What is Holistic Therapy & Holistic Addiction Treatment?

While one holistic recovery center can offer similar services to another, the amount of holistic options can differ drastically. 

Some centers truly offer a combination of physical, emotional and mental, and spiritual activities.

Others may only offer one or two holistic services, like massage and acupuncture. They then fill out the rest of one’s treatment with more “traditional” treatment, like 12 Step meetings.

When looking into treatment, we recommend making a list of the most important aspects you’re looking for in treatment. Below are a few to work off of:

• Do they have a registered dietician on staff?
• Do they offer experiential therapies to help you get to the underlying reasons behind your addiction?
• How many yoga sessions are offered per week?
• Do they have therapists who specialize in helping you resolve trauma in a nonjudgmental way? 

By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be able to find the right treatment for you.

Emotional intelligence is a game changer when it comes to resolving addictive behaviors. 

Most people do not know that our feelings are one of the highest forms of intelligence we possess when it comes to mental health.

Too many of us have been conditioned to repress our emotions. Growing up we hear things like “Don’t be such a cry baby” or “Don’t you use that tone of voice with me”. 

So we change our emotional expression to make other people more comfortable around us. We stuff our feelings, or end up believing that they’re bad. (Or even worse, that WE are bad for feeling them.)

When we learn the skills of emotional intelligence, we come to understand that feelings are neither good nor bad. Feelings are an early warning system that something is off somewhere. They act like a smoke detector, alerting us that there is a fire we need to attend to. Perhaps we’re angry because some boundary is being violated. Or we’re sad because our hearts are closed down.

As we get more skilled with tracking our feelings, they can alert us to problems with our own thinking and beliefs. Anxiety might mean we’re feeling unsafe because there’s danger in the environment. Or it might mean that we’re being attacked by our own thoughts.

Instead of trying to suppress that anxiety with substances, we can explore where it comes from. We might discover a loop of negative self-judgments that we can gently pull apart, feel and release.

Experiential therapy is more of a category than a kind of therapy itself. 

Essentially, experiential therapy involves hands-on forms of learning about yourself and how you can cope with various situations in a healthy way. 

In adventure therapy, for example, the participants often take on a challenging activity that is outside their comfort zone. This can include anything from a hike, to a rope’s course, or even surfing. While engaged in these real-life activities, you have to regulate any anxiety you may be feeling and move forward. (Mental health professionals are there to assist with this.)

Art or music therapy, on the other hand, allows someone to use creativity to explore their emotions or preconceived ideas. 

Experiential Engagement Therapy (EET) uses practical tools to navigate real-life situations. It follows the principles of the old adage, “You can’t learn how to ride a bike without getting on it.” By getting “out of” your head, you can begin to develop healthy coping mechanisms. 

A holistic recovery center understands that another hurdle to overcome is physically-based. For someone who has become physically dependent on a drug, it’s not comfortable to stop taking it (hence why it’s so hard to stop on our own). 

But holistic programs offer many more ways to deal with the physical effects of addiction than traditional rehabs do.

Below are a few of the many body-centered services offered at holistic centers.

Sounds very scientific, right? Essentially, biofeedback helps you learn how to better control some of your body’s functions. 

You do this by connecting electrodes to your skin. The electrodes are able to measure a variety of health markers, including your heart rate, breathing rate, how much you’re sweating, and your temperature (which often drops when you’re stressed.)

With a monitor in front of you giving you real-time data, you can now see how your body is physically responding to a number of scenarios. By seeing when you’re anxious, for example, you can work on different stress relief techniques to see which one works the best for you.

Reiki is a type of energy healing. Much like acupuncture, reiki began in Japan as a way to help remove any energy blocks in one’s body and help reinstill the natural flow of energy.  

While the science behind reiki is hard to prove, there are millions of devoted followers throughout the world. One recurring benefit that many people speak to is the absolute relaxation that comes from a reiki session. 

Other studies have found that reiki can also help release pain, anxiety, and be effective in helping to reduce fatigue. 

