What Is Holistic Therapy?
Also referred to as holistic psychotherapy, holistic therapy is a type of treatment that uses both traditional and nontraditional healing methods to treat the mind, body and spirit as a whole. The theory is that to treat an individual’s illness, you need to treat all aspects of their being, not simply the physical body but their mental health as well. Illnesses rarely affect just a single part of an individual. There’s often a deeper connection, even if it’s not apparent.
How Does Holistic Psychotherapy Work?
Holistic therapy is a form of traditional psychotherapy, which is a way to address mental illness by discussing triggers and emotional issues that affect an individual’s mental health. With psychotherapy, you speak to a psychologist or other mental health professional who helps you work through your issues by identifying them and providing ways to best cope.
Holistic therapy uses a wide range of complementary and alternative medicine techniques to help you improve your overall quality of life. It doesn’t necessarily cure any symptoms of illness but makes you more aware of how your mental state affects your physical awareness.
Goals of Holistic Therapy
Holistic therapy often aims at getting broader insights into yourself as an integral part of all aspects of your life. Specific targets can be combined with personalized effects and symptom-reducing techniques. Personalized targets can include social, physical or nutritional goals, but in rehab, the focus is on building inner peace and resilience to stress. Symptom reduction aims to stop triggers and develop the skills needed to go about your daily life’s ups and downs without relapsing. Just like evidence-based and other alternative therapies, holistic techniques aim to help you build the strength to go on after rehab and enjoy a long-lasting recovery.
Types of Holistic Therapy at Ranch Creek Recovery
At Ranch Creek Recovery, we use a holistic approach to addiction treatment instead of the 12-step method. Our successful approach helps an individual recover from addiction while focusing on their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being for integrative, whole-person healing.
Equine-Assisted Therapy
Using the calm nature of your horse guide, learn life skills such as patience and resilience when you work with an equine therapist at Ranch Creek Recovery. Our team of holistic therapists can help you form a powerful bond with your mare and learn how mirroring the strong and gentle energy of the horse can help you in your daily life.
Working with a horse can be challenging and requires patience and courage to master. Overcoming this stress and challenge is one of the many benefits of equine therapy, alongside other holistic treatments.
Amino Acid Therapy
Amino acids play a big part in our body and brain chemistry, helping regulate vital processes that include organ and brain function. After using drugs and alcohol for extended periods, our bodies lose the optimal balance of proteins, amino acids and other substances that work to keep us healthy.
Holistic approaches work by addressing all the aspects of the healing process to promote wellness on a whole-person level. Amino acid therapy helps restore the chemicals that have been depleted by substance use. Our on-site addiction treatment specialists work with dietitians to help you plan the best supplement schedule and meal plan to boost your mood, energy levels and overall health.
Health and Fitness
Comprehensive healing is the goal of holistic therapy, and exercise and fitness programs are a core aspect of achieving positive holistic health outcomes. Whatever stage of recovery or physical shape you’re in, your holistic provider can help craft a program designed to meet you at your level and help you succeed. Our holistic therapies include nutritional counseling and meal planning to enable you to meet your physical health goals.
Guided Meditation
Breath therapy is a way to restore homeostasis in your body quickly and effectively, though it takes practice to master the relaxation techniques used. An experienced holistic therapist can teach you deep breathing techniques to help you learn to control your breath to raise your energy levels and lower your stress. Guided meditation is among the holistic therapy techniques used at Ranch Creek Recovery.
This type of talk therapy seeks to allow your mind the freedom to explore a serene environment while you meditate from the comfort of your therapist’s couch. Often incorporating soft background music or white noise, your therapist will ask you to close your eyes and picture a serene environment. They’ll walk you through an exercise to promote relaxation while you keep your eyes closed and your imagination engaged, at the end of which you can walk away feeling at ease.
When living with the stress of substance addiction, it can be difficult to keep your cool during stressful situations and maintain a healthy lifestyle. This is why a dynamic psychotherapy approach with multifaceted mind-body treatments can improve recovery outcomes as well as the outcomes of any preexisting mental health condition.
Sound Healing Therapy
Sound healing therapy is a form of complementary treatment that works by engaging different brain wave patterns with sound and vibrations to encourage relaxation and healing. It’s a therapy based on ancient traditions, such as Mongolian throat singing and monks chanting. A recent study in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine shows that the vibrations and other acoustic effects of music made from singing bowls show promise as an alternative treatment for mental health symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
The science behind sound healing is fascinating, with works dating back to ancient Egypt that describe the healing power of acoustics. Combined with cognitive-based therapy and life skills training, as well as learning to manage other lifestyle factors healthily, sound healing could be one of the keys to helping you escape your anxiety and other symptoms. Sound healing is a holistic treatment that should be used with other therapies and mindfulness practices for the best results.
Yoga Therapy
Adding another layer to the body aspect of the holistic approach, yoga therapy at Ranch Creek Recovery is designed to build mind, body and spiritual health in tandem. This holistic wellness program helps you:
- Build strength, balance and coordination, as well as the resulting confidence you’ll gain
- Discover the intricate mind-body-spirit connection, and learn how to take your stress levels into your own hands with deep breathing techniques and meditation
- Learn how to take a proactive and integrative approach to your healing
The stress that addiction takes on your body can lead to a range of uncomfortable side effects, like lethargy, unexplained muscle soreness, sleep disturbances and others. Retrain your body to rise and shine each day with body-focused holistic therapy work. Aside from the physical benefits, you can experience a boost in mood and energy when you participate in a regular yoga routine.
Mental Health Conditions That Benefit From Holistic Therapy
Integrated psychological care is the key to lasting success with addiction treatment services. The therapeutic process needs to combine with the internal processes that lead you to crave alcohol or substances. This works to adjust your negative and toxic past behaviors with wellness practices designed to return you to a state of health and happiness, removing the underlying mechanisms driving you to cravings in the first place.
Many people with substance use disorder (SUD) also have a co-occurring mental health disorder. According to a study by the National Institute of Health, 7.7 million American adults had a dual diagnosis disorder in 2018. At Ranch Creek Recovery, our team of experienced providers has a deeper understanding of the delicate relationship between addiction and mental health issues and is certified to provide dual diagnosis care. Here, holistic therapy works to treat a range of mental health issues, such as:
- Addiction
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- OCD
- Borderline personality disorder
- PTSD
Dual diagnosis holistic therapy treatment addresses the entire picture of substance abuse with a combination of talk therapy and individual counseling, either in person, in online therapy or over the phone, and evidence-based treatments.
Using a carefully planned combination of individual and group therapy along with medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and evidence-based and alternative medicine, you can unlearn your negative patterns. By joining motivational interviewing exercises, moral reconation therapy and other strategies with a targeted holistic treatment, which includes the spiritual nature and physical wellness aspects of your overall health, you can achieve a full recovery.
Getting Started
If you’re asking yourself, “What is holistic therapy?” and wondering how holistic therapy can help you, reach out to the mental health professionals and addiction specialists at Ranch Creek Recovery at 877-997-8931. When you want to get the best addiction treatment, connect with Ranch Creek Recovery counselors who can explore the best specific treatments for you, whether you want to go to a holistic rehab or participate in online therapy programs. Our specialists can verify your insurance coverage, answer all your questions and get you started on your path to recovery.
