Mind/Body Healing for Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar/Mood Disorders
Mary E. Qualters, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Owner & Director
The Chakra Garden, Center for Mind/Body Healing
I know only too well that medication and psychotherapy alone do not fully heal depression, anxiety, and mood disorders. As a seasoned psychotherapist helping children and adults with their emotional health and as Owner/Director of The Chakra Garden, Center for Mind/Body Healing, I have treated many clients, who even after many years of psychotherapy and medication continue to report feelings of helplessness and hopelessness about their mental health. Due to such experiences, they often stop taking their medications and/or drop out of therapy without the advice of a physician or therapist.
The Chakra Garden Model of Mind/Body Healing offers proactive solutions, for those seeking an Empowerment Model; encouraging you to take charge of your emotional and physical health through an integrative approach of complimentary practices.
The first step is to understand that there is more than one solution to every problem. Combining standard medical practice with holistic healing tools that you can apply on your own or with a healing practitioner will help you regain a sense of power and control over your mental and physical health. Being empowered to help yourself, even when medications are falling short of remission of symptoms, results in feeling less anxious and depressed. Because you are actively engaged in your healing process, a sense of control is restored in your life.
The more you feel personal control, the greater the emotional and physical health. It is an inverse relationship: As Feelings of Personal Power and Mastery increase, anxiety/depression/powerlessness/helplessness and low self-esteem decrease. You begin to heal.
There are so many holistic healing tools available today which compliment medical treatment. The Chakra Garden Model of Mind/Body Healing first advocates traditional counseling and holistic psychotherapeutic techniques such as, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Energy Psychology techniques including Thought Field Therapy and Tapas Acupressure.
These practices help to change core negative beliefs about the self that may be generating continued anxiety and depression.
With holistic psychotherapy as a base to our model, Reiki, Aromatherapy, Hypnosis, Meditation and Education Programs support it. When I treat clients with mood instability, I often promote the benefits of Reiki and Aromatherapy to help calm the mind and stabilize the mood. Grounding in the physical body is essential for people with racing thoughts, insomnia, phobias, panic attacks, and despair.
Reiki, an energetic-based, hands on healing method, has the ability to relax the mind, body and spirit, thus calming racing thoughts. For children and adults with Mood/Bipolar Disorders, this is an effective method of healing support.
Grounding and relaxing the mind and body can be furthered with Essential Oils or “Aromatherapy.” The essential oil otherwise know as “the soul of the plant,” directly impacts our Limbic System, the primordial part of the brain where our Fight or Flight response resides. This flight or fight response is easily triggered in Mood Disorders and Anxiety, causing an excess of adrenaline and increased feelings of irritability, anger, and feeling “on edge.” Essential oils such as Lavender, Vetiver, Sandalwood, and Valerian, have been known to calm the mind and body through their impact on the Limbic System.
In addition, Hypnosis is a subtle yet powerful tool, which also promotes relaxation, stress management, and freedom from addictions such as smoking, and eating disorders.
Outside of the therapy session, clients are encouraged to use many of these healing methods independently, thus strengthening their own personal power and ability to help themselves. To me, this is what psychotherapy is all about: Empowered self-care through education; bringing self-empowerment, self-esteem, and self-confidence as you take charge of your healing on the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual levels.
In collaboration with physicians or providers of psychiatric medicine, my goal is to treat the client as a whole person, while empowering them to take charge of their health outside of traditional medical practice.
At The Chakra Garden, our healing team seeks to help you treat your anxiety, depression or mood/bipolar disorder holistically in collaboration with your physician. Gaining emotional and physical health is possible with an integrative approach and a desire to heal.
The Chakra Garden is here to serve you on your journey toward empowerment and health… Healing Within, Healing the World. As we heal ourselves, the world heals, one day at a time.