What is HOLISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Holism (from the Greek όλος, olosI) indicates the totality, the globality of something and, in this case, of the human being. It is a theoretical, philosophical-scientific approach, based on the idea that the properties of a system cannot be explained exclusively through its individual components. In the field of health and well-being, the holistic approach allows a greater variety of strategies and provides more skills to the psychologist, but above all everything refers to the relationship as built by "people", a fact that helps a lot in the process of "recovery of well-being", which becomes more effective. In this Psychology-Online article we will discover together what is holistic psychology, where you study and how you work.

Index

1. What is holism in psychology
2. Holism in the history of psychology
3. What does holistic psychology study
4. Why Choose Holistic Psychology and Why Not

In the psychological field, the term "olismo" suggests that the individual, understood as a whole, is much more than the sum of its parts.

The holistic approach is born from a precise attitude of each human being towards himself, towards other living beings and towards the environment that surrounds him. It is expressed through a state of consciousness that knows how to capture the unity of each phenomenon. In the clinical field (in medicine as well as in psychology), the holistic approach is, above all, a way of being of the psychologist, the patient and their relationship. It is carried out when the psychologist and the patient know how to capture the unitary process together that he sees them "waves of the same ocean" and when they become capable of observing with clear eyes; observe, that is, themselves, their relationship and the "symptoms", in a broad, open way, free from preconceived schemes and strictly diagnostic conjectures.

The holistic psychology it is particularly interesting for its ability to provide solutions that other approaches cannot. It evaluates how our past has affected us, how we live our present and how we face the future. In the history of psychology we find several schools of thought that have adopted a holistic approach:

• The Gestalt psychology, which strongly maintains that human behavior must be observed as a whole.
• The humanistic psychology, born as a partial response to the reductionism of the behavioral and psychoanalytic school.
• The Social psychology, which incorporates this approach, considering environmental, social, emotional and group aspects as a whole.

To understand the reasons that drive us to think or act in a certain way, holistic psychology, instead of focusing on a common aspect of the problem, study the individual as a whole. There are several factors that interact and interfere with each other, influencing or conditioning, and that is what olismo takes into account to understand a problem. A very clear example is found in the brain: we know that it contains millions of neurons, but observing each one separately will never tell us what the brain as a whole is capable of doing.

A holistic approach is taken when the different factors that act and interact together are taken into account and how this set can influence the behavior or emotional state of the individual. In this sense, the variables to be managed are quite heterogeneous: they range from the place where the individual lives, to his work, to his professional and educational training, their social ties, their group interactions, their health and their perception of well-being and stress. Therefore, observation of the individual is not relegated to analysis of symptoms.

Compared to other more reductionist approaches, holistic psychology has several aspects that make it one of the best intervention approaches. The inclusion of several factors in the case study increases the possibility of finding the origin of the problem; the trade-off is that, often, as the spectrum of analysis increases, the demand for resources to allocate to it also increases. However, this approach helps to find more precise and potentially better solutions, working at different levels of intervention.

As with almost all approaches, holistic psychology is also not immune to some disadvantages: for certain disorders, it is better to focus on a specific aspect in order to find a solution. In this sense, holistic psychology can present obstacles to this type of intervention.

In particular, when working in a research field, the variables to be managed must be clearly defined; that is why holistic psychology is not always compatible with the scientific method. Holism is a complex approach that can lead to the design of evaluations and interventions that can be challenging due to their complexity, which can make the holistic approach unwieldy in some cases, as not all professionals are capable of apply it.

There are many schools and specialties in psychology. Know here the types of psychologists and the branches of psychology.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is holistic psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Basic psychology.

• Darecchio, S. (2018). The “new” bio-psycho-social paradigm: l’approccio olistico. Recovered from: https://psicologia-benessere.org/2018/01/21/approccio-olistico/
• From Lorenzo, G. (2021). Il passo oltre lo specchio. Alla scoperta delle scienze olistiche. Tricase: Youcanprint.