Holistic Depression Therapy

Holistic depression therapy takes an enormous number of treatment modalities. Complimentary and alternative medicine is rapidly gaining respect in the medical world, but conventional mental health institutions are frequently far behind the curve concerning the acceptance of alternative or holistic treatments for anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders.

The FDA and the medical institution often have a tendency to hold back and disregard alternative medicine as a feasible option. Their most common disagreement against holistic depression therapy or holistic treatment for any other disorder is that there is no adequate research or hard proof to show their efficacy.

A lot of the required drug studies that are written are done through the same drug companies that produce them, which is a slight conflict of interest if considering billions of dollars at risk. People should not blindly accept the claims of alternative medicine either; there are limitless alternatives out there and some are very promising, probably even miraculous, but others are also ineffective and even dangerous at times. In general, nonetheless, alternative medicine or holistic depression therapy are vastly safer than conventional drugs.

A holistic depression therapy should not leave out any available treatment that works, and that may include mainstream medications such as mood stabilizers or antidepressants, specifically for Bipolar disorder and Major Depression. It is always essential to weigh the advantage and disadvantages because these disorders are serious and life-threatening illnesses.

Holistic depression therapy treats the person as a whole, based on System Theory which makes out that "anything done to one part of us, affects all other parts of us". Whichever treatment that is in agreement with life, will advantage the individual on numerous levels, even far past the target symptoms. Through using holistic depression therapy, it is probable that a person will also experience healing in other areas as well.

Holistic depression therapy is divided into three categories namely body, mind, and spirit:

Body
Physical interventions or physical modalities include body-oriented psychotherapies as well as physical healing methods such as Message Therapy and Chiropractic Medicine. Other approaches include dietary/nutritional consultation, herbal therapy, ayurveda, acupuncture, acupressure, Rolfing, martial arts, chi gung, hatha yoga, drumming therapy, and a lot more.

Mind
This involves working with the emotions and thought process or intellect, which include psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, journaling, art therapy, music therapy, sound therapy, dream work, yoga, and mindfulness meditation.

Spirit
This involves treating the spiritual dimension or accessing the wisdom of the essential soul or self, which include yoga, Buddhist meditation, shamanism, energy healing/pranic healing/Reiki, mindfulness meditation/Vipassana, transpersonal psychotherapy, the drumming therapy, tai chi/aikido/kung fu, and prayer. These spiritual modalities engage the body and mind, but also go beyond these levels and develop into more subtle levels of consciousness.

Holistic depression therapy is not a one-size-fits-all prescription, and it is always essential to be open-minded yet careful when choosing a treatment approach whether it is a traditional or alternative treatment for depression.