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What Does Holistic Treatment Mean?

What Does Holistic Treatment Mean?

The word holistic has become a hot topic in medical and therapy communities, but what does it really mean?  Knowing what holistic medicine or treatment is can help you better decide if it is the right choice for you.

What is Holistic Medicine all about?

The term holistic means the whole person. The goal of holistic medicine is to heal the whole person, aiming at total wellness. Holistic treatment is a treatment approach that addresses the different facets of a personal wellbeing. This can include physical, mental, and emotional health.  Even social health, relationships, and faith may be considering in holistic treatment. Some even discuss energy when reviewing holistic treatment. Many define holistic medicine as both an art and a science.
Rear view of couple with backpacks behind their backs doing nordic walking in the forest in summer sunny day

Holistic medical will look to using a variety of health care options to best treat the mind, body, spirit, and emotions.  Professionals practicing in holistic medicine believe that a whole person is made of separate but connected parts. If one part is not working properly, the person become unbalance.  A lack of balance impacts overall health. Holistic medicine would aim to promote overall health through symptom easing, cure, or disease prevention.

In holistic medicine, illness or negative symptoms are seen as signs of a problem for the wellness of a person, not just the result of one ailment. Holistic medical care professionals also aim to look for diagnostics. This means that they try to figure out the source of anything troubling someone’s health. These causes could include physical, emotional, social, environmental, lifestyle, or spiritual things. Searching for these underlying and possibly connected cause can be helpful.

What are types of Holistic Treatment?

May different things may be incorporated in holistic treatment. A holistic doctor may use alternative therapies in addition to traditional medication techniques to treat a patients.  With a holistic treatment, however, it is unlikely that a person will only get a medication to approach an ailment. That holistic practitioner will likely make an entire treatment plan that may address diet, stress management, sleeping patterns, spiritual practices, and beyond. They key to understand about holistic treatment is that it will focus on total health through the additional advised lifestyle changes. Treatment requires both education, understanding, practice, and commitment of the patent.

People incorrectly think holistic medicine is always only all-natural options.  While holistic treatment&lt will encourage natural lifestyle changes or treatments, it may also include conventional drugs or surgery. Holistic is different in that it will include both of these styles of treatment to address a person’s overall health, not just focus on one health problem. Instead of just treating symptoms, doctors will try to treat the root cause of the problems.

Some common approaches in holistic medicine will include a combination of the following:

  • Diet changes
  • Yoga
  • Exercise
  • Sleep changes
  • Mediation
  • Chiropractic care
  • Therapy
    • Many holistic treatment professionals believe in the healing power of love, hope, and laughter in relationships. There is a strong believe that depression, fear, anger, or grief can negatively impact health. Therapy focused on relationship healing may be important.
  • Massage therapy
  • Faith or spiritual services
  • Acupuncture
  • Physical therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • Naturopathy
  • Homeopathy
  • Western medicine
    • Conventional medicine
    • Surgery

A true holistic treatment will require a team of medical professionals, in order to truly address a variety of treatment options.

When considering any treatment, speak to a medical professional about all of your options.  Be sure to pick an approach that feels the most right to you. This will lead to the most long-term success. 

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