This article inspired by Dave DiSano’s book Holistic Mental Health: A Comparison of Treatments for Mental Disorders: ISBN: 978-1-4401-5196-5

Over the past decade we've heard allot about holistic health. In this emerging model of physical well being, we move beyond the limited western model of health (which tends to treat illness and disease in an invasive, pharmacological or surgical manner) and look at a wider range of factors that promote or undermine physical health including things like vitamin and nutrition, exercise, and stress. We also look at "alternative" (meaning an alternative to the dominant model of western treatment) treatments for  physical disorders like herb or vitamin therapy, massage, acupuncture, and Reiki, and things like that.  You may still find traditional western doctors who pooh pooh the alternative treatments, but many of us have personal experiences that attest to the power of non-western based approaches. I myself can certainly cite a half dozen examples from my life where physical illnesses like alopecia, dry skin, and even asthma where beyond the ability of traditional western doctors to treat, but that responded amazingly well to things like acupuncture and nutritional therapy.

Given the success of alternative therapies, it should come as no surprise that alternative treatments might also play a useful role in the emerging global epidemic of mental health. And using the word epidemic is justified especially when we consider that, according to the World Health Organization, 1 in 4 people globally will experience some form of mental or behavioural disorder! Pause and consider that statistic because it is a stunning statistic that makes mental illness a far bigger problem than H1N1, SARS, swine flu, or even the common flu.

And just what is the role of alternative therapy in the treatment of mental illness? Well, far more than you might imagine, but imagining the role requires you to question standard models of mental illness. Take a child diagnosed with ADHD, or a mom who is experiencing a bout of severe depression. Ask a typical psychiatrist why they are experiencing depression and they might point you to genetics or biochemical imbalances. Ask a psychologist and they will probably do the same. In both cases the "professional" will locate the problem solely within the individual. The child or the mom is dysfunction in some way. There is an aspect of the physical body that is broken, so let's fix that, usually with drugs that modify the way the brain functions, or behavioural therapies which attempt to modify behaviours. This is, of course, the traditional western way. It makes invisible the wider context and wider cause of mental illness.

Enter alternative therapy or holistic therapy. Here we move beyond the narrow western focus on the individual and start to examine a wider frame. When we look for a cause for ADHD we don't focus on the individual solely, but look at family stressors and dysfunction, nutritional deficits, unreasonable pressures or expectations at school, chemical additives, and so on. The same goes for depression. If a female is depressed the holistic practitioner does not focus on genetics but instead looks to the environment for precipitants. Is the family functioning well, is the spouse working too much, are there needs that are being unmet, is the individual or family struggling financially, does the work place offer a healthy environment, and so on. The holistic therapist will never focus solely on the individual  but will always look at the individual in context. Likewise, successful treatment can never be focused purely on genetic or pharmacological interventions but must take into account the whole environment.

Providing holistic therapy is not something your average psychiatrist or psychologist seems equipped to provide. Psychiatrists are medical doctors first and they suffer from the same limitations as all medical practitioners suffer from in that they are often (though not always) narrowly focused on pharmacological and surgical interventions. If somebody is depressed, give them a pill. Psychologists have a narrow focus as well.  Rarely will a psychologist treat the whole environment. Most of the time they will pathologize the individual and focus there. A child is failing in school and acting out. The mother brings the child to see a therapist, and the therapist diagnoses ADHD because the child is unable to function. The child is labeled and drugged to the point where a modicum of functioning is retained. Providing a chemical straightjacket for the child may appease the school and the parent, and “business” may thus go on as usual, but in this process the child becomes a victim and scapegoat for the pathology of others. A deeper look might have revealed family or even school dysfunction (and yes, institutions can be dysfunctional) to which the child was simply reacting as any child might do. An examination of diet might reveal nutritional deficits and so on. In this context a proper treatment, one with the hope of actually alleviating the causes and thereby curing the dysfunction, seems to be the only sensible and logical approach. You can get any individual to accept just about any negative and oppressive environment if you give them enough drugs.

Of course, you may not like hearing this. As a nation and a people, we like to think that we are individuals and that as individuals we are not responsible for the feelings and well being of those around us. We like to think our families, our society, and our institutions are functioning and provide healthy environments where we may “attain our potential.” We want to be free to do what we want and we don’t want to consider the fact that our behaviors, our lifestyle patterns, our values, our needs, and our expectations may be contributing not only to our own malaise and depression, but to the dysfunction and pain of others.  It’s so much easier to blame the child, or the mother, or the employee, or the spouse; so much easier to pop a pill, or modify individual behaviour and wash our hands of the situation. So much more difficult to look at the whole environment especially when we ourselves are a part of that environment and especially when we may be part of the problem. In the end though it’s a choice you make. You can either go the easy way and blame yourself or the individual, in which case we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you are still dealing with the issues and the fallout decades later, or you and those involved can have the courage to examine the wider context, to take a holistic approach, and to realize that mental health is never something we can achieve by ourselves, but always something that is accomplished (or not) in a context and an environment.

Mike Sosteric
Gina Ratkovic