What is holistic healing?

Under the How does acupuncture work? heading, I explained that chronic illnesses are usually due to an underlying imbalance of the energy between your major organs.

Removing the underlying cause

By correcting these energetic imbalances within you, acupuncture is removing the cause of your symptoms, so that your symptoms will then disappear naturally. This is the basic approach of holistic healing. I am not merely trying to remove your symptoms; I am treating you as a whole person, so that your symptoms will disappear as a result of you being more healthy. Indeed, when people receive acupuncture treatment, they often say that they feel better within themselves and have more energy and vitality.

Not merely suppressing the symptoms

Non-holistic forms of medicine, such as Western medicine, tend to regard your physical symptoms as being the only problem, and usually they simply strive to remove the symptoms. This approach tends to suppress the symptoms back down into your body, rather than releasing them from your body. In the short-term, this might appear to have worked, since your symptoms will have temporarily gone, but in the long-term your suppressed symptoms will probably reappear, often in some other part of your body, or affecting some other organ, and the resultant illnesses will often tend to gradually get more and more serious.

Holistic healing avoids this suppressive process, and many people believe that it is the only approach that can enable you to enjoy long-term good health.