The term “wholistic” or "holistic" has been trendy for the past few years. The term used in holistic medicine, holistic doctors, holistic pain relief, holistic healing, holistic ecology, etc. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines the term “wholistic” as relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts.
When applying "wholistic" to the process of counseling, the term would suggest that the whole person would be considered. But what does that actually mean? I think we can all agree that humans are complex beings. The brain by itself has received decades of study and we have not even scratched the surface of what it does and can do. So it makes sense that as the study of humans has become more complex, differing fields of study have emerged. The medical field has focused in on the body. The psychology field has focused in on the soul. And, theologians, religious leaders, pastors, and others have been studying the spirit for a long time. Each field has made amazing contributions to our understanding of each part. These contributions are invaluable in their own way.
But through no fault of their own, the separating out of these three parts has led to a problem. Let me explain,
Psychology is the study of the soul, made up of the mind, will memories, and emotions. When one considers counseling, a sub-field of psychology, many people immediately think about correcting faulty thinking, processing emotions, or reconciling relationships.
The medical field studies the parts of our body and how those parts inter-relate with one another. Our brain, thyroid, gut, and immune system are just a few of the parts studied.
What is not commonly recognized is that our soul, is heavily intertwined with our body.
For example, major depression is a common emotional disorder amongst the human population. From a psychological standpoint, depression is considered to be present due to unhealthy thinking patterns and emotional responses. But depression can actually be caused by physical issues as well. The thyroid is a little gland with a big job. When healthy, it secretes hormones and other chemicals, keeping a balance within the bodily system. When unhealthy, it can impact the health of a number of systems in the body, including the emotional system. Symptoms of depression can sometimes have nothing to do with unhealthy thinking and everything to do with an unhealthy thyroid.
So, when we are considering therapy, a holistic view of counseling is extremely important from a body and soul standpoint. However, there is another part of every human that should be considered in the wholistic counseling treatment. A person is not just body and soul; rather a person is body, soul, and spirit. Humans were created with a part desiring a relationship with their Creator. When the first man and woman sinned, the spirit part died. The spirit can only be resurrected through a choice to repent from our souls attempts to lead (sin), which is self-serving and detrimental, and accepting Jesus’s sacrifice for sins. The choice to follow Jesus resurrects the dead spirit inside of us. God places His Holy Spirit inside a person’s spirit to help lead her in relationship with Him.
If the therapeutic treatment were to only focus on body and soul, a deeper healing by the Creator Healer himself would be missed. It would be like taking medications for pain, cough medicine for cough and congestion, and vitamins for increased energy when a person has lung cancer. The lung cancer is the problem and should be treated so that the other symptoms will dissipate. In the same way, when we believe lies about who we are and who God is, our soul remains in control in certain areas of our life. Our soul is selfish, protective, and immature at times. It works very hard to keep us from experiencing hurt. What is missed is how God wants to grow the person through all the circumstances in life. Humanity lives in a fallen world. A pain free life is an impossibility, yet this kind of life is expected by many people.
When a client comes in for counseling, we must consider that there are aspects of all three parts, body + soul + spirit, at play in the symptomology of the client. Conceptualizing from the vantage point of just one of these parts will lead us to misdiagnosis at best and bad treatment and harm to the client at worst.
The goal of this blog is to encourage us to think about what it would be like to offer Wholistic Christian Psychology based treatment to our clients. The purpose of this post was to explore the reasoning behind the need for "wholistic" counseling. (I'll explain the reason I keep the "w" in the word wholistic in a later post.) In the next post I will explain what I mean by the term Christian Psychology. After the terms are explained, we will begin to explore different aspects of counseling and how looking at them through a Wholistic Christian Psychology lens will change everything!
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