Counseling in Charleston, South Carolina.
Holistic means that your body, mind, and spirit are all connected. We cannot talk about one without talking about the rest. When we work together, we may often consider different aspects of your identity and life because they are all integrated to create who you are. You are a complex, beautiful, intricate person who deserves to know yourself and be known by others.
Whether you are new to this term or have experience with it firsthand, I want to start by carefully explaining what the term “holistic” means.
The word “holistic” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: “characterized by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.”
Knowing yourself is our first work together – helping you know these parts of yourself, body, mind, and spirit. Next comes the experience of being known. Allowing yourself to be seen and known by your therapist will begin to give you the tools of vulnerability required to allow others to see you. What might this look like? Often in our work with clients, we see a lot of physical symptoms such as headaches, body pain, or tension. We can’t talk about these things when talking about mental health issues like stress, anxiety, or depression. The physical symptoms are all part of it.
Psychotherapy is a term that refers to deep work. Our work will not be centered around shallow, surface change but examining the deep parts of you that inform why you do what you do. Focusing on things in this way is less about “symptom reduction” or managing specific areas of your life but carefully examining everything about who you are and how this impacts you.
At its core, holistic psychotherapy recognizes that each person is unique and complex, requiring personalized care that goes beyond just the symptoms. Promoting overall well-being not just symptom reduction. We don’t consider it helping you if we give you coping skills for your panic attacks but your relationships are still suffering.
