The news is sobering. Any time you open the newspaper, your laptop, or social media page, you can find people discussing serious issues about their health, like chronic disease, depression, anxiety, childhood illness. Its possible these things are happening with you or someone you love. Many of us are concerned with our health, and the health of our families, communities, and world. We are rightly concerned.
We live in a time when diagnosing illness is quicker and more accurate than ever before. We are becoming so familiar with what it is to be unwell, but have forgotten that the system that treats our bodies and minds for these issues, is in its essence, about improving and sustaining health.
But what does "Health" actually mean?
For many years, I have been searching for a better understanding about the notion of health, and what it means to live with (or without) it. I have pondered such questions as "Is health about longevity or quality of life? Is it a destination, or a conversation? Is psychological health separate from physical health? Can dying people, be healthy people?" It is these questions that led me on my journey to become a psychotherapist.
After receiving my bachelor's degree in psychology, I was drawn to careers in health and wellness but found myself struggling with the singularly focused nature of so many courses of study. It was a time in my life when I was yearning to better understand myself, my relationships, and the health of the world around me. The longing that drove me towards a graduate degree was the same longing I recognize in many patients with whom I sit: A search for Wholeness.
The struggle for me in pursuing a field of study, reflected a dilemma I have experienced many times since becoming a therapist. If my belief is that health is the movement towards wholeness, then why do so many healthcare approaches divide us up into parts?
I chose a graduate program in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Somatic Psychology, because it addressed my concern by drawing the mind and body together in one field of study. Somatic (Body-Centered) Psychology as I would come to understand, is a field that studies the relationships of the psyche and the human body, within the larger "bodies" of family, community and culture.
Although my education had a holistic lens, my appreciation and understanding for the need for healthcare specialties is significant. The ability of clinicians to develop their expertise in focused areas allows for greater depth of understanding. The benefits to this kind of approach--highlighted in treating acute or emergency conditions are essential and sometimes life-saving. For example, in mental health, treatment of individuals living with thought disorders such as schizophrenia, have benefited from targeted interventions improved by scientific advances in medicine.
As many who have experienced frustration with their healthcare already know, the gains of modern medicine have also come with losses. One of these losses is an enduring forgetfulness of a basic and essential truth of humanity. The truth that we are not just parts, but interdependent beings made up of tissues, organs and systems which are inextricably linked, interacting within a world that is also sustained by interdependence. To be concise: we are more than science can measure us to be. This means that healing most often requires more than single intervention--whether that be pharmaceutical, or otherwise.
What is often missed in conventional care, is the understanding that Gestalt Psychologist Kurt Koffta coined (and is often misquoted) as "The whole is other than the sum of its parts". Our health depends not only on treating discrete symptoms, but exploring the interactions between psychological, biological, relational, and spiritual functioning.
A Rooted Evolution
To help us in our current forgetfulness, we can go back to the roots of health and wholeness to remember. As Michael Fine and James Peters discuss in their book The Nature of Health: How America has Lost, and can Regain, a Basic Human Value, the root word hal or heill coming from Middle English and Old Norse, has several related words in modern english including: health, heal, wholeness, and holiness. These words, which pertain to our bodies, psyches, and souls, help us return to our essential knowing--that there is an indelible totality that exists in every one of us. This is our health and our birthright.
To have an evolution of mainstream healthcare (which we desperately need) requires both a particulate, as well as a holistic approach to care. It is comfortable for us, as a culture, to split things into categories of good vs. bad. I see this happen in discussions about health and healthcare all the time. Divisiveness happens (within ourselves, and in systems) when we cannot hold together paradoxes. Examples include "I can't express anger because I'm a nice person, or "I can't believe in the benefits of conventional healthcare because I believe in alternative practices". True maturity, however, is developed by forming a capacity for "both/and" rather than "either/or". Developing this capacity is often something we work on in therapy. This is also the exciting direction that many healthcare providers and researchers have been heading with their work to provide more comprehensive care.
The Science of Wholeness
Dr. Daniel Siegel, attachment researcher and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, has studied the theory of the mind for over twenty years. In his essay, The Self is Not Defined by The Boundaries of the Skin (2014), he describes his understanding after many years of collaborative study with scientists from various fields:
I believe (and cannot find any science to disprove) that an important aspect of the mind can be defined as an embodied and relational, emergent self-organizing process that regulates the flow of energy and information both within us and between and among us.
As Dr. Siegel reminds us, we are embodied. This is so often a neglected truth of mental health. Our emotions, sensations, responses to stress, and behavior all occur in our physical form. I believe that attempting to heal psychological issues without turning towards the body is like trying to tune an instrument without ever playing it. You can talk at a guitar all you want, but you have to make contact with it if you want it to change. The same is true of us. We must contact ourselves, and learn to develop a capacity to experience the myriad feelings and sensations that occur--even the uncomfortable ones. Buddhist Psychologist Tara Brach calls this "Embodied Awareness". In her work on this topic she states "when we disconnect from the aliveness of our body, we are in a trance that prevents us from living and loving fully." It takes time to learn to allow ourselves the wholeness of our experience. It also takes compassion.
The development of self-compassion is learned by experiencing the presence of a compassionate other person, who then mirrors to us our own innate goodness. The relational aspect of our mental health has been strongly supported by attachment and infant mental health research. Dr. Allan Schore, is a clinician and scientist, who, like Dr. Siegel has developed his work through interdisciplinary study. He shares his findings which integrate psychological and biological models of emotional and social development across the lifetime. Dr. Schore identifies that as infants, the maturation of the limbic system, which is responsible for mediating our ability to cope with stress throughout life, is directly dependent upon the quality of the relationship with our primary caregivers (Schore, 2001, p. 13). This means that brain development occurs in a biological, environmental, and social sphere.
With this information, we can then understand that in order to heal psychologically, a relationship with a safe, compassionate other person is needed to provide the brain (and body) with what it needs for growth. So, next time you or someone you love, denies yourself support because of the cultural myth "I should be able to handle this on my own", remember that your brain is wired for connection--it is a necessary element for its growth and healing.
Towards Integration
The final aspect of Dr. Siegel's description of the mind I would like to explore as it pertains to health is the "emergent self-organizing process". Although Siegel adopted the language and definition of self-organization from the field of mathematics, it is a notion that is reflected in many wisdom traditions including Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. Every one of us has an inherent impulse towards growth, cohesion and organization. This emergent property of the self can be optimized, according to Siegel, by the act of integration. To simplify the notion of integration, it can be understood as "separate, but connected". It is the wholeness of distinct entities linking together to become something greater. Integration allows for dynamic relationship, while not losing any of the uniqueness of each part. Integration is a goal that we can work towards within ourselves, in our relationships, our healthcare system, and in our local and global communities.
If you are seeking greater health, or searching for a way to be with challenges within you, or around you, I encourage you to seek the support of a therapist or counselor. Therapy is by its nature an integrative process, one that may help you develop links between all the parts of you, in a safe place, led at your own pace, and guided by your self organizing process and innate wisdom.
To Your Health,
Megan