Where is holistic therapy heading?

[Pavle]

Do you have an opinion?

This is quite a broad based question, I know - but it is something that I think about a lot.

I come across a number of quite heated discussions on the validity or otherwise of complementary therapies. People who speak out against complementary therapy are harsh in their dismissal.

The arguments are at the level of 'prove that it works'.

However, I know that you will all agree that there is so much more to complementary therapy than this - there's learning personal responsibility, opening your heart and connecting with your own power just to start with.

Through my own experience of life coaching and personal development I have discovered that complementary therapies support self growth - developing self confidence, unfolding potential and generally, supporting people to live 'bigger' lives.

And as your life opens out, so you get more energy and become healthier.

But how widely is this known - and does it need to be?

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Wishing you well,

Alison

 

[Little Bitty]

Briefly, for now ... I would say increasingly widely known, but there is room for improvement

Does it need to be? Yes, not forgetting that a doctor once told me that aromatherapy was fine if you wanted to smell nice ... really! [:-]

Holistic

 

[cqekhuexieaizoexp]

Alison, thank you for your post I think it has a lot of relevancy. You are right that there are a lot of sceptics out there and they tend to be the harshest critics - not least because they have never discovered what it is to be happy and healthy and are too stuck in the now socially accepted form of treatment for your body.

It is a hard call for a lot of people to be even begin to imagine what they are made of and how this works. For anyone to understand that they are just a set of molecules that are held together by energy in the same way that a rock is or any object. It is the way those molecules hang together that make things and animals etc what they are. It is a hard call for anyone to accept that the way we treat ourselves in thought and what we put inside them, will affect the way the energy works in us and for us and that any outside influence be it massage, derivitive drugs, reiki, holistic healing, herbs - will affect us in some way. How you percieve that change is very much up to the individual. Individual perception is what creates change - so it is all about what works for you.

In my opinion you can only change a sceptic if they want to change and embrace other forms of treatment to the one they happen to believe in and really there is nothing to be done other than to ignore them. Just continue to focus on what you believe in and enjoy the happiness and healing that brings.

Knowing that you can be healed and lead a better more productive life if you are willing to embrace that knowing that goes beyond belief is the key to being. You have to know without a shdow of a doubt that the course of action you choose to take will make a difference and you know what - it will.

The best course of action is not to give over a lot of time and energy to those that don't want to embrace their own inner power, but to continue pouring energy into those that really want to make changes. I would think there is a growing movement towards holistic lifestyles and if enough energy goes into it then the flame will grow brighter.

 

[$hanea :)]

Hi Alison
I think the currant debate on complimentary therapies is wonderfull, the more vitriolic the better !
The oldguards (gods)opinionsare no longer excepted without question.
The general publicare now beginning to learn by experience what works for them as individuals.
It will still take many years for change to take place as so much that is detrimental is engrained in our culture.
One daythefocus will be far more on prevention
rather than cure.

Regards steve

 

[Injellanedhek]

It's the very rate of growth of interest in CAM that is terrifying the drug companies. I honestly believe that it is the beginning of the end for them, as people are increasingly aware of the death and illness they have caused. Of course, they won't go away quickly or quietly and there is no doubt in my mind that they are manipulating the media to plant doubts in the mind of the public.

It's very important that we as therapists should maintain very high standards in our practices and I have no problem with the idea of regulation. There is a lot of alternative rubbish out there and it does our cause no good. If we can generate public respect the future of CAM has never been rosier.

 

[DR + Mrs Bears face]

I share the same view as hmgcarr, and Holistic's post has given me goosebumps. If a Dr is navie enough to think aromatherapy is 'munmo jumbo' what does he think most medicains are made of - and if chemicals, where does the structure of the chemical componds come from?

Nature!

 

[Rusty]

With regard to both the commenhts raised by Hmgcarr, as well as Urban, modern medicines do infact come from herbs & plants, but with a major problem. The problem, as already stated by Hmg, about the illness/death caused as side-effects of medicines, that is solely due to the fact that Chemical based medicines are NOT using the WHOLE of the plant.All they are doing, is extracting the necessary chemical compounds they require, for whatever medicine they are making, and then ignoring all the rest of the chemical compounds that go into making the whole plant.

It iswell known that ALL the compounds within the plant are necessary for it to work properly, ifyou extract just1 of the compounds, then you aregoing to cause a problem, as the rest of the compounds in that plentnegate any possible bad side-effects, mother nature made plants that way.

