Comparing Western and Eastern Medical and Psychiatric Treatment - A lecture

Please note that the information contains original and previously published data and as such is not attributed. Writer takes no responsibility for originality of the content, it is purely for the purpose of education of healthcare individuals. If you have any questions about the content or would like the information presented by a qualified psychiatric nurse practitioner and naturopathic practitioner please contact me at naturalpsych@hotmail.com

Respectfully,
Dr. Eric Malz


Lecture Outline


1. Ancient cultural beliefs
B. Current Issues
1. The changing complexion of health care
2. Barriers to acceptance of alternative therapies
C. Application of selected alternative therapies: An overview
1. Mind-Body Intervention
D. Alternative systems of medical practice
E. Pharmacologic and biologic Treatments
F. Diet and nutrition

I am also wondering if you could include about 15 minutes about:
self help groups, group therapy and family therapy. We offer them a
definition of each but you would probably be able to make it more
real for them.


INTRODUCTION:
First I want you to write down your mood – one is for being down after failing a test and 10 being in a great mood because you knew the answers to the test and didn’t get caught.


· I have my bachelors from FDU, Masters from Yale and Columbia and
· PhD and ND from Clayton College and have been A NATUROPATH.
· a trained drug and alcohol counselor
· I’ve been a hospital administrator but really wanted to be a nurse so I changed my career to match my goals – to be in a better position to help people.
· I found natural health as a perfect supplement to my education

NP WORKING WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE:
· Being a psychiatric nurse practitioner,
· I WORK AT GOUVERNEUR HOSPITAL, par of the City’s Health and Hospital’s Corp, and
· IN NEW JERSEY I WORK AT A VOCATIONAL/REHABILITATION FACITLITY.

I WORK IN psychiatry, substance abuse treatment AND
· HELP PEOPLE COPE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS,
· I TRY TO NORMALIZE MY CLIENTS.
· HELP THEM TO FEEL THAT THEY CAN GO ON WITH THEIR LIVES,
· REDUCE THE STIGMA. I FIND THAT
· ADDING A NATURAL HEALTH COMPONENT HELPS DO THAT, IT
· GIVES MY CLIENTS SOME CONTROL OVER THEIR LIVES.
· MY patients have the desire for natural healing (very strong in Asian community).
· I have developed a means of combining all my strengths to help my patients do well.

(tell a joke - then ask)

How is your mood now!!! Has there been a change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate how moods can be changed in a variety of ways - by medication - by therapy - by just hearing a joke - there are many methods and I will discuss how in my practice I using several techniques as a doctor of naturopathy and a psychiatric nurse practitioner to creatively help clients:





Complementary and Alternative Therapies
I. Alternative Therapy Fields
Introduction:
· This lecture will describe a variety of healthcare delivery systems.
· I will discuss eastern,
· western,
· holistic and a
· variety of natural medicine techniques.



· Alternative Medicine vs Complementary Medicine:

Alternative medicine practices are used instead of standard medical treatments. An example of an alternative therapy is using a special diet to treat cancer instead of undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy that has been recommended by a physician.

· Alternative medicine is distinct from complementary medicine which is meant to accompany, not to replace, standard medical practices. Alternative medical practices are generally not recognized by the medical community as standard or conventional medical approaches.

A: Medicine Prior to 1800
· Prior to 1800 it was not possible to refine therapeutic agents from a plant. One had to chew its leaves, flowers or roots or drink a tea made from its components. One example is

· the White willow bark tea: has therapeutic properties. It would relieve headache, pains and fever, it was refined as salicylic acid – aspirin.

· The Chinese epedra, a bush, when ground and used in a tea would relieve asthma and respiratory symptoms.

B: Age of Heroic Medicine
About 1780 a new, more modern treatment came into vogue. In fact you can still see remnants of the treatment in barber poles, because


· Age of Heroic Medicine (1780-1850), educated professional physicians aggressively practiced "heroic medicine,"

· (GETTING RID OF BAD BLOOD) The treatments included bloodletting (venesection), intestinal purging (calomel) , vomiting (tartar emetic), profuse sweating (diaphoretics) and blistering. Physicians originally treated diseases like syphilis with salves made from mercury. These medical treatments were well-intentioned, and often well-accepted by the medical community, but were actually harmful to the patient.

