Mental health
Holistic approach to mental health differs from the conventional medicine approach in the following ways
- It blends conventional and complementary approaches to address symptoms in the most effective way.
- It includes lifestyle factors like diet, movement, and stress, as these can often be an underlying cause of illness.
- Holistic approach to mental health strives not to rigidly adhere to one particular paradigm over another. Integrative mental health combines approaches that include different modalities, like psychotherapy, nutrition, and bodywork.
It sees different factors that interact in a way that impacts our overall mental health and it includes many more factors than those psychiatrists will traditionally look at.
Mental health holistic model includes the following elements:
- Stress
- Sleep
- Nutrition and gastrointestinal health
- Spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices
- Environmental factors
- Trauma
- Family and social connections
Holistic approach to mental health care:
- Addresses all aspects of the human experience: biological, psychological, cultural, economic and spiritual
- Is client-cantered and holistic, meaning that it views the whole person both the instrument and beneficiary of achieving greater wellbeing
- Views Mind/Body/Spirit systems as interconnected, with the quality of their relationship contributing to the state of overall health
- Maintains a focus on health, rather than disease, confident in the potential within each person to envision a life they wish to live, and to strive towards it
- Emphasizes the relationship between client and therapist, creating a safe space within which to work on treatment goals
These principles serve as the foundation upon which to build individualized, whole-person mental health treatment that not only seeks to address existing symptoms, but also to build resilience and promote the highest degree of wellbeing possible.
