There was a time not long ago when addiction professionals would chuckle upon hearing a colleague talk of providing “holistic” treatment. Or when a treatment center would provide an hour of yoga for the newly recovering addicts -- mostly to keep them busy while the staff planned the next talk therapy session.
Today, it would appear that some of the most prestigious treatment centers can’t move fast enough to be associated with the term, now that more are seeing how complementary therapies can help improve upon the success of traditional treatment strategies. Later this month, about 1,000 professionals are expected to attend a conference in Las Vegas called “Holistic Treatment: Changing the Way We Look at Recovery—Body, Mind & Spirit.” A state conference, sponsored by the Wisconsion Association on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, is titled "Science, Treatment & Wellness in Collaboration for a Holistic Recovery" and is coming up May 10-12 in Middletown.
Holistic treatment is here for sufferers of addiction in a bigger way than ever before. And although recovery people have long preached the three-part nature of the bio-psycho-social affliction, most of the focus was still on talk therapy and Twelve-Step meetings.
Now acupuncture, massage, yoga, nutrition and other complementary methods are included in the treatment mix as authentically healing. I want to say a good word for alternatives to talk therapy which are much more inclusive of the whole self -- and include mind-body therapies like psychodrama -- it's been around for a while but now with many new innovations -- plus tapping, Systemic Constellation Work, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR and others.
