We call the Asclepeion Center an integrative practice. What does this mean to us and what does it mean for our clients? First, it is a holistic approach to our patients and the treatment designed for them. It means more than just providing a long list of discrete services. The Asclepeion Center's integrative perspective affects how we see our clients and how we view the problems for which they seek help. It influences the therapies and techniques that we suggest. It keeps us curious about developments in a wide variety of healing specialties. It leads us to obtain the most technologically advanced assessment tools. It guides our choice of individual staff members. And, it informs our sense of the ideal mix of expertise to include on staff. Our integrative approach also supports our understanding of how hands-on healing techniques and other integrative methods of healing actually work (see Colloid Fluid Model). Further, in order to help solve the unique problems of each individual client, our integrative philosophy helps us to work effectively on the same team with traditional physicians, dentists, therapists, and other healing professionals. Integrative Regulation Therapies® We can group the services offered at the Asclepeion Center in three categories—placing these under the overall rubric of Integrative Regulation Therapies®. As the diagram below shows, the three categories, Manual Regulation Therapy ®, Holistic Psychotherapy, and Biological Medicine, can be visualized as forming a triangle. On one side of the base of the triangle are the different types of Manual Regulation Therapy®— including hands-on healing techniques such as CranialSacral or Visceral Manipulation therapy—which primarily strive to bring about a shift in the regulatory mechanisms of the body, that is, in how the body habitually deals with the problem. On the other side of the base of the triangle are the different forms of psychotherapy—such as Family Therapy or Anger Regulation—which primarily strive to bring about a shift in the thoughts and emotions of clients—that is, in how clients see their problem. The top angle of the triangle represents biological medicine. This angle represents information gleaned from our functional assessment devices and the various remedies that we use to encourage our client’s body/mind/spirit to self-heal and function harmoniously. Biological medicine includes methods of healing for which the highest guiding principle is the maintenance, enhancement, and healthful furtherance of the human biosystem. The goal of all aspects of biological medicine is the support and restoration of the body’s natural forces of development and self-healing. Since energetic and emotional/spiritual components, as well as material ones, play critical roles here, biological medicine may be considered to be holistic care in the strictest sense of the word. Note: For a full discussion of biological medicine, see Franz Schmid, Biological Medicine: Scientific Position, Medication and Therapeutic Techniques (Baden-Baden Germany: Aurelia-Verlag), 1991 (first English translation - ISBN 3-922907-18-01991). Biological medicine is not just another branch of traditional or allopathic medicine. Part of the wellness movement, it involves completely different healing practices than those of our orthodox medical colleagues; our practices, however, complement and integrate well with traditional medical care. And, since biological medicine, practiced as a true art and science implies a deeper and broader approach in thinking than is normally implied in the concept of “medicine,” we prefer to use the word “healing” when discussing our work. We consider all these services—from each of the three points of the triangle—to be part of Integrative Regulation Therapies®. This term recognizes that the body/mind/spirit has basic capacities for regulating itself, that is, for re-establishing balance and health after the shock of stress or trauma. The different approaches offered at the Asclepeion Center are different paths to the capacity for healing that lies within us. At the Asclepeion Center we strive to use the whole spectrum of Integrative Regulation Therapies®—drawing from each corner of the triangle as necessary to put together the most effective approach for each individual client. Benefits of an Integrative Approach Our integrative approach has several advantages. It helps us take advantage of new developments in various fields, synergies among different therapies, and breakthroughs in assessment technologies. Today is a time of development and change within the various fields that make up holistic healing. Important work is being done in specialties as diverse as Anger Regulation, Nutrition Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Hands-on Healing, and many others. This ongoing progress in many fields makes it wise practice to keep abreast of a variety of areas. Our integrative approach gives us a lively professional interest in doing so. An integrative approach also leads us to take advantage of the potential synergies among different types of therapy. For example, many clients find that a session of hands-on CranialSacral Therapy can bring about an emotional release which, in turn, enables them more easily to work through self-imposed limitations that they had earlier struggled with at length in psychotherapy. Also, one could just as easily reverse this example where a client may find that talking with a trained therapist helps clarify issues and insights that emerge in a CranialSacral Therapy session. Moreover, a truly integrative approach welcomes the contributions of the new, computerized assessment technologies that are being developed. One such tool commonly used in our practice today is the Heart Rate Variability Assessment. The new availability of capacities such as this one in the offices of healing practitioners opens up many possibilities for enriching the biologic component of holistic assessments. The most basic reason for an integrative approach, however, is that it grows out of our view of the client. A person who comes to our center is much more than just the set of symptoms that brings them here. At the Asclepeion Center we keep this perspective in mind, whether the problem is a bad back, acute anxiety, a dysfunctional relationship, intestinal distress, stubborn allergies, or some other difficulty. We see each client as a unique individual made up of body, mind, emotions, and spirit—a person shaped by their own history and experiences. Each of these aspects of identity functions through its own dynamic—yet, they are also related. The well-being of each aspect affects all the others. When the emotions are ailing or the spirit is troubled, for example, the body may also suffer. When tension held unconsciously in bodily tissues is released, the emotions and spirit may discover new energy and balance. Our integrative approach thus springs from our holistic view of what it means to be a person, and out of our appreciation of the many factors that may impede or generate health. Guided by this integrative approach, we do our best to help all our clients find their own path to the fullest possible health. BACK TO TOP