What is holistic therapy?

Some definitions

What is the role of complementary therapy beside conventional medicine?

Complementary therapies work with conventional allopathic medicine to ensure that the client/patient receives the best possible treatment to bring them to vibrant health - physically and mentally.

The origins of holistic therapy

Holistic Therapies have been around for thousands of years. The Chinese have known about the energy flowing through the meridians for over 4,000 years and developed acu-puncture to tap into and unblock the energy flows. Chinese Medicine uses acu-puncture and herbal remedies while from the Indian sub-continent we have Ayurveda - 'the Science of Life' - a system that has been around for 5,000 years. Ayurveda deals with the principles for maintaining good health and has developed a wide range of therapeutic measures to combat illness. These principles of positive health and therapeutic measures relate to physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare of human beings. The North American Indians practised herbal medicine as did many of the 'wise' women in Europe .

The developments of understanding and practice of holistic therapies in the 20th Century

During the 20th Century many new holistic therapies emerged - Dr Bach, the originator of the Bach Flower Essences, opened the way for essences to be made from flowers, trees, crystals, light, sound, and the sea. All these essences work to strengthen the existing energy pathways. Sound and Colour therapies are very effective therapies which have come into prominence during the last 20 years

One of the most exciting developments for holistic therapies occurred in the USA when Dr. George Goodheart established the link between meridian flow and muscle function. So Dr Goodheart became the father of kinesiology.

HK uses muscle testing and verbal questioning to pinpoint what is stressing the body sufficiently to cause symptoms of ill health. Disease-causing stresses include the following: toxins like heavy metals and solvents which the body is failing to eliminate, allergens, electro-magnetic fields, micro-organisms, the body's misreading of its own bio-chemicals, and psychological factors such as worries, fears, or limiting assumptions a person may have about themselves or other people.

When the body is in contact with a factor that stresses it, a muscle being tested will lose tone slightly and unlock. This unlocking of the tested muscle indicates that some part of the body is being deprived of its energy supply in terms of nerve impulses, blood flow which carries oxygen and nutrients, lymph drainage which takes away its wastes, or is in some way confused about how it should function.

The effect of a stress can be likened to the shorting of an electrical circuit which results in a power failure or over energising resulting in a fire.

The stress or linked group of stresses is defined by muscle testing. The body has the intelligence to flag up the stresses that most need to be dealt with in the order it is most capable of addressing them. Muscle testing is then used to identify which acupuncture points to gently hold or tap while the person is under the influence of the relevant stress.

Holding the appropriate points on the body re-tunes the energy flow and instructs the body to correct the energy supply, nutritional, drainage or function problems which the stressful factor has been causing to the part of the system that is struggling so that it can regain normal, healthy functioning. The corrective process continues for some days and when complete, makes for a permanent improvement in health.

Sometimes the body benefits from small changes in habit to do with rest, sleep, work, recreation and fluid or food intake. HK calls these "adjunctive factors" and they are identified via muscle testing. They can be as important as the corrections done during the session by holding or tapping the appropriate acupuncture points and they should be taken seriously to achieve the full health-improving results.

So who would want to train to be an holistic therapist?

More and more people from all walks of life are suddenly having the urge to make complete career changes and move into the field of complementary holistic health care. They may, through complementary therapy, have had help for a physical or emotional problem of their own and are motivated to want to help and make a difference to other people's lives.

The number of people training as Health Kinesiology practitioners is growing steadily, but interest in kinesiology is growing even faster. The Health Kinesiology UK web site attracts over 2000 plus visitors each month. Many of them are people who are looking for a local HK practitioner.

There are still many parts of the country where we need more practitioners. Maybe there is an opportunity for you to help us fill this gap. Check out the area where you live, using the map link opposite.

Classes in action. Would you like to see some of the many photographs taken at some recent health kinesiology classes? Just click the image on the left for a series or pictures that are a bit too big to fit on this page layout.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF MEDICINE

Some people refer to all non-conventional medicine as being New Age - in the same context as everyone who is non-conformist in the social sense was once called a drop-out or a Hippy.

In fact, the principles and thinking behind complementary therapy go back some 4,000 years.......

In both India and China, it was accepted that wellness and illness were opposite forces where wellness held illness in balance. Therefore they realised that the focus should be on achieving balance and harmony of body, mind and spirit as a means of maintaining good health (wellness) and keeping illness at bay. This is the origin of the yinyang symbol of the sun and moon - opposites in harmony.

In the West, the science of medicine evolved slowly from the Middle Ages - the days of potions, alchemy and blood letting. In the C18th and C19th centuries in Europe, there was great excitment and interest in discovering how the various body parts fitted together and what the functions of the soft tissues (like heart, liver and brain) actually were. The body was thought of as a self-regulating mechanism, composed of its constituent parts. When one of the parts went wrong, we had an illness that sometimes required surgery or medicine to put it right.

There was also great interest in combatting contagious diseases that led to the hunt for the external causes of disease and for remedies that could be taken by mouth or by injection, that would cure the disease. The focus was always on fixing the part that was unwell.

The C20th century saw the emergence of drug companies that grew as a result of the perpetual search for new remedies that could be produced in the laboratory, then mass produced in special factories, to supply a growing health service.

The focus of the Health Service today is on treating those who are unwell, primarily with medical intervention using drugs and where necessary, with surgery.

In the West, there is generally suspicion and sometimes hostility from many doctors towards complementary therapies , although some therapies like acupuncture and chiropractic are gaining acceptance in many countries.

Acupuncture in the West
There is an interesting article on how acupuncture came to the West in the 1970's on this page: www.michaelrossoff.com/ acup-history.htm

TIMELINE:
KINESIOLOGY

The main principle used in kinesiology is muscle testing. The principle of muscle testing came from Kendall and Kendall's kinesiology research in the late 1940's.

Then in the 1960's George Goodheart developed it, finding a relationship between muscles, organs and meridians and called it Applied Kinesiology.

In the 1970's John Thie simplified it, driven by the urge to make it available to everyone to help themselves, friends and family. Today, known as Touch For Health, it is also the foundation training course for all kinesiologists.

You can read more about Touch for Health on the founder's web site: www.touch4health.com/

HEALTH KINESIOLOGY

Dr. Jimmy Scott started developing the Health Kinesiology System of Bio-Energetic Kinesiology in 1978, following his Ph D in Physiological Psychology. You can read more about its development on the following page of this web site: Here

Health Kinesiology in UK

The Health Kinesiology UK web site contains over 100 pages of information, explanations, case studies, testimonials, useful links, a schedule of training courses, copies of the regular Newsletter, Members pages etc. Many practitioners have also taken the option of having their own web page attached to the site. See: www.hk4health.co.uk/