One key aspect in today’s approach to healthcare is the idea, cultivated by by medical system, that health is the absence of physical symptoms rather the energetic vibration of the whole person.
The traditional practice of treating disease without looking at the connection between body systems at its root does not explore the full health potential of the human – achieving life without chronic pain or disease and gaining proper balance between body, mind and spirit.
In contrast, the holistic or whole-person approach takes into account physical, mental, and emotional health as integral parts of overall well-being.
My on-going education into natural therapies and evidence-based holistic health includes qualification in Nutritional Therapy from College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, MSc in Public Health as well as Fitness and Exercise Professional.
I have also participated in career development programmes for healthcare providers in Metabolic health and clinical application of functional nutrition, and I practice a holistic health coaching model to support behavioural changes.
What is Holistic Health?
The term “holistic health” allows you to think beyond traditional medicine, which is a very quick way to address acute illness and treat one body system at a time. Instead, you address the health of the whole person.
I fully respect effort and commitment those practicing traditional medicine have to saving peoples’ lives. My grandfather lived longer thanks to hospital doctors’ interventions. However, the system fails to address the lifestyle factors of why he got ill in the first instance.
Strategies such as dietary changes, meditation, exercise, stress reduction, nutrition, massage and acupuncture can enhance outcomes when people recover from, for example, surgery or major health crises such as cancer or depression. My grandfather always was an advocate of movement and later on in his life, he became more conscious about his food.
The combination of both medical intervention and holistic health is more powerful in chronic disease prevention than a pill on its own.
“The holistic approach” does not mean it is not based on evidence. The only problem is that there are plenty of professionals and possibly, there needs to be more regulations in place to bring the best out of alternative medicine and alternative therapies.
Holistic health taps into the famous sayings by Hippocrates:
“Let’s food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
“Everything in excess is opposite to nature.”
“Walking is man’s best medicine.”
“It’s far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has.”
“If we could give every individual the right amount nourishment and exercise, not too little not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
Holistic healthcare focuses on the whole body and supports lifestyle and behavioural changes to extend the health span. The holistic model of health encourages the patient or client to make decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes of therapy interventions, rather than relying on the pill as a main solution.
Why is Holistic Care Important?
There are three main reasons why holistic care is important:
- Research confirms that chronic health problems are linked to improvement in exercise, nutrition, stress reduction, sleep optimisation, and stopping practices like smoking.
- Holistic health presents an opportunity to transform public health and address the shortcomings of the current medical model, which often focuses solely on illness rather than treating the whole person.
- This preventative approach offers the NHS cost savings, because holistic care uses lifestyle changes to address preventable chronic health conditions.
My personal experience of 20 years working as a practitioner of alternative medicine, practising alternative therapies such as holistic fitness, clinical nutrition, and holistic health coaching, allows me to conclude:
Our health is the most important asset for the whole of our life. We must keep it connected and address when the disease state occurs. Maintaining the whole-person approach will create better outcomes for public healthcare and families.
Moreover, the conventional medicine approach to women’s health requires a shift towards personalisation. This includes women’s life stages such as menopause, post-menopause, perimenopause or the childbearing period.
The Holistic Approach To Health
Our Holistic Performance Method, created by Daria Tiesler, the co-founder, is based on 20 years of clinical knowledge and experience. There are 4 Pillars of Holistic Performance Method:
Health
This involves looking into the functionality of the human body and biology systems, addressing the lifestyle habits driving the chronic disease manifestation. Good health starts at the bottom of cell health and your DNA can be positively or negatively altered by the impact of environment or so called epigenetics. Your mental and emotional well being are addressed in our comprehensive wellness programmes.
Body
The relationship between body and mind is strengthened when you move your body. We strongly believe and clinically observe a correlation between exercise and better peak performance of our clients. Additionally, optimising body composition with a higher percentage of lean muscle mass not only supports disease prevention but also boosts brain health and cognitive function.
Did you know your longevity and ageing of your brain are influenced by the amount muscles you have? A resilient body is strong predictor of your health span and quality of life.
Would you like to live longer with pain or without it?
Mind
The book “Mind Over Body” talks about the power of our mind and impact on our body sensations and feelings. You can improve your body outcomes by changing your mind and the way you think.
What and how we talk about ourselves with word “I am…”, for example “I am a good person” or “I am a bad person,” will have a tremendous influence on the progression of the illness and human potential. Human psychobiology is impacted by the interaction between environment and behaviour.
