I heard the poignant answer to this at a seminar by Naturopath Stephen Eddie a few nights ago: “people don’t become depressed because they have a Prozac deficiency.” This is not to detract from the crucial and sometimes life-saving role medication plays in psychiatry, but simply highlights that there is more to the picture of mental wellness than medication.
So what is Holistic Mental Health Care, really?
Mental wellness is not limited to ‘happiness’, but is a state of relative balance that allows us not only to cope with our world as best we can, but also to create the life we would most like to live, and enjoy it. It’s also a plus for those around us.
Mental wellness is part of total wellness: how we think and feel is governed by both physical and psychological health. A huge amount of this is easily able to be balance by lifestyle manipulation and talking – the least expensive self-care options.
For example, most mental health imbalances will have an underpinning of at least one of these:
- Traumatic early life experiences (often subtle in functional families)
- Role modelling an anxious parent
- Life situations that cause stress (social or financial problems)
- Unhelpful thinking patterns and schemas
- Sleep deprivation and low melatonin
- Blood sugar imbalances, mainly hypoglycemia
- Stimulant or drug use (including alcohol, caffeine and marijuana)
- Food allergies and intolerances (salicylates, amines, MSG, sulphites, additives, wheat, gluten and dairy being the most common)
- Over or under-active thyroid
- Testosterone dominance or deficiency
- Oestrogen dominance or deficiency
- Nutritional deficiency (particularly omega 3 essential fatty acids)
- Adrenal fatigue
- Insufficient methylation
- Excess histamine
- Pyrroluria
- Porphyria
- Infections, including glandular fever viruses, yeast overgrowth and parasites
- Inflammation
- Toxicity (chemicals, heavy metals)
- Lack of exercise
- Lack of dietary protein
- Genetic susceptibility
If you’re still awake at the end of that list, it’s probably fairly evident that most people experience a combination of these factors.
Mental wellness is a result of the interaction between our genes, our experiences and our biochemistry. For example, we are all born with genetic traits of personality (and to a degree, mood). Similarly we are all born with unique nutritional requirements and physical susceptibilities. We all have extra (genetic) nutritional requirements unique to us. And not one of us has the same experience of the world as another. We are all affected by life experiences differently.
Holistic Mental Health Care aims to optimize all of the contributing factors to mental wellness for each unique individual.
Why is it useful?
At least 1 in 5 Australians will experience a mental wellness challenge during the span of their life; and this is rapidly increasing, (it is now closer to 1 in 3). It makes sense to treat the causes before they become a problem; and if they do.
Besides who doesn’t want to be happier, or have better health?
Holistic mental health care:
Ø Treats the individual
Ø Treats their unique causes of imbalance/needs
Ø Treats the whole person – genes, biochemistry, mind and emotion
Ø Uses natural methods and complements traditional psychiatry and medication
Ø Is used preventatively; and to optimize mental wellness (e.g. IQ and happiness) to create the best life that we can
Linda has been counseling at the core of her Naturopathic practice for over 10 years. She formalized this aspect of practice with a Psychology qualification in 2006, and has taken great joy in shaping her practice to address all aspects of mental and emotional wellness.
Linda seeks to treat the whole picture of wellness: physical, environmental, mental, emotional and spiritual, including:
- Neurotransmitters (good brain chemistry)
- Hormones (e.g. thyroid, adrenal, male and female)
- Biochemical pathways (such as pyrroluria, histamines)
- Food allergy and sensitivity
- Toxicity, such as heavy metals which alter brain function
- Thinking patterns, schemas and cognitive strategies
- Relationships
“Linda is known for her straightforward, respectful approach to identifying issues, and makes it her goal to stimulate growth, eliminate baggage, and equip her clients with the best take-away tools for positive change and continued development.”
This is fantastic information Linda. Thankyou so much.
What clinical investigations would you consider to start with first?
Do you like any particular modalities of counselling better than others?
Hi Matt -you’re welcome! I think the clinical investigation always depends on the person – a thorough consultation can point to various relevant areas, and I’d generally start with the most indicated areas first, and work backwards from there. As I’m sure you understand in your own professional capacity, this is the plight of integrative practitioners – obtaining sufficient investigations at the lowest cost to our clients (not always easy!).
At the risk of sounding vague, I find that a combination of modalities work (both counseling and nutritional) depending on the person. Some people will shift a lot of old thought patterns/pain as soon as they treat pyrroluria for example; and other people find that if they do the personal work first (generally psychotherapy, or regressive counseling) they will get much faster results physically (particularly with adrenal fatigue). I find a lot of people really respond well to both regressive and solution focused (including cognitive) therapies. Thanks for your post!
What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of various subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what i can only describe as an fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly you got it. The combining of demonstrative and upper-class content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs on the cyberspace.
Thank you – your words are so appreciated! I’m committed to more, thanks for your inspiration 🙂 Linda
Nice site, nice and easy on the eyes and great content too.
Thank you so much!