The Holistic Ideology
Holistic means treating the WHOLE person, mind body and soul, as a complete system rather than separate parts. It seeks to get to the roots of illness, rather than to simply make the symptoms of the illness disappear, often temporarily and at the expense of the total being. Traditional (Western) medicine has us adjusted to its methodology. We turn to doctors seeking alleviation of a bothersome symptom or issue. Effective doctors take a holistic approach in order to address the real question at hand, "Why is this happening?". Unfortunately, many doctors settle on the first or second layer answer.
Example: If a patient is experiencing water retention, they'll be given a prescription for a diuretic, which will resolve the symptom, at least for a while. It may offer a temporary cure, but offers no insight as to WHY their body is retaining water improperly. The second layer could be testing endocrine function, since glands regulate water distribution, or perhaps an evaluation of electrolyte levels, or of the heart and kidneys since failure of either can cause water retention, as well. Let's say the issue was adrenal dysfunction. The doctor could easily stop at this second layer answer; however, ALL of our endocrine system is directly connected and in communication with each gland within. So if you're dealing with adrenal issues, the adrenals (and all other glands) are not only regulated by the pituitary gland, or "master gland", it's part of a system called the HPA axis. There are likely imbalances along many systems rather than just one localized issue. Water retention would then be a symptom of a more serious and systemic issue.
When we understand how interconnected the entire body system is, it becomes clear that NO issue or symptom can be isolated and considered a "localized" issue. One layer deeper than that is whether or not a viral, bacterial or fungal infection is causing your systems to misfire. ALL of these things are very important to factor in, and full assessments ought to be standard procedure when any issue arises.
Unfortunately, this is very rarely the case, and people are often put on multiple medications to treat a variety of symptoms instead. Many are given medications with outrageous and dangerous long and short term side effects, are often NOT given clear warning about these side effects, and many do not see a better way as an option.
I speak as someone who went through this process for over a decade before waking up to the truth of it, which is that the typical approach to healing attempts to trim branches, but fails to dig up the roots, and often leaves you sick and struggling to function with more questions than answers and more problems than solutions.
I have met less than a handful of doctors who approach things this way in my encounters with countless practitioners during my era of illness. Unfortunately, I've seen decent naturopathic clinics adopt 15 minute fast-food style turnaround practices with patients, taking SO little time to honor and listen to patients, and offering fast, half considered solutions that cause more harm than good. I have too many examples of loved ones seriously injured by this approach to share on this page.
I genuinely hope to help others avoid this extremely painful, frustrating, disheartening, and exhausting, time consuming drain on your life. I'm sure many of you who have found me have already experienced it to some degree. I offer natural health consulting to anyone who simply wishes to have a little help in explaining their symptoms to their doctors, to representing their interests clearly, and to have a little more insight as to what to request tests for and supplement, diet or lifestyle recommendations to aid your doctor's recommendations/ prescriptions, or to offer natural alternatives that you may discuss with your health care practitioner. I feel I owe it to others to prevent them from wasting
precious decades of their lives, like I did.
More about my natural health consulting services HERE
Symptoms as Messengers
I'll take this even one step further. During my initiation as a "healer" (a person who becomes very ill and is forced to learn to heal themselves and share that knowledge in practice helping others to do the same), I was taught something crucial and life altering. Symptoms are not always just something to quickly get rid of, but rather something to build a relationship with in order to understand what they are communicating to you about your own lifestyle or wellbeing. They are messengers, to be honored, revered and explored. In doing so, becoming curious, and committing to understanding what your body is trying to tell you needs to be resolved or what your unconscious is trying to communicate to you through messages from the body and WHY, I believe that the underlying spiritual or emotional aspects of the ailment can often be worked through, and symptoms begin to resolve on their own. Heeding the messages they are trying to send and making changes in accordance with those messages is the way to ensure they are honored and heard, and massive shifts in your health and well-being result.
This was one of the biggest revelations I received from kambo. Many years ago when I first found kambo, I went into my sessions expecting only a physical transformation and to purge out physical toxins and rebalance my system. I did not expect the spiritual expansion I experienced as a result, which taught me many things that my then very logical, practical and left-brained self took time to integrate and fully understand. We must transform in order to fully heal, and that was an undertaking that made me TRULY excited and full of life, and simultaneously terrified and a bit overwhelmed. We are given a choice to embark upon the journey, and nothing will ever be the same after answering that call.
It is a death of the old; a true initiation.
This is what led me to offer what I consider to be integrative counseling, which is not only to follow medicine sessions, but also to assist in unravelling how our beliefs, behaviors, and unresolved traumas impact our overall health, and what to do about it.
More about integrative counseling HERE.
“Man’s threefold lower nature—consisting of his physical organism, his emotional nature, and his mental faculties—reflects the light of his threefold Divinity and bears witness of It in the physical world. Man’s three bodies are symbolized by an upright triangle; his threefold spiritual nature by an inverted triangle. These two triangles, when united in the form of a six-pointed star, were called by the Jews “the Star of David,” “the Signet of Solomon,” and are more commonly known today as “the Star of Zion.” These triangles symbolize the spiritual and material universes linked together in the constitution of the human creature, who partakes of both Nature and Divinity. Man’s animal nature partakes of the earth; his divine nature of the heavens; his human nature of the mediator.”
-Manly P. Hall
