has classified CAM therapies into five categories:
- Mind/Body Techniques
- Alternative Systems
- Manual Healing
- Energy Healing
- Herbs and Supplements
Mind/Body Techniques are a group of CAM therapies that can teach patients to use the mind as a tool in healing their bodies. They include relaxation therapies, meditative exercises, hypnosis, prayer, and therapies that provide creative outlets, such as music, art, and dance therapies. Support groups are also part of the mind-body technique group. However, while considered CAM in the past, many are now mainstream.
For thousands of years, medicine in the world’s Eastern and Western cultures focused on people’s emotions and their essential "life force" to determine their health. A healthy flow of life force is required for wellness; a blocked flow can result in disease. These Alternative Systems to Western medicine built upon complete systems of theory and practice. Many of the alternative practices evolved separately from and earlier than the traditional approaches Western medicine used for the past 200 to 300 years.
Alternative systems that developed in Western cultures include homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine. Homeopathic medicine uses highly diluted quantities of medicinal substances to cure symptoms. These same substances, given at higher or more concentrated doses, would actually cause those symptoms. Naturopathic medicine uses treatment that include nutrition and lifestyle counseling, dietary supplements, medicinal plants, and exercise to support a "healing power" in the body that establishes, maintains, and restores health.
Systems that have developed outside of Western cultures include ayurveda and acupuncture. Ayurveda is an alternative system that includes diet and herbal remedies and focuses on the use of the body, mind, and spirit in disease prevention and treatment. Ayurveda has a long history; it has been practiced in the Indian subcontinent for 5,000 years.
Acupuncture is a healing method developed in China at least 2,000 years ago. American practices of acupuncture incorporate medical traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. It aims to prevent and cure specific diseases and conditions by penetrating the skin with very fine, solid metallic needles into points of the body. Acupuncture stimulates the body’s ability to resist or overcome illnesses and conditions by correcting imbalances. Acupuncture also prompts the body to produce chemicals that decrease or eliminate painful sensations.
Additional alternative systems include:
- Traditional Asian Medicine
- Environmental Medicine
- Native Healing Traditions
- Spiritual Healing
Manual Healing practices in CAM focus on the structures and the systems of the body, and involve manipulation and movement of one or more of its parts. Manual healing therapies include:
Massage therapy, which uses techniques that involve manipulation of the soft tissues of the body
- Osteopathic manipulation, involving joint manipulation combined with physical therapy and proper posture
- Trager bodywork, which involves the light rocking and shaking of the patient's trunk and limbs in a rhythmic fashion
- The Feldenkrais method, designed to improve the coordination of the whole person through movement
- The Alexander technique, which focuses on ways to improve posture and movement, and to use muscles efficiently
- Rolfing—deep tissue massage (also called structural integration)
- Chiropractic manipulation, involving adjustments of the joints of the spine, as well as other joints and muscles
Energy Therapies involve the use of energy fields, Biofield Therapeutics, and Bioelectromagnetic therapies. The latter includes treatments that are measurable, such as sound energy therapy and light therapy, while the former are yet to be scientifically measured. Biofield therapeutics involves energy healing or "laying on of hands." It is based on the belief that one person can affect the flow of life force in another. Practices commonly used are Reiki, Healing Touch, and Therapeutic Touch, which nurses often learn in nursing school.
The NCCAM’s final CAM category, Herbs and Supplements, is also the fastest-growing segment in CAM. More than 80 percent of the world’s population uses herbs and supplements, including more than 50 percent of American adults (although fewer than 25 percent say they use them regularly). Five to 10 percent of American children take herbs and supplements, too. Because of this increased growth, the herbs and supplements industry grossed more than $5 billion in 2000.