The word holistic is used in regard both to therapy and to CAM, although it is more clearly expressed in CAM. Leader (2009) sees therapy as working ‘with a person holistically’, while CAM practitioners frequently refer to treating the ‘patient as a whole’ (European Committee for Homeopathy et al., 2008, p. 15). Leader’s usage of the term holistic refers to those forms of therapy that look at a symptom or psychological illness (say depression) from the point of view of how it is related to an individual’s development over time. In other words, he does not just look at the symptoms in isolation but within the context of developmental psychology. In contrast, many CAM approaches take a spiritual view and see holism in a much broader way in terms of the intimate connection between body, soul and spirit. For instance, anthroposophic therapy addresses the danger of looking at ‘bodies without souls (medicine) and souls without bodies (many forms of counselling and psychotherapy)’ (Twentyman, 1989, p. 17), in common with some other spiritually orientated CAM systems. In other words, it sees conventional biomedicine as too orientated towards physical bodily causes and views therapy as too limited by psychological explanations. In contrast, it advocates an approach to psychological problems which simultaneously addresses body, soul and spirit by utilising a range of other interventions such as anthroposophic medicine, massage, eurythmy and art therapy in addition to counselling and psychotherapy (Lees, 2011).
Irrespective of the view we take of holism, both therapy and CAM can bring a different attitude to bear on healthcare systems generally by virtue of the fact that, in their different ways, they see their work as focusing on the whole person rather than just particular symptoms. Furthermore, we argue that if healthcare systems are able to adopt such a ‘holistic’ vision they would be more able to cultivate long-term change and, as a result of this, would be more cost effective.
Source: Lees, J. & Tovey, P. (2012). Counselling & psychotherapy, complementary & alternative medicine & the future of healthcare. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 40 (1), p.67-81.
(The image was created and belongs to Leunig: https://leunig.com.au/)
