healing
what is holistic healing?
Holistic healing addresses our being as an interconnected network of body, mind, spirit and environment in which each aspect impacts the other. When one element is out of alignment or in a state of disconnection our ideal state of homeostasis is affected. This may cause feelings of fragmentation and imbalance, which can manifest in a variety of symptoms such as anxiety, depression, illness, injury and addictions. With holistic healing these symptoms of imbalance are addressed by working with entire network, bringing us together into wholeness through: somatic movement, gentle hands on body work, nervous system regulation, intuitive empathic connection, dream exploration, embodiment practices, intra and interpersonal communication, ritual and deepening connection to our natural environment. Essentially, it is a vast toolbox of resources rooted in transpersonal and eco-psychologies that help to integrate all the parts of our being in order to live with greater ease and wellness.
transpersonal psychology
The father of modern psychology Carl Jung introduced the principle of trust in one’s psychological process, with the implication that consciousness has within itself inherent tendencies toward growth and evolution. Jung was among the first psychologists to examine spiritual experience cross-culturally, and his broad studies have helped define the universality of spiritual experience and its impact on well-being. Transpersonal psychology supports spirituality as a component to physical and mental health, viewing it as a multidimensional construct, which has experiential, cognitive-affective, behavioural, and interpersonal components.
Transpersonal Psychology (TP) was developed in 1967 with the purpose of creating a new psychology that would honour the entire spectrum of human experience, including various non-ordinary states of consciousness. TP has since made significant headway with its recognition of the genuine nature of transpersonal experiences and their value by including observations of transcendence such as mystical states, cosmic consciousness, psychedelic experiences, trance phenomena, creativity, and religious, artistic, and scientific inspiration. Abraham Maslow, one of the founding fathers of TP, describes transcendental experience to be the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness. The concept of interconnectedness, wherein no one can be wholly independent from the larger system in which we all exist, is foundational to Transpersonal Psychology.
eco-psychology
Eco-philosophers Macy & Brown relate systems science and deep ecology with the ancient teachings of indigenous cultures, in which our world is a dynamically interrelated whole. As kin to the animals and plants, rocks and winds of this sacred world, we can tap its powers, take part in its healing. Ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin calls the soul one’s true place in nature; in which one has a unique ecological role to serve and nurture the web of life a specific way of belonging to the biosphere. The essence of the human soul cannot be separated from the wildness of nature. The symbiotic joining of our ecological world with our interpersonal world is where both wounded disconnection and healing connection can arise, intersect and in their integration hold implications for health and wholeness. As such, holistic healing is inspired by and often actualized through nature.
trauma & healing
Systems science tells us that everything in the body is connected; virtually every organ, muscle and the emotional control centers of the brain are affected by the body’s stress response mechanisms in its attempt at maintaining homeostasis. As such, traumatic events are associated with significant changes in cognitive, neurotransmitter, and neuroendocrine systems. When confronted with excessive demands, the body’s response mechanisms send a flow of nervous discharges through the body, which triggers the release of hormones, particularly cortisol and adrenaline. Dr. Gabor Mate states that since cortisol itself acts on the tissues of almost every part of the body, in one way or another so can trauma.
The body’s ability to cope with physical and psychological stress is associated to the psychoneuroendocrine-immunologic (PNEI) network; the physiological network that links the nervous, endocrine and immune systems with psychology. This network is the physical manifestation of what has been called ‘the emotional body’ in other traditional medical philosophies such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicines, which are ancient whole-body systems of medicine. Dr. Joe Tafur believes we can access the emotional body from the spiritual realms, healing the body through mystical techniques and in the other direction, in which the emotional body helps us to access the spiritual and a healthier emotional body allows for greater access to mystical awareness. Through the emotional body, we find the connection of heart to spirit, to memories and possibilities.
Studies are beginning to show that traditional healing methods may help heal trauma through the emotional body, and in turn help to heal the physical body. According to Dr. Joe Tafur, the healing proposed by traditional practitioners happens by epigenetically changing the emotional imprint on our DNA; furthermore, the entheogenic medicine, such as the Ayahuasca vine has been shown to pharmacologically alter epigenetic tagging. While we cannot change the past in terms of trauma, we can change how the body holds it, thus traditional methods and medicines have positive physiological and psychological effects by helping to release held trauma within the emotional body.
The effects of trauma are much more extensive than the narrow diagnostic criteria for PTSD might suggest. Most pervasively, trauma manifests as a chronic sense of disconnection— from others, from one’s surroundings, from one’s authentic self. An over-activated or numbed nervous system is simply not in touch with the sensations and emotions that serve as messengers of the whole, embodied self. Often, trauma survivors don’t recognize that their struggles with anxiety, depression or addiction arise from the impact of the past. Trauma thus lies at the root of many individual and societal disorders. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing says it has become so commonplace that most people don’t even recognize its presence; each of us has had a traumatic experience at some point in our lives. One can experience life more fully when maladaptive patterns of trauma are reconciled through both the conscious and the unconscious with a holistic approach to healing, by working with the whole PNEI body network.
