What Is Holistic Therapy?
Holistic therapy looks beyond a diagnosis or symptoms. It considers how your physical health, emotional well-being, daily habits, and mental health connect and shape each other.
This is often described as whole-person care. Sleep, stress, movement, nutrition, and other parts of daily life can affect mental and emotional health, while mental health and substance use conditions can equally influence these areas.
This approach does not replace clinical treatment. Instead, it can add supportive practices that help you manage stress, develop healthy routines, and apply what you’re working on in treatment to everyday life.
How Physical and Emotional Health Can Affect Each Other
Physical and emotional well-being go hand in hand. Changes in sleep, stress, activity, and daily schedules can shape your mood and focus. Mental health symptoms can also make it harder to maintain those routines.
Sleep, Movement, and Daily Routines
Sleep problems can make it more difficult to concentrate, manage stress, or regulate emotions. Physical activity may also support mental health and general well-being.
Nutrition and hydration are other parts of the picture. Maintaining regular meals and adequate hydration can support basic physical health, energy, and daily functioning during treatment.
Whole-person care considers these areas alongside the clinical work happening in therapy rather than treating them as unrelated concerns.
Stress and Emotional Well-Being
Stress touches both your body and your mind. When tough emotions, cravings, or anxiety show up, it can be harder to focus, make choices, or use the coping skills you’re learning in treatment.
Supportive approaches can give you more ways to handle those moments. Depending on your plan, that might mean mindfulness, stress management, movement, recreation, or another practice that fits your needs.
Holistic Approaches That May Be Part of Your Treatment
Whole-person care can include several approaches, and you don’t need to participate in every one for them to play a role in your treatment.
Depending on your needs and what your program offers, your care might include:
- Mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices
- Stress-management techniques
- Recreation therapy
- Movement and physical activity
- Nutrition support
- Supportive or creative approaches, such as art or music-based activities
Mindfulness and Stress Management
Mindfulness-based practices focus on noticing thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations without reacting immediately. These practices may help manage stress and build awareness of how you respond to difficult thoughts, emotions, or cravings.
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis published in BMC Neuroscience found that mindfulness-based interventions were associated with reductions in craving among people with substance use disorders. This research supports mindfulness as a potential complementary approach within wider substance use treatment rather than a replacement for established clinical care.
Movement, Nutrition, and Recreation
Treatment may incorporate movement and physical activity to support physical health, stress management, and overall well-being. Nutrition support can also help address eating patterns, hydration, and other factors that alter daily functioning.
Recreation therapy and creative activities give you a chance to enjoy your interests, practice coping skills, and connect with others in ways that go past traditional talk therapy.
The right approach depends on your individual needs and treatment plan.
How Holistic Care Fits With Evidence-Based Treatment
Holistic care is not an alternative to evidence-based mental health or substance use treatment. At Redstone Behavioral Health, we use these approaches as complementary parts of a more comprehensive clinical treatment plan.
That distinction is important. Someone receiving treatment for a substance use disorder, for example, may participate in individual or group therapy while also using mindfulness or recreation as additional support. Someone receiving care for a co-occurring mental health condition may have therapy and medication management included in their plan alongside appropriate complementary services.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) similarly describes complementary health approaches as practices that may be used alongside standard medical or mental health treatment.
Your clinical needs remain at the center of treatment, with additional approaches incorporated when they appropriately support the work you’re already doing.
Whole-Person Care Across Redstone Behavioral Health’s Levels of Care
Redstone Behavioral Healthincorporates whole-person approaches into your broader treatment plan rather than treating them as a separate path from clinical care.
How that looks can depend partly on your level of care. Partial hospitalization (PHP) provides the most structure among our outpatient programs, intensive outpatient (IOP) provides regular clinical support with greater flexibility outside of treatment, and outpatient care (OP) offers the most flexibility of the three.
Within your program, your care team can incorporate appropriate supportive practices alongside therapy, medication management when needed, and other clinical services included in your plan.
You don’t need to know which therapies or level of care you need before reaching out. Your assessment helps your care team understand your needs and recommend a good starting point.