With all the vast information available in Library's, as well as on the internet, plus historical pharmacutical (spelling) knowledge, and the fact of so many known side-effects to their medicines, you would think that the pharmacutical companies would learn from this knowledge/mistakes & use more of the neglected compounds from the original plants these came from, for their medicines, we would then see far less instances of reactive side-effects, or death.

 

[UditaC]

They don't care though! They are driven by greed and money.

The NHS don't offer or even advertise holistic therapy, and why? It is funded by the pharmaceutical companies []

 

[Anni Apple +Midnight]

> They don't care though! They are driven by greed and money.

Too right they are, Greed & Money is the way the WHOLE WORLD is run nowadays.

> The NHS don't offer or even advertise holistic therapy, and why? It is funded by the pharmaceutical companies []

Exactly, and the fact that if they did advertise Holistic Therapies, they might risk losing Clients, oh yes, your NO LONGER a patient on the NHS, your a CLIENT.

 

[Scheat]

What a sad world we're living in eh!?

I had to beg my freinds and family to be case studies for me, you'd think people would jump at free treatment!

 

[aguamoose]

Thiswould seem to be borne out at the website of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists:

[link=http://www.nimh.org.uk/]http://www.nimh.org.uk/[/link]

where you can also find ahighly qualified practitioner near to you, as I have done, since I'm a huge fan of herbal medicine, and have said so here on HP many times. Sometimes prevention/sometimes cure

Another website which may be of interest is that of What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY):

[link=http://www.wddty.com/]http://www.wddty.com/[/link]

Quite a lot of info on subscription only, but they publish a free weekly newsletter with plenty of free info.

Apologies to Urban_Hippy:



Oh dear! That was over 10 years ago, perhaps that doctor has revised her views. If not, never mind, 'cos I've moved since then. I've had some interesting conversations with chemists pharmacists, and actually believe there is much interest on both sides in what the other is doing/how they are working. It just seems to be down to getting them talking to each other!

Holistic

 

[Will H]

Thanks Holistic, I knew some1 else would also belief me in thinking/believing this.

This is a viewpoint/belief I have held for a very long time.

I worked on a Medical Trial Scheme when I was younger, when speaking to some of the staff at the Research Centre, they admitted that they only take the compounds they need, & leave the rest, as the rest of the compounds hold no interest or value to the specific medicine they are trying to make.

My mom did a training course years ago, I can't remember what it is specifically called, but she is qualified in making Herbal Remedies. She mentioned on numerous occasions about these facts, &quite alotof these facts were substantiated, by the documention provided on her course.

 

[lonely_soul]

What an interesting discussion.

I have just joined this forum, and you will probably view me as a 'sceptic' so let me tell you where I am coming from.

I am a qualified Psychologist (that's with a degree from a red brick University BSc (Hons) Psychology) and I am about to start a research project on belief.

I have always been fascinated with why people believe in things. My main research interest is religion, but I am also interested in why people believe in other unproven things - such as some complementary therapies.

Before you all JUMP DOWN MY THROAT! I am interested in alt. med - and I believe that some of it works (although it may work for different reasons than the reasons given - egby aplacebo effect). My research interest is not whether your particular therapy works - but why do people believe it does? Why do you believe it does? Can you confidently write off everything that science says if it doesn't agree with your theory?

Many complementary therapists are scathing of science - but if science proved your therapy worked, would you be so scathing? Why not?

Why do people believe in an afterlife? ghosts? homeopathy? astrology?

I would love to know what you think on this. Maybe you would like to discuss this in general, or with reference to your particular therapy.


Angela

 

[Sludge]

Hello- I would like to give you a brief answer to one of the questions you pose at this stage-
Why doI 'believe in homeopathy'?
I'm a homeopath, with a 10 year old practise, people have homeopathic treatment from meand the vast majority get better. I therefore, take it that homeopathy is effective- every bit as much as conventional treatment and in many cases, more so.

A sceptic wouldno doubt say that because there isapparently no satisfactory scientific explanation, it is not the homeopathic medicines that are curing.
In response, I would say that there may not be a satisfactory explanation with our current line of thinking and present scientific understanding, but that doesn't mean to say that there will never will be.
If homeopathic medicines are given according to sound homeopathic principals (and not according to allopathicindications, as theyusually are in medical research on homeopathy), they arewithout doubt, whollyeffective.-That's enough prooffor me that homeopathy 'works'.

 

[unpublishedpoet]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me, Hom.

You state that you have been a homeopath for 10 years, and your evidence that it works is because you can see it working for your patients.

