Holistic Family Practice was born out of a vision as well as a missing that I saw in healthcare. Growing up, I appreciated as well as respected doctors as scholars, and scientists willing to question what they thought they knew and inquire deeply as well as profoundly to provide support to the people that they serve. I valued the scientific process of subjective, objective, assessment, and planning. I appreciated and valued deductive reasoning as well as conclusions to cvomplex subject matters. Problem solving, logic, and reasoning were all that I considered an aspect of quality healthcare, that of the practice of a doctor.
Over time, I discovered that these items were missing from modern healthcare. Doctors were bogged down in paperwork and protocol not willing to think outside of the box or question for fear of malpractice or lawsuit. Patients were becoming sicker and sicker, both younger as well as older. Families more broken, and children burdened with complex labels that defined them as different from their friends. A diagnosis such as ADD and ADHD never existed in the age of curiosity and wonderment. Brilliance was once celebrated and resilience appreciated. I always admired the concept of the old school family doctor, who knew you as a child, knew your family through adulthood, and knew you through your life cycles. You watched them age with you, they became a part of your life as well as a part of your family. They taught you what it meant to be healthy. The encouraged you, supported you, and when necessary pulled no punches about your behavior. They were your mentors, your guides, and your teachers. I saw these community health care advocateswere missing from families.
Consequently, I saw that many families were lost. Unable to communicate with each other, unable to communicate with their children, their spouses thus creating broken homes and inevitably broken family units. I saw that communication was the key to having healthy relationships with others and therefore chose to use my strong grasp of communication in an effort to assist others. From this space, holistic was born. Holistic means that we look at not your pathology, not your parts, not your symptoms or disease process, we look at you. We listen to how you perceive your body to feel, your body to respond, and your body to function. We encourage you to be healthy on all levels spiritually, mentally, emotionally, as well as physically. We understand that the physical body is the last manifestation and thus we must look to all levels of self to find clues to solving the puzzles as to why you are not optimally functioning.
Let’s face it, we have been trained to only seek a doctor when we are not feeling well, very few people seek the advice of a doctor to prevent disease. Most seek advice and guidance when they are not feeling well. Unfortunately, but the time a symptom arises the condition has been manifesting for some time and thus takes time to unravel the root causes. Holistic healthcare is about the discovery of the root causes, looking for all aspects that either build health or contribute to a disease process. These can be from the foods we eat, the toxins we’re exposed to, the pathogens we generate, the stress and lack of communication, lack of self-care, self-worth, fears, unresolved emotions, and more. The list can go on and on to the variables that break down the health of the body.
Often people come into the office with a lot out of balance. They may or may not drink enough water, may or may not eat well, may or not exercise, may or may not communicate well, may or may not connect with their emotions, may or may not have healthy relationships, may or may not be willing to make a change, again the variables are vast and it is up to a skilled holistic practitioner to weed through the disorganized chaos and create a palatable step by step plan for a person to follow in order for them to return to a state of wellbeing. If we ignore the emotional stuff and try to focus not the food inevitably we will be stopped. If we ignore the communication and focus only on the detox inevitably we will be stopped. The stop does not come in the form of a stop in treatment it comes in a form of denial, reaction, breakdown, withdrawal, old habits, avoidance, blame, etc. everyone has their flavor of how and when their journey through self-leaves them stopped in their tracks. And that is truly the case, the person (not the provider) gets stuck and stopped in their tracks unable to move forward if they step over the various aspects that led them to generate the behaviors, to begin with, in kind.
Are you wondering what is holistic medicine and why can it be the right choice for you? Dr. Constantine Herring considered the father of homeopathy in his study of how the body heals placed several laws of cure to which I will note here:
Symptoms of a chronic disease disappear in the definite order, going in reverse and taking about one month for every year a symptom was present. As such, if you have been struggling with a symptom, even a small one consider how many years this has been around. Some of you are very disconnected to your body and the various nuisances of it and may not have a definitive answer on this, however knowing this ratio helps further the understanding of time. For every year a symptom has been present consider a month to resolve it. Also, symptoms stack on top of each other and in turn build on each other as the body becomes further and further destabilized.
Symptoms move from the more vital organs to the less vital organs; moving from the interior of the body towards the skin. Many times people will come in as a result of skin reactions. They will have ignored their bodies to the point that it is screaming for some relief and thus uses the skin as a means to push out toxic loads. Consequently, when the body is healing it begins on the deeper organs, the ones that are the weaker ones and then transcends to the ones that are less affected by the imbalances. Therefore, the body will not begin healing on the outside, as this was the last manifestation of imbalances in the physical plane.
Symptoms move from the top of the body downward, beginning at the head and going in reverse order of which the symptoms appeared or have been suppressed. Before we begin to heal we first must believe we are able to heal. If someone comes in with doubt, a lack of self-trust, a lack of outward trust, a resistance, a victim mindset or any other hindrance to getting well it will prove to be a fruitless experience. Mental preparedness is key to the healing of the body, and the strength of mind, in order to heal, is imperative in order to create the actions necessary for healing. We must not doubt the bodies ability to heal, or the provider’s intentions in their guidance of you in your healing process. It is a relationship between the provider and the person to move them through the process and the journey of healing. This is truly where the spiritual aspect of healing begins and continues. The provider becomes the wise sage and the person continues to build mental, emotional, and spiritual strength each day to continue to let go of the things that no longer serve them. Eventually, the bondage that has held their physical body back with burdens lifts and they become more empowered, more free, and healthier to be their authentic self.
True holistic health does not involve the suppression of symptoms as it sees symptom suppression as a weakening of the immune system, which differs from allopathic medical philosophies. Reducing fevers or discharges simply drives the imbalance deeper into the system, thus clogging the system more and creating more imbalances for the body to deal with in the long run. Surely, allopathic medical philosophies serve us in emergent cases, when the risks outweigh the benefits, however, the delicate balance of both philosophical practices must be maintained as to support the body’s ability to heal itself while keeping disease processes at bay. This is how both world compliment one another and one does not seek to be an alternative to the others as fundamentally they are two distinct practices of healing.
Holistic practice is complex, and not always linear. Holistic providers must be open to changes in plan and new ideas, they must be willing to question things, and act in the scientific process in order to uphold their oath to first do no harm. I can cite many references to which I have read as to how we have arrived at this place in our healthcare practices, with the ongoing debate between both sides of healthcare. However, this debate does no good for the state of the health of families today. Our goal as healthcare providers is to be teachers, educators, mentors, confidants, scholars, researchers, and scientists willing to discover new things able to let go of the things we thought we knew and willing to question our very own practice with humility as well as grace. We truly do not know all of the answers, but quite simply no one does, all we know is that we are here to be an open channel and a vessel as well as guide for you to discover yourself. That is the true nature of holistic healthcare. It is you discovering you again and again, while through that process healing all aspects of yourself including mental, emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, as well as physical. It is my belief this is the most rewarding aspect of healthcare, to be able to walk the journey of birth, death, and life with all the families that I serve. I am truly honored to serve your family, with Holistic Family Practice.
All information contained in this blog post is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and is neither intended nor suited to be a replacement or substitute for professional medical treatment nor for professional medical advice relative to a specific medical question or condition.