Nutrition

Holistic health is an approach to treating a person’s well being by taking into consideration all aspects of life. A long term course of action includes emotional and spiritual health along with the physical body. Modern medicine focuses on treating a symptom rather than the root cause. If a person is experiencing a symptom or chronic condition, the problem has most likely been developing for some time. The goal of holistic nutrition is to facilitate a health recovery plan as well as build a strong foundation for long term optimum health.

Counseling

We explore ways to nourish and restore balance to your entire system. It’s not about fixing an individual to function as others do, its about discovering who you are, listening to the needs of your body and soul, healing what you can, and then learning how to be in the world in your unique powerful way. Methods of counseling include:

Body Centered Therapy (BCT)

Body centered therapy integrates talk therapy with techniques that bring the body into counseling as a therapeutic resource. Techniques may include, but are not limited to: breath work, stretching, dance, tai chi, qi gong, imagery, massage, mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and yoga. These different techniques are used to increase awareness of body sensations, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts so the client can learn the relationships between them. Clients may learn how their posture affects their social interactions and mood or learn to listen to the needs of their body throughout the day to reduce stress and discomfort that may otherwise lead to unhealthy coping later in the day. Many body centered therapists believe the body holds valuable knowledge to a client’s condition as the body holds physical and emotional stress and injury that may not be in our conscious awareness. As a result, our body can have a powerful impact on how we think, feel, behave, and view ourselves. By turning to the body as an additional resource in the therapeutic process, a client can work through many of these concerns and learn to become a self-healer.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (also known by its abbreviation, CBT) is a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. Its goal is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people’s difficulties, and so change the way they feel.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

It is an empirically-based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in different ways[2] with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. The objective is not happiness; rather, it is to be present with what life brings us and to “move toward valued behavior”.[6] Noam Shpancer describes acceptance and commitment therapy as getting to know unpleasant feelings, then learning not to act upon them, and to not avoid situations where they are invoked. Its therapeutic effect is according to him a positive spiral where feeling better leads to a better understanding of the truth.[7]

Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy was created as a nonpathologizing, empowering, and collaborative form of therapy that recognizes that people possess natural competencies, skills, and expertise that can help guide change in their lives. People are viewed as separate from their problems, and in this way, a therapist can help externalize sensitive issues. This objectification dissipates resistance and defenses and allows a client to address this issue in a more productive manner. Rather than transforming the person, narrative therapy aims to transform the effects of the problem. The objective is to get some distance from the issue, and in this way, it is possible to see how a particular concern is serving a person, rather than harming him or her.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is designed to help people who suffer repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. It combines the ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness. The heart of this work lies in becoming acquainted with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously learning to develop a new relationship to them.