What does holistic mean?
The term holistic refers to a healthcare approach that treats the entire person, instead of just treating individual aspects of the person. Tabers Medical Dictionary defines holistic medicine as:The comprehensive and total care of the patient. In this system, the needs of the patient in all areas, such as physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and economic are considered and cared for. Holistic medicine aims to identify and cure the cause, not just treat the symptoms. Another philosophy that ties in with holistic medicine is preventative medicine. Preventative medicine is just thattaking measures to preserve your health early on, as opposed to just seeking out healthcare after symptoms arise.
Holistic is a surprisingly hard term to comprehensively define. This is because its very nature makes it inclusive of a wide array of beliefs. Underlying the many different belief systems, there is a belief in “wholeness”. This includes both external factors such as our connection to families, friends, cultural groups, communities, and the earth itself as well is the internal connections of our body, mind and spirit. In raising our children holistically, we strive to understand, nurture and provide for growth and development of the whole child: emotionally, physically, creatively, mentally and spiritually.
