Holistic Health
Holistic Health
Have you tried “everything” and are still not better or you don’t know where to start?
The concept of holistic health encompasses looking at your entire body and mind. It is the opposite of the isolated view of a specialist who is, as the name already suggests, highly specialized in one area and a great source of knowledge and competence when you have a problem with a specific body part.
Science has proven that body and mind cannot be separated as they are one. Practitioners of naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, osteopathy or biodynamic craniosacral therapy are aware of this and, therefore, look at the body as a whole. Personally, I often wonder why gynaecology is not more connected to trauma therapy or why psychotherapy does not also include a look at their clients’ diet…
A holistic approach takes more time at the beginning, but, at the same time, also gives you a lot more reference points that help keep your body system stable. If one of these reference points falls away, you still have many more to help you keep stable. This means that in the long-term, you have a much higher chance to keep your body balanced and healthy. You will also very quickly become “independent” and don’t rely on me as a therapist. Often, this means ending up with a team of conventional and complementary therapists and in my experience, these are the people who get better the fastest.
Medical History
Making a thorough analysis in the first session helps us find out what is going on from a Western medicine point of view. The more interesting questions for me often is “what else is going on? and “what is your family’s story?”. Answering this questions often points us in the right direction to where the problem really is.
Going to the source of the problem
If the source of your pain is a structural one, there is no point to be using herbs as a primary means to address this – we need to work on the structure. Apart from the physical structure, I look at diet, sleep, stress, exercise, work, social life, trauma, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, gut health and probably even more.
The Nervous System
If you live in a big city, have little exposure to nature and regularly feel stressed, have troubling relaxing and can’t sleep, your nervous system is likely a little “haywire”. This is amplified if there is a trauma component.
When we calm the nervous system you will not only feel almost instantly calmer, but also your digestive system will work again meaning it is able to better absorb nutrients, your hormones can rebalance as the stress hormones are lower, which will again impact your sleep, mood, overall wellbeing, menstrual cycle and fertility.
Looking at the body from a trauma perspective
When we experience unpleasant events in life, the body often shuts down as a first response because it would be too much to handle. We then often disconnect from our body to not feel the pain (in psychology this is called “disassociation”) and if we don’t resolve the trauma, it is possible to stay in this state of disconnection for years, decades, or, in case if your mother experienced trauma while she was pregnant with you, you may have developed in utero under the influence of anxiety and stress hormones and may have always felt somewhat disconnected from yourself. Read more about trauma in the uterus.
If you haven’t processed these emotions properly or perhaps tried to ignore them it can lead to a whole new set of health issues. It is known in psychology and trauma work that emotional trauma does get stored in the physical body. Helping the body let these old, unresolved emotions go, can ignite tremendous change – change in how you feel about yourself, your sleep, how you act at work or in your personal life. Your view on the world may change, you feel more “you”, more grounded and connected to yourself.
Whenever we have a trauma component, it means we need to look at the body from a trauma perspective as trauma can show up in many ways. In order to help your body let go of these unresolved emotions, we need to make sure you feel safe, know how to take care of yourself and it is in fact the right time in your life. If it is not, we will look at some other short-term solutions to help yourself stable until there is a better time. I regularly work together with psychotherapists and treat other therapists or coaches.
Who I work with
I support women who have recently experienced abuse, pregnancy loss, have been diagnosed with a medical condition, lost a loved one, struggle with infertility and IVF. I also work with women who have trauma in the family such as Holocaust survivors, World War 2, history of abuse and mental health issues in the family. I mostly work with women, but occasionally also with men and children, who want a holistic approach to reduce anxiety, sleep problems, hormone imbalances, gut issues or whenever we have an involvement of the nervous system.
Natural Remedies
Natural remedies are a gentle way to help your body cope with physical symptoms. This can be made from food you may even have at home, it may be specific herbs in form of teas which tend to work well for women as they are gentler. This may be supported by the use of specific supplements which I don’t sell, but I will tell you where and what to get.
Highly Sensitive Persons
If you are a highly sensitive person, i.e. you may feel easily drained in a crowded place and tend to feel better in nature, it again changes the approach. We need to slow things down as an approach for a “normal” person may be way too much for you and could therefore make things worse.
Your nervous system is likely completely haywire as your body’s system is far off balance. When working with highly sensitive people who also often have a lot of unresolved emotional baggage, I may not even touch the body as it would be too much. This approach seems to work very well for this group of people and changes can be almost immediate as we help the nervous system take off some of that extra load.
Fertility Support
When it comes to fertility issues, I have seen many times that for a woman it does matter if she has previously experienced sexual abuse, pregnancy loss or undergone IVF, how her childhood was and how she feels a woman today. We combine stress reduction, emotional release, trauma work, healing of womb trauma, specific exercises, herbal remedies and supplements etc.
Multi-Cultural Awareness
I have lived in Asia for almost 20 years, travelled extensively across the globe when travelling was still possible, worked with people from various cultural and religious backgrounds, and volunteered with female refugees who had experienced war trauma and intense sexual violence. I have worked with women from conservative Jewish, Christian and Muslim families as well as many women who are originally from India. For many women from more conservative families or cultures, life as a girl was really tough some 20 or 30 years ago. These women are now in their 30s and 40s and may have to deal with anxiety, feelings of not being worthy or not being good enough as a woman.
Food & Nutrition
Naturally, it also matters what kind of food we eat. The food from our supermarkets is often depleted of nutrients and instead comes with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides… all the bad stuff you don’t really want in your body. The antibiotics in the meat you eat or the chloride in the water you drink all will have an impact on for instance your gut health.
Many of us eat out for reasons of time pressure and convenience. Often, the cheapest ingredients are being used, whether that is palm oil which increases inflammation in the body or vegetables that are grown in overfertilized soil because otherwise nothing would grow on that soil anymore.
When I was working in private banking, I was tired every night, I worked the Japan – New York shift meaning I started to reply to Emails at 8:00 and regularly was at work until the bell at the New York Stock Exchange was rang, which was at 22:00 or 23:00, respectively. I understand what you mean when you say you are tired and have no energy. I have been there and I am here to help.
On my social media you will find plenty of healthy, quick and easy to make recipes, including anti-inflammatory dishes. For you to get healthy we need to make sure that you eat right, get rest, and the nutrients your body needs, gets the exercise it wants… This is where the concept of naturopathy comes in.
Naturopathy
“Nature Is The Best Pharmacy”
Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) German priest & Naturopath
The term “Naturopathy” was created from “natura” (Latin: birth) and “pathos” (Greek: suffering) to suggest natural healing. Naturopathy does not describe one specific type of treatment but rather is a general term under which a variety of treatments can be found as an alternative or complementary to Western medicine.
In Germany, Naturopathy has been practised since hundreds of years. During the dark days of the Middle Ages, a lot of ancient knowledge about healing powers of medical plants had to be kept a secret, as countless female herbalists were burnt as witches, but the old knowledge survived.
With the rise of modern medicine in the 20th century, the knowledge about these common Central European medical plants and traditional home remedies was slowly dying out, but it was never lost. Germany is one of the few countries in Europe where Naturopathy can be studied in private schools and be practiced as an alternative to, or most commonly, complementary to Western medicine. Along with a general trend back towards nature, natural remedies and the healing powers of medical plants enjoy again great popularity.
“If You Do Not Have Time For Your Health, You Will Need A Lot Of Time For Your Illness Later”
-Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) German priest & Naturopath