“Holistic” is a word that has been used to mean so many different things that it has nearly stopped meaning any of them. It gets attached to serious clinical work and to things with no basis at all, which leaves anyone searching for it doing real work to tell the two apart.
So here is what I mean by it, stated plainly enough that you can hold me to it.
The basic idea
Holistic therapy treats a person as a whole rather than as a presenting problem. It works on the assumption that what happens in your mind, your body, and whatever you understand your spiritual life to be are not separate systems, and that treating one while ignoring the other two tends to produce partial results.
That is the entire claim. It is less exotic than the word suggests.
In practice it means that if you come to me with grief, we will talk about it, and we may also pay attention to where you are holding it, how you are sleeping, what has happened to your appetite, and what your faith or lack of one is doing with it. Those are not separate appointments.
How it differs from ordinary talk therapy
Less than you might expect, and the difference is one of range rather than of kind.
A good therapist of any orientation already pays attention to the body and to meaning. What a holistic practice adds is a set of tools that work somewhere other than through conversation: breathwork, sound, meditation, and an explicit openness to the spiritual dimension of what someone is going through.
That last part matters to a lot of people and it is surprisingly hard to find. Many people have had the experience of either a therapist who treats their faith as a symptom, or a counsellor who treats their faith as the only relevant fact. Spiritually open means neither. It means your beliefs are welcome in the room, they are yours rather than mine, and I am not going to try to adjust them.
The line I keep, and why
This is the part I would most want you to take away.
Psychotherapy is a licensed clinical activity. It is regulated state by state. It involves assessment and treatment, it can be billed to insurance, and it requires a licence in the state where you are physically sitting during the session. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, and I hold licences in Georgia, Colorado and Tennessee.
Holistic sessions are healing practices. A sound bowl session, a breathwork session, a meditation practice: these are not psychotherapy, they are not clinical treatment, they are not diagnosis, and they are not billed to insurance. They are also not restricted by state licensure, which is why I can offer them more widely.
I keep these separated on my services page, priced separately, described separately. Some clients do one. Some do the other. Some do both in a longer combined session, and even then I know which part is which.
A practitioner who blurs that line is either being careless or hoping you will not notice. It is a fair thing to ask any holistic therapist directly.
Who holistic work suits
It tends to suit people who have done talk therapy before and found it useful but incomplete. It suits people whose distress shows up physically. It suits people for whom the spiritual question is not an add-on.
It suits people willing to do something between sessions, because most of these practices only work with repetition.
It is a poor fit for anyone who wants a quick technical fix, and it is not a substitute for medical care, psychiatric care, or crisis support. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
How to judge a holistic therapist
Ask what they are licensed to do, and where. Ask which parts of their work are clinical and which are not. Ask what they claim their practices do, and be careful with anyone who claims a great deal. Notice whether they are willing to say “I do not know” and whether they would refer you elsewhere if you needed something they do not offer.
Those four questions will tell you most of what you need.
Where to start
The pages on sound healing, breathwork and meditation go into each practice on its own.
If you are in Georgia, Colorado or Tennessee, a free fifteen-minute call is the simplest way to find out whether this is a fit. If you are somewhere else, there is still a good deal I can offer you.
