INTEGRATED HEALTH INSTITUTE

OVERVIEW: The work at the Integrated Health Institute is based on the principle that healing occurs at multiple levels, that illness often calls us to do heart- and spirit-level work for our healing, and that mind-body-spirit are inseparable and all necessary to achieve a state of deep well-being.

BODY:

In traditional Western medicine, we usually start with the physical body. Our body houses our spirit and is a messenger of our unconscious mind. How we move and where we hold tension in our bodies gives important information about how we are at home in our world. Keeping our bodies as flexible and unfettered as possible enhances our well-being. Our bodies also respond to the space they are in and to our connection to nature and to our animal selves. Moving flexibly and/or in new ways invites our minds to do the same – and “re-creates” us. Work at the Institute supports this through group and individual work in the following techniques:

  • Chinese Wands Exercises
  • Nature Walks
  • Therapeutic Recreation
  • Dancing and Drumming

MIND:

Most of us struggle with psychological and emotional wounds of the past. Many people have come to recognize the role that emotions and stress play in their physiology, especially in conditions of chronic illness. Recent research has shown the tremendous benefit of harnessing the power of our minds to transform our experience of daily life. We can literally change how we think, how we speak, the “movies” we make in our heads all the time, and our old negative reactions to past events in our personal lives. Healing with the mind encompasses a lot of territory and possibilities. Work in this area at the Institute includes:

  • Dreamwork
  • Rock-Seeing, Sand Tray, and other projective work
  • Guided imagery
  • Creative movement and expression
  • Psychodrama
  • Journaling

SPIRIT:

We suffer greatly when there is lack of meaning, purpose, or connection in our lives – connection to ourselves, to others, and to all of Nature around us. Work at the Institute moves us beyond biomedical and biopsychosocial medicine into transpersonal medicine. “Transpersonal” medicine recognizes the role of consciousness and spirituality in healing – a process that transcends those of the limited body or personality of the individual. Illness and the challenges of life often call us to do soul-level work. The following are utilized at the Institute to include this dimension:

  • Meditation
  • Personal Mythology
  • Inner Guide work utilizing binaural beat frequencies
  • Shamanic interventions, including shamanic counseling and soul retrieval work