You might have heard a lot about holistic psychiatry recently. There is a simple explanation for this: such an approach to the treatment of mental health is becoming increasingly popular. This article will be useful for those who want to stick to the medical services of this kind. Feel free to have a glance at the material, and you will be able to reveal your doubts in connection with the matter of seeing such a specialist.
Considering Holistic Approach in Treatment of Mental Health Issues: the Basics
The first and foremost point to bear in mind is as follows: the holistic approach revolves around perceiving and analyzing a patient as a whole. The psychiatrist does not only examine the symptoms of the mental disorder: he investigates a person a way deeper than this. By the way, social surroundings are also taken into account. Based on this, a psychiatrist makes certain conclusions and comes up with a plan of treatment. Sounds rather convincing, right?
A holistic psychiatrist can help you with quite a few mental health conditions. Here are just a few of these:
- Eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are thought to be the most frequent issues of this kind.
- Personality disorders and autism.
- Anxiety issues like nervousness, excessive worry, and panic disorder.
- Depression tied to various reasons.
- OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
This is not even it. There are also other conditions that can be treated via a holistic approach. The essence of healing revolves around making an attempt to balance body and mind.
Main Principles of Holistic Psychiatrists’ Work
Holistic psychiatrists pay a lot of attention to quite a few points. The most crucial of them are about to be highlighted below.
- A holistic psychiatrist (NY) will examine your lifestyle and daily habits. He will also ask you about how much you sleep, how often you are exposed to stress, and what you prefer to eat on a daily basis. All of this is linked to your mental health. If you face one of the health issues of this kind, the reason may lie in your lifestyle.
- The psychiatrists using such an approach in their work always think of what measures to introduce to prevent the condition in the future. They will give useful recommendations and will decide how to build new habits and changes into your current lifestyle.
- Holistic psychiatrists try to avoid prescribing too much medication. This is one of the key aspects to highlight. There are quite a few patients who value this as soon as they believe such a treatment to be better for them.
However, this doesn’t mean that a holistic psychiatrist will not insist on taking medicines. There are cases when it is relevant. In any case, the specialist will explain to you why he wants to prescribe certain stuff, and you will be aware of what is going on.
Psychotherapy is one of the treatment options holistic psychiatrists use in their work. It may include neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, family and play therapy, and more than this. The final choice depends on the severity of the patient’s condition and the peculiarities of the mental health issues displayed by the patient.
It also depends on what factor has mostly led to the problem. A holistic psychiatrist will correct your nutrition and will bring significant changes to the daily menu if he thinks that it is a major reason for the problem. If it is stress that has caused your condition, he will work hard to reduce the negative effects of stress on your mental health. There are quite a few of these: relaxation techniques, meditations, breathing practices, exercise, and so on. Anyway, everything is going to be tied to your individual condition. What is more, a psychiatrist will use his professional knowledge and experience to analyze your situation.
How to Make Sure That a Holistic Psychiatrist Will Be Able to Help You?
This is a really important question for those who are going to stick to such a variant of treatment. First of all, it is advisable to contact a reputable clinic. This is half of your success in coping with mental issues. After you are done with this, you will need to pick a doctor. If there are several of them in a certain clinic, read key data about them and think of who seems to be a more professional and pleasant person to deal with. It doesn’t mean the clinic is bad if there is just one psychiatrist of this kind: he may be really experienced and care for the patients to the fullest extent.
Here are a few valuable features of the clinic offering the assistance of a holistic psychiatrist:
- It has a good reputation among its former and current clients and patients. You can judge about this by the reviews on its website (in case such a section is presented there) or other resources over the Internet. However, they should be credible enough. Otherwise, you won’t be able to draw correct conclusions.
- A clear, convenient, and pleasant-to-deal-with official website. This means that the site contains fulfilling info on the services you may get, doctors, insurance and rates, and Contacts.
- The opportunity to schedule a consultation in case you are not sure of what provider you are seeking. Plus, such a consultation may be relevant if you have some other additional questions to solve. By the way, some clinics choose to help patients online nowadays. Do not be afraid to stick to this type of assistance: it is going to be as effective as personal guidance.
Sure, there are some other factors to consider as well. However, these are the main ones to bear in mind.
All in all, the assistance of a holistic psychiatrist can turn out to be very useful. This is a modern approach to the treatment of mental issues, and you might be pleasantly surprised if you choose such a path of healing. Best of luck!