Online Care for Whole-Body Wellness
[Image description: The image shows a photo of Dawn M. E. Picone, PsyD, LCSWR, BCTMH, QCS and the article title "Online Care for Whole-Body Wellness" over a gray background.]
The New Year has begun and by now, the resolutions might be fading into the background. Try to take some time to reflect on your well-being and remember that both your mind and body have a role in your health. While your mind reflects your thoughts, feelings, and perspective, your body is your physical domain.
While conversations about resolutions are popular this time of year, using a different frame of reference for whole-body wellness might be a helpful place to start. Ask yourself, “What do I want to keep in my life going forward and what do I want to leave behind?” Once you have your goals, you can think about how to achieve them. Online therapy can be a powerful tool for tracking your health. Just like you might have a physical every so often with your primary care doctor, consider scheduling a mind and wellness checkup with a licensed therapist. There is a lot of evidence that your mind and body are interconnected — whatever affects one affects the other. This idea is the foundation of holistic health.
What is holistic health?
Holistic healthcare looks at your mind and body as a complete self instead of separating the two. It focuses on caring for you as a whole person and understanding the many aspects that influence your overall health. For example, when you are medically ill, your mind feels it too. You might be too worn out to enjoy things and not feel well enough to engage in activities. Likewise, when your mind is aching, so is your body. For example, stress, loss, and/or trauma can affect all kinds of physical aspects of your body, such as your immune system. To support your overall well-being, you might consider therapy. An online therapist can help you observe your thought patterns and feelings and support you if anything is holding you back from achieving your goals. This is called preventative psychotherapy.
How does preventative psychotherapy work?
An online therapist can help you work through any mental blocks or trauma. If you do not have any challenges that come to mind, your therapist can also help you by simply working on whatever feels right to you — providing support for your goals and identifying the skills you already have in your toolbox. Therapists can work from a strengths-based perspective and help you notice and improve your healthy choices and behaviors. Some questions that might be helpful to consider before getting started include:
- What do you do that is healthy and works well for you?
- How do you keep up the good work?
- How can you continue to develop your skills and grow?
I like to use an Ecomap, which is an assessment tool that emphasizes the different areas in your life. It helps to highlight strengths as well as places that might need improvement. A therapist can also suggest additional strategies to maintain your physical wellness and personal empowerment, while also achieving growth.
Why consider therapy?
Having an online therapy checkup can help you identify and increase the positivity in your life and perhaps decrease the negativity. Positive energy means different things to different people, but ultimately it can help promote growth and strength — and it can begin with your mind! The mind is so powerful that it can lay out the building blocks for health and well-being. It also sets the course for coordination with your body. Plus, depending on the person, the mind can influence spiritual health because thoughts can inspire actions. So, let us work together to keep your mind and body tuned up and able to lead a healthier, positive, and nourishing life!
If you’re interested in having a therapy visit, you can learn more here.