· The death of George Washington, on December 14, 1799, may have partially resulted from shock from blood-letting. In fact, the place where these doctors practiced was in offices with a pole that advertised their practice. It is sill evident in most cities. The pole revolves and demonstrates blood trickling from a blood letting site. A BARBER Shop POLE.

· barber poles advertised their art, the art of blood letting this was the


II. Ancient Cultural Beliefs
A: Homeopathy : Samuel Hahnemann -
A german physician Samuel Hahnemann became frustrated after obtaining his medical training and subsequently set out to change medical care. He developed a theory that a substance that causes a symptom in a healthy person, could cure a sick person with the same malady. He called it the

· law of Similars. Since this was the only successful treatment for Choloera epidemics of the 1840’s and developed a following.

The question about homopathy, a process where a substance that causes a malady (belladona) to become worse is then diluted to the point where there is not a molecule ( the point where there is less than one molecule of the original substance present, but the belief is that by diluting it by Succussing it, the remedy becomes stronger. What western medical training suggests is that people given such treatments might heal though two effects, one the placebo effect and secondly by good nursing care. The first is the stong belief that the cure will work, which is where the mind body connection comes in. the second is with good care, cleaning the wound, proper nutrition, good sleep and care, many maladies will clear just though the body’s own defense mechanisms.


· Why isn’t Homeopathy practiced more widely today?
But due to a groundswelling by Allopathic doctors – who belived in the conventional methods, the use of homeopaths was outlawed by legitlation by the end of the 1840’s. In 1846 the American Medical Association began as a means of keeping all inappropriately trained practioners from practicing medicine. Of course there is Hahnemann Medical College in Pennsylvania.

The difference according to Andrew Weil is that western medicine relies on the properties of the medication administered and homeopathic medicine relies on the spirit of the medicine, the therapeutic power of how the medicine changed the water or alcohol it was diluted in and this causes its power.

At this time, there are Homeopathic practitioners, but most are not physicians. People are considering a return to the ideas of non conventional medicine because the invasive procedures, the increase in perception of medical illness and its expense has people re-thinking as to what is the best way to treat disease. So the re-emergence of alternative health methods.

B. Ancient Cultural Belifs

· What is health. It can be stated as the freedom from disease – and that is the western medical term for it. But the
· Anglo Saxon root for health is wholeness. So the treatment for disease is to return the body to wholeness

· Many cultures look at health and well being as that power is in circles. Everything tries to be round. Ancient Indians believed life is a circle.

· Planets and stars are circular. A plant grows from a seed, it flourishes and then dies and the residual products from his flowers and leaves come back to earth to provide nourishment for the next plant. Birds make their nests in circles.

· The seasons are circular. The Black Elk Indians are quoted in Dr. Weil’s book, HEALTH AND HEALING. When they were banished to the reservation. Lamenting the US built houses on reservations. The shaman stated that the US houses have no power, they are square. The lack of circularity introduces spiritual sickness and imperfection and a loss of wholeness.

· The circle of YIN yang of Chinese traditional medicine discusses the complimentary systems of life.

Types of Ancient Cultural Beliefs

· Acupuncture (using needles to release pain and balance the body), acupressure (the use of pressure to cause a similar effect as acupuncture).
· Give examples of using Auricular acupuncture for detox (distribute picture of Auricular acupuncture)

· I used acupuncture as part of my work as a nurse/counselor at Gracie Square Hospital – I saw the ability for using five of the over two hundred acupuncture points that are in the ear to help reduce stress.

· Ayurveda (Indian based system to use the mind and body to help one heal) belief system that your systemic type, your appearance, your habits, methods of perceiving the world and how the world perceives them results in health or lack of it. Dr. Chopra uses an example of a woman with cancer. She started seeing the doctor and ate specific foods, said specific prayers, did specific exercises, said certain phrases, basically stating that she did not have cancer and it would not control her. It was successful for a time, but she stopped believing and the cancer returned.
· herbalism (using herbs to help one heal from maladies), using fox glove - digitalis -as a treatment for heart disease. ,
· Naturopathy is a system of therapy and treatment which relies exclusively on natural remedies, such as sunlight, air, water, supplemented with diet and therapies such as massage ) I am a trained naturopath. I will discuss how I use this later. THE NATUROPATH IS THE GENERAL PRACTITIONER

· Qi Gong Qi gong: ("chee-GUNG") A component of traditional Chinese medicine that combines movement, meditation, and regulation of breathing to enhance the flow of qi (an ancient term given to what is believed to be vital energy) in the body, improve blood circulation, and enhance immune function,

· Reflexology – using the foot as a guide. Stimulation of certain areas helps promote healing,

· Spiritual healing – Use of a belief system to improve well being – placebo effect

· Tai Chi, Traditional Chinese Medicine, yoga,

· Reiki – the belief that a healer can stimulate healing and improve balance by using the energy fields in the body,
· spiritual healing, Shamanism

· traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM),

· yoga.