CanI ask you to think back further than the 10 years - what made you train as a homeopath - presumably you were convinced it works before you started your training? What convinced you?

And do you believe in any other alternative remedies as well? If so, what makes you believe in them?

Angela

 

[opgvfpbc]

Hello again,
Yes, I was drawn to homeopathy for myself as I had a health problem that had not been resolved using conventional medicine and had several friends at the time who had been helped by homeopathic medicine. It was successful for me and this encouraged me to begin studying it, as I felt that asit was safe,effective and withno side effects, it must be preferable to conventional drug treatment in many cases.

I can't really speak for other therapies- I don't use them for myself- or practise them- so I prefer to suspend my judgement.
Perhaps there are some other practitioners out there who can enlighten you! HTH Hom

 

[nick102]

Yes I believe that the idea of Voluntary Self Regulation is very good. I am a member of a Regulatory Body Group myself. I have been teaching for many yearsand my association was the first in the country to impose Compulsory Codes of Conduct and ethicson its students. We often hear of therapist that are working well outside of any Code whatsoever. As far as I am concerned, until all training centres and associations also make their codes of conduct compulsory we are not doing our cause any good.



They are actually offering Complementary Therapies now. In fact we have just finished trainingThree Nurses and a Doctor, who all intend to use it while working in the NHS. The only reason they came to us was the Strict Codes of Conduct Etc.

Before you ask we are an independant Training Provider and have been since 1967.

 

[beneoumbept]

Hi all

I think more and more people are turning to CAM. I did 2 1/2 years ago when I lost my dad and the doctor 6 months later gave me a full mot because I had a problem. Came back A1 but the problem was NOT solved. Ended up having acupuncture which sorted it in 6 weekly treatments. I have now just qualified as a reflexologist because eventually I want to do 5 element acupuncture. I have seen first hand in the case studies the improvement in people as well as myself. I graduated a while back from a very big well established university in music and media, went on to PGCE and taught music in schools. Also had experience in NHS Learning Disabilities sector in the training dept and now work p/t selling musical instruments. The rest of my time I am devoting to CAM because it feels right and it works for me. Just a question Angelasmith re have you ever had an CAM treatments at all instead of going to the doctor? At one time I would only go to the doctor but rarely did so as I preferred to try and remain healthy by correct diet etc, did not even think of CAM but was aware vaguely of acupuncture as my uncle had treatment for years on his knee and hip joint - he was a farmer. VSR is good and if all the CAM bodies agree and present a united front instead of any in fighting then we show Western medicine that we are professional. A lot of the doctors are more switched on and in tune with CAM particularly non Western doctors probably because of their ethnic background. Looking forward to speading the word and championing the cause.

 

[Karo]

I think people are turning to comp therapies when they arent getting pain relief from conventional treatments.
Obviously people also have a treatment just because it is pleasant. A few years ago, my mum hurt her shoulder, a swing door hit it at work, she was in agony and waited so long for a physio appointment by that time I had done reiki and did a couple of treatments on her.
She said that she felt that after she had reiki, she was pain free and had movement in her shoulder, in the end she didnt need physio.
I also worked on someone, just for one session who had hurt their knee the previous evening and had very little movement in it, by the end of the treatment they could bend their knee.
They couldnt believe it and I was amazed as well.
The thing is, some GPs arent against reiki and comp therapies, near where I work there is someone attached to a practice who does aromatherapy and reflexology and its free.
A local drug and alcohol project has trained its staff in auricular acupuncture.
I could really have done with some comp therapies 4 years ago when I was going through one of the most stressful periods of my entire life but I knew nothing about them at that time.
The thing is as a holistic therapist, you arent offering people a cure for X, Y or Z but if people coming to you for a therapy gain something from it, thats all for the positive.
I do reiki and other things and Im lucky that I have a pal who does reiki on me as well as the same therapies I offer, because I wouldnt be able to afford 30 pounds for a reiki session.
There should be more places where people who need pain relief or stress relief can get reiki on the NHS, but in time I do think this will be more common.

 

[Country Conservative]

It is interesting how muchthe modern scientific perspective affects our judgements as to what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is not. Science is now being used (exclusively) to validate various phenomena (including methods of healing) but before science came along things were operating quite happily. I think people get a bit too carried away with science and forget that it is simply a way of looking at things. To believe that science is omnipotent and infallible is to attribute religious sentiments to it. Until science can explain more than a fraction of our experience of the world I do not think it should be used to prove or disprove a method of healing that is providing people with benefit.