Since you’ve landed on this article, it’s clear you’re looking for the answer to a valid question. There’s been a lot of buzz about holistic healers and the holistic healing initiative recently. It’s natural to be curious about an alternative way of healing, which seems to be working out well for a lot of people. So, what are holistic healers and what do they even do? How can having a holistic healer in your life help you achieve optimal health and healing?
What Is Holistic Health?
Before I get into holistic healers, who we are, and what we do, I would like to cover what holistic health is. Simply stated, holistic health is an approach to health as a whole. Holistic health takes on a different perspective compared to traditional health practices. Holistic health is a multidimensional approach to health and wellness. As holistic health practitioners we believe health and wellness are the results of all aspects of our lives and how we interact with our environment. Holistic healing practices have become more respected in the healthcare industry; especially as research continues to show significant improvements in patients who are getting holistic alternative treatments.
Holistic health considers the whole being of the person being treated and all of the internal and external factors affecting them. Internal factors are conditions like hormonal imbalances or genetic diseases. External factors are circumstances like stress from work or an unhealthy diet. If you’re specifically struggling with an unhealthy diet, reading about holistic nutrition and working with a holistic nutritionist may help you improve your overall quality of life. The holistic healing initiative aims to restore balance among your entire body, mind, and soul in order to fix any underlying causes of disease and improve overall health and wellness. In the eyes of holistic healers, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you must make sure that your entire body, mind, and soul are balanced and considered rather than focusing on treating a specific dis-ease.
Holistic healing is an ancient practice and way of thinking. It evolved just as much as we evolved as people over time. The basis and origin of all medicine is holistic. The holistic mindset can be traced all the way back to 400 B.C. when Hippocrates (the father of modern medicine) emphasized the healing power of nature. Hippocrates believed that the body could heal itself of most illnesses if properly encouraged. There are also several ancient medical traditions in Indian, European, Western, and traditional Chinese medicine that are based on holistic healing. Being holistically healthy is using a combination of traditional medicine and alternative therapy to create a whole-body approach to caring for your health and improving overall wellness.
Being holistically healthy is possible only by focusing on healing and maintaining your entire self, not just one aspect of yourself. A great way to start your journey to holistic health is by learning more about holistic healers and choosing the right one to assist you.
What Is A Holistic Healer?
Now that we’ve talked about holistic health, where it originated, and what it entails, you’re better equipped to understand what a holistic healer is and how we help individuals reach health and wellness.
There are different types of doctors with different approaches to health and wellness. There are medical doctors, naturopathic doctors, and holistic doctors. However, holistic healers or holistic doctors are unlike traditional doctors, even though our approaches to healing share similarities. We as holistic healers use a combination of integrative medicine or alternative medicine paired with Western medicine to treat our patients. Holistic health practitioners believe in helping you do everything you can for disease prevention first, and then we provide conventional treatments second. This means we urge our patients to get the root of their underlying disease and health concerns instead of taking conventional medicine to make those symptoms disappear, or go away.
A naturopathic doctor has an entirely different approach to healthcare. Naturopathic doctors usually only use herbal medicine and natural remedies to help the body heal itself. Naturopathic medicine focuses on providing healing through alternative medicine practices like therapy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, exercise, and nutritional counseling.
Naturopathic doctors usually don’t use anything outside of herbal medicine to treat their patients, unlike holistic healers who believe conventional medicine can still be beneficial to certain patients in certain scenarios. Although holistic health practitioners believe in traditional medicine to aid in healing, we only believe in using conventional medicine if it’s paired with holistic medicine, making our healing approach based on complementary medicine.
As holistic health practitioners (or holistic health coaches) strive to keep our clients and patients in optimal health – both physical health and mental health. Holistic healers treat a wide range of ailments, symptoms, diseases, and patients. We want to help our patients reach balance in life through holistic therapies by utilizing an integrative approach. Our approach consists of integrative therapy that combines conventional medicine and complementary medicine in a coordinated and meaningful way to care for the whole person.
The philosophy behind the holistic healing approach is rooted in balance and equilibrium. We believe that through a combination of holistic treatments and conventional treatments, a person can reach optimal health and wellness.
What Do Holistic Health Practitioners Do?
Now you have a lot more background on what holistic healing is and the goals of a holistic practitioner. You’ve discovered that holistic health professionals look beyond the scope of medical doctors and conventional medicine to offer an approach to health care that emphasizes total health and body wellness. Let’s apply all that knowledge to learn more about what holistic health practitioners do for our patients and how we help our patients achieve optimal health in the wellness industry.
Holistic health practitioners are crucial to modern-day life. Times have changed and people are more interested in being involved when it comes to their health. There is more information and resources out there that are increasing the desire of patients to play a bigger role in their health. Many medical doctors who treat patients through conventional medicine don’t embody the integrative approach that holistic doctors do, which leaves some patients feeling hopeless and without direction.
The patients of holistic healers wholeheartedly believe they should treat the source of their pain or disease instead of simply taking medication to subside their symptoms. With that belief, the necessity for holistic healing and having a healer who understands conventional medicine, but also understands the importance of holistic medicine is increasing. Patients are looking for a trained holistic doctor to aid them in their daily lives on their path to wellness because western medicine alone is not helping or making them feel cared for.
Holistic healing depends heavily on the quality of the relationship between the healer and the patient. Those that are interested in holistic healing should find a holistic doctor whom they are comfortable sharing with. It’s important for the doctor-patient relationship to be free of judgment and feel like a safe place for the patient. Holistic health practitioners believe that a requirement for every healer is empathy, compassion, and a complete understanding of life circumstances and limitations. This way of thinking will ensure the patient feels safe, cared for, and understood.
A holistic practitioner’s mission is to help our clients achieve their health, emotional and spiritual goals through a combination of healing modalities, guidance, education, support, and most of all, unconditional love. With that being said, a holistic health coach has a lot of responsibilities depending on our specialty and what our patient requires. Some of the responsibilities of a holistic doctor include:
- Ability to provide education to our patients
- Encouragement to engage in physical activity suited for our patient
- Providing self-care options & opportunities like massage therapy or spiritual counseling
- Teaching meditation & mindfulness
- Introducing a diet plan suited to the patient
- Getting to the root cause of the patient’s health issues or ailments
- Providing resources and support to the patient
- Introducing a course of action to improve the health & wellness of our patient
If there are specific health conditions you are looking to address, the condition itself will often lead you to connect with a specialist in holistic medicine. However, any good and reputable holistic provider will give the utmost patient care, as we truly care for your well-being. Now, let’s get into the different types of holistic healers!
The Different Types of Holistic Healers
Holistic healers use complementary treatments to provide our patient health care and a balance of energies within the patient’s body, mind, and soul. Different holistic health practitioners do this in dissimilar ways. There is a wide range of doctors who practice under the label of holistic healer and they specialize in different methods of holistic healing practices.
Alternative holistic healers can range from certified Osteopaths who work on the skeletal system and provide chiropractic care to acupuncturists who provide acupuncture with needles and massage therapy, to integrative physicians who embody a specialty in blended treatment types or integrative medicine. The physician or healer you choose depends entirely on what type of healing you need to align your mind, body, and soul.
Here are some healing occupations and practitioners that can be considered holistic healers if they choose to practice as such:
- Osteopathic Doctors – physicians that have medical degrees & work with the skeletal system
- Ayurvedic Doctors – doctors who practice Ayurvedic medicine and use diet, herbal remedies, & lifestyle changes for treatment
- Integrative Physicians – physicians who are equipped to provide care with blended treatment types (most similar to a holistic health practitioner)
- Acupuncturists – physicians that keep the human body’s energy flowing smoothly through needles
- Naturopathic doctors – doctors with specialties in natural therapies and herbal remedies
- Reiki instructors – practitioners that use the flow of the human body’s energies to heal
- Herbalists – practitioners that use plants as medicine instead of pills
- Holistic healers – medical physicians who provide care through complementary medicine and by being life advisors/coaches
When choosing any type of holistic doctor, make sure that they have the proper certifications to treat you. Herbalists, Acupuncturists, Naturopathic Doctors, and Reiki instructors don’t need to go to medical school in order to get certified to practice. However, they do need to attend a proper certification program to be licensed to treat individuals.
Free One-On-One Consultation With A Certified Holistic Health Practitioner
No one deserves to live a life without wellness. If you are struggling and not receiving the help you deserve, I encourage you to reach out for a free one-on-one consultation. I will assist you in achieving your health, emotional and spiritual goals through holistic approaches. You deserve compassion, health & wellness, and freedom.
I have a global client base and have the ability to create an online program tailored just to you. I welcome you to visit my Westwood office or to contact me by phone, FaceTime, or Skype.
Call me at (310) 277-0241 or contact me here for a free 15-minute phone or video consultation.