· Spirituality (religion is medicine for the soul) – will discuss how religion is a very important part of treatment – a very important part of your practice as a nurse will be to help people use their resources. One way of coping with stress is religion, it gives comfort – it definitely has healing properties

III. Biomedical model Concepts

· There are many ancient techniques and some modern techniques that have been brought into modern day medicine, because for one reason or another, the therapy was not found to be a threat to the practice of medicine.

· Chiropractic: chiropractic medicine – using stimulation of the spine to heal stressors and relieve pain, osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT), the difference is the osteopath has a medical license. Was permitted as a reimbursable treatment in the 1960’s, before then this was considered heretical medicine.

· massage therapy – therapeutic techniques designed to de stress the body and work through problems by relaxation,

· diet therapy – use of nutrition to heal – if one is obese you have much higher risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes, diet therapy is very important especially since many medications cause increase in weight

· hypnosis – using subconscious suggestions to help people heal.

· massage therapy – using massage to ease stress,

· nutritional therapy - There are certain foods that are helpful. For example for menstruation pain, raspberry tea is very soothing ,

· osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) – belief in manipulations of the spine to cure illness,

· Aromatherapy (using smells to elicit specific healing responses (when you want to sell your house – a good real estate agent will tell you to bake a pie with cinnamon in it, why because it brings feelings of warmth and comfort. Herbs can be used to be calming and soothing

· Biofeedback - Not really. Biofeedback began to be used therapeutically after WWII to help returning veterans who needed physical therapy, and who were pleased to discover that being able to “see” their muscle activity at work helped them to establish greater control over it. Other forms of biofeedback, such as work with skin temperature, electrodermal activity, and neurofeedback, were also being studied, and neurofeedback, in particular, captured the public attention in the 60’s and early 70’s, when work with alpha brain waves, as Dr. John Basmajian puts it, “emerged prematurely from the laboratory”, and enjoyed a brief popularity before returning to the research arena for further much-needed study. Since that time, much research has been done with establishing voluntary control over the autonomic nervous system through the use of biofeedback, and it has been found to be a very effective therapeutic tool for the treatment of many stress-related disorders.,

· ECT: This method of providing electro shock to the brain helps people who have untreatable depression.

· One client of mine was in therapy, she had been an executive secretary, had a college degree. Her life had deteriorated to living in a supportive housing faciltiy. She would say that she had no energy during the day, but, for years she would do the minimum to get by. She received antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Then one day, her neighbors went to her room, because they hadn’t seen her for a few days. All she would do is look out the window, she wasn’t washing, she had no appetite, she basically was exhibiting failure to thrive. So she was hospitalized and given ECT. She was a different woman after that. She has reconnected with her sister and sees her every day – hadn’t talked with her for years. Now she is doing much better. Is electroshock therapy for every one, no but it certainly is better than the existance this woman had.

· BEHAVIORAL HEALTH IS THE ONE DISCIPLINE THAT INCORPORATES COMPLIMENTARY HEALTH

· Barriers to alternative health
Healthcare that is no paid for by insurance companies. The greatest boon to chiropractors came in the 1960’s when chiropractors became a reimbursable treatment.
Currently, accupuncturists are state licenses, but reimbursement is difficult – therefore – a tough decision to work as a accupuncturist – unless you are also a medical doctor. My patients are constantly telling me that they found this remedy and that at the health food store. I am skeptical because these “treatments” are labeled as food and so there is no control as to their therapeutic properties. If you’re on medicaid or a fixed income – this is a terrific strain. So I use the qualities of naturalism and main stream psychiatry and encourage my patients to try these methods to imrove their moods.

PART 2 Western/Modern Medicine
· The next part of this lecture will be to discuss Western, modern medicine and how I have incorporated Naturopathy into my psychiatric nurse practitioner practice.

· Just to loop back on those medