With the growing popularity of integrative healing methods, the term “holistic” is one that is heard often these days.
Holistic healing is a process referring to the integrative healing of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit. Holistic healing modalities are techniques utilized to achieve this process. Massage, breath-work, yoga, sound therapy, and meditation are each holistic healing modalities because they work as a vessel for the integrative healing of the mind, body, emotions and spirit.
A holistic medical system, in contrast, is based on observations of holistic science. A way to better understand holistic science is to compare it to reductionist science.
Reductionism is a scientific approach that involves breaking down complex processes into their most simple and reduced components. It involves deeply honing in on a specific facet, in its own nature independent of a system, to understand it at the most basic level. Modern western medicine, also referred to as allopathic medicine, is essentially based on observations of reductionist science and views the mechanisms of disease through the lens of reductionism.
Holism, on the other hand, is a scientific approach that emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of various systems of functioning. It zooms out on the whole context of a process or a system, and then from that whole context, perceives the relationships within it and how each individual facet of the system interacts with and affects one another.
When holism is applied to a medicine, it perceives an entire network of relationships, and hones in on the integrated context of one’s inner state as it makes contact with the outer environment. The treatment method lies in the relationship between multiple entwined facets encircling one’s being. In practice, holistic medicine seeks to create harmony between every aspect of one’s inner resources, and to help one contact these inner resources which creates resilience in the outer world. This refers to something like stepping out of your comfort zone, or defending yourself against a common cold. Within the context of holism, it is all inter-related.
For a medicine to be truly holistic, it needs a system on which it operates and organizes phenomena. In other words, it needs to be rooted in a solid foundation. Two medicines that meet this criteria and have withstood the test of time are Ayurveda and Ancient Chinese Medicine. The observational science upon which these medicines operate is completely intact and compatible with their diagnostic and treatment systems. This makes them complete holistic medical systems, rather than holistic healing modalities.
So if someone asks me if Ancient Chinese Medicine can treat X, Y or Z, the answer is always yes. Technically, it can work with any state of disharmony because Ancient Chinese Medicine is an entire holistic medical system that is unbound by limitations of fixed pathological categorizations. If they ask me the same question about acupuncture, my answer is also yes. Why? Because when someone is practicing acupuncture, they are actually engaging with the whole medical system of Ancient Chinese Medicine, and then through that system, utilizing acupuncture as a healing modality to promote the connection between one’s dynamic inner workings and their innate healing capacity.
Read more about Ancient Chinese Medicine here.