If you’re curious what a reiki session is like, imagine when you get a massage. The environment is very similar – calm music is playing while you lie down on a table. However, with reiki, the practitioner will slowly move their hands over you (sometimes lightly touching you). All the while they’re treating any problem areas you mentioned. 

Spirituality can be a tough subject in today’s world. For some, it’s an integral part of their recovery. For others, it’s not even considered. 

When speaking of spirituality, we don’t mean religion. In fact, we want you to name it whatever feels right to you. Maybe it’s your soul. Or your essence. 

The name doesn’t matter so much as what this mindset is trying to achieve: a sense of peace and calm. There are a few different ways to incorporate this idea into a holistic recovery program. 

Researchers have found that when a person is triggered into a fight-or-flight response, their cognitive ability goes out the window. Literally, the brain shuts off the neocortex (where our rational thinking occurs). What lights up are our primal survival centers. All attention goes to eliminating the danger.

And what eliminates that stress and anxiety faster than our drug of choice? 

Well, surprisingly, conscious breathing techniques are actually quicker than that!

Polyvagal theory shows that it’s possible to change our emotional state, and the biochemicals that create it, by changing the rhythm and speed of our breathing.

Immediate relief can kick in with three deep breaths, and we can shift our sympathetic nervous system out of panic within a few minutes. To get this kind of impact, you may need to learn new styles of breathing. And of course, practice them until they come naturally.

Conscious breathing techniques have a second major benefit. Yes, they work after the brain has kicked into fight/flight. But they can also work BEFORE that.

Most people do not understand the root cause of their urge to use.

Conscious breathing helps us slow down the speed of our thinking. We can then observe our thoughts, and learn to identify when we’re starting to slide off the rails. What’s the first thought in that chain reaction? By breathing slowly and consciously, we can catch it. When there’s breathing space between our thoughts and reactions, we’re no longer a victim of our habits. We can literally choose a different thought.

With conscious breathing, we can rise above the typical conditioned and programmed mindset that so easily leads to substance abuse.

Yoga’s popularity has exploded in the past few decades, for good reason. While it boasts many physical benefits (like increased flexibility and strength), many “yogis” speak more to the deep relaxation and oftentimes spiritual experiences they have while practicing yoga. 

When you go into a yoga session with a spiritual intention, your primary goal is to attain a sense of peace and clarity of your mind. Any movement (or trying to perfect your pose) comes second to this. 

By practicing with this spiritual outlook in mind, you open the doors to realizing your own potential, and how you can share your gifts with the world. 

Specifically for addiction treatment, yoga has been shown to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can help reduce our cravings. Consistent practice has even led to a disruption of neural pathways that may reinforce drug use. 

One of the biggest fears people with addiction cite is that they can’t change. “I’ve always been this way. How could I change now?”

Meditation can be an effective solution for these people. At its core, meditation is about simply observing one’s thoughts without judgment. When you’re meditating, you’re not actively thinking, “Change! I want to change!” You’re simply becoming more aware of the way you operate. 

By creating this awareness and practicing mindfulness regularly, you can actually change your brain. From creating new neural pathways to your mid-prefrontal cortex becoming thicker, you’re able to create measurable change in how you perceive your own well-being and the possibilities around you. 

Meditation can mean whatever you want it to – while some people want to connect the experience to a higher power, others simply focus on themselves. There’s no right or wrong way to meditate!

Picture your favorite natural scene. Maybe that’s a white sand beach, or a dense evergreen forest, or a babbling stream.

What’s the feeling you have when you’re here? 

Nature has a unique way of calming us on an instinctual level. And there’s science to back this idea up. 

Studies have shown that even seeing greenery can help reduce cravings and increase mental health. Countries like Japan and South Korea have spent millions implementing more green spaces in an effort to support their citizens. 

When a holistic recovery center offers trips to the beach or hikes in the mountains, there’s more of a healing intention behind it than most people realize.