Growth
This pillar is one of the most transformational because it brings the wholeness of the Holistic Performance Method into one integrated coaching session. You get a chance to experience your new mind with new thinking and with your mindfulness coach, you’ll explore the new body feeling.
The growth happens from full awareness and engagement into the process of transformation of your mental health and physical health. However, you also get to experience spiritual growth into the person you always felt you are/were. The Growth pillar is a flow between all the other pillars.
Types of Holistic Treatments
I categorise the holistic treatments in the following categories in a way that reflect their benefits for your well being:
- Physical Therapy: Therapies which use water, sounds, music, cold, heat, electromagnetic, electrostimulation, or light, like Lyma laser for example.
- Body Therapy: Massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, Pilates, Yoga, strength training and Thai Chi.
- Mind Therapy: Meditation, breath work, talking therapies, coaching, biofeedback and hypnosis.
- Spiritual Coaching: This is growing in popularity in the world of wellness and is progressing towards the whole-person approach. You can see more healers who otherwise would practice in silence came up to the light and share spiritual messages. We’ve know for a long time that prayer in a profound way can support a person’s inner sense of peace or tranquillity.
- Mind-Body: Meditation, somatic work, transformative coaching and heart math.
- Nutritional Therapy: Using food and supplements to optimise body well-being and total health.
- Traditional Therapies: Traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda and herbal medicine.
The biggest existing issue which affects the use of certain holistic therapies in the primary and secondary healthcare is their evidence of work. It’s important to confirm with your primary healthcare provider if any particular complementary or alternative therapy can support your health and well-being, especially if you suffer from a chronic health problem.
The Benefits of Holistic Healthcare
The benefits of holistic healthcare include:
- Improved Health Span: Focus on prevention of disease rather than treatment of a disease, aiming to extend the person’s wellness and the quality of mental, physical, and emotional health.
- Focus on the Whole Person: This person-centred approach ensures that clinical assessments address the individual needs and brings the whole human into the integrity of the body, mind, and spirit.
- Educational: The client/patient becomes their own health advocate and together with their clinician, aims to achieve the highest level of vitality. Holistic medicine empowers them to take responsibility for the process of health promotion.
- Uses Holistic Therapies: It provides alternative or complementary therapies to support the healing process.
While the benefits of holistic therapy are widely recognised by customers, further research, including randomised clinical trials, is necessary to provide evidence of its claims.
For example, a randomised control study published in The Open Nursing Journal highlights the positive impact of holistic nursing on patients’ physical and emotional well-being. It demonstrated improvements in patient satisfaction and overall health outcomes through interventions that address both the physical and emotional aspects of care.
Whilst more of these studies are needed, holistic medicine is also an art, and the therapeutic relationship and clinical observation offer valuable insights. Its impact on preventative health measures should not be underestimated or dismissed.
How to Get Started on Your Holistic Healthcare Journey
We invite you to reach to House of Holistic Performance team and book your self-discovery session and together, we can build your foundational health development programme. Our expertise in holistic approaches to your physical mental health will allow us to be your best guide on the way to total wellness transformation.
My disclaimer: The aim of this blog is to overview holistic health and holistic medicine rather than supporting the idea of some, that it’s a better way than conventional approach to healthcare. We are not suggesting to avoid any medical intervention but to add value in health promotion and prevention.
What to Expect from Holistic Health Coaching Sessions
A few insights into holistic coaching session structure:
Initial Assessments and Goal Setting
We call it a self exploration introductory session, where we meet to discover your pain points and reasons for reaching out to us. Every practice will have a bit different format, however the main focus in should be better understanding of your story. The initial assessment might then move into your first consultation or first coaching session based on the programme you are in.
Common Practices and Tools Used in Holistic Health Coaching
We can name a few tools and practices we use to promote holistic health at House of Holistic Performance: reflection, journaling, body scan, breath work, somatic experience, neuroscience of change, body – mind integration, and guided meditation.
Tailored Plans for Individual Needs
Holistic health coaching is tailored to individual needs and our Master programme addresses the whole person based on our 4 Pillars: Health, Body, Mind, and Growth.
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Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve provided answers to some common questions about holistic health below.
What is holistic medicine?
Holistic medicine is defined in a research paper by the National Library of Medicine as:
“Holistic medicine is the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person-body, mind and spirit. It is a broad discipline comprising a wide range of practices aimed at the overall health of the patient.”
What’s the difference between holistic and natural medicine?
Holistic medicine integrate conventional and complementary approaches while natural medicine offers alternative solutions to the state of disease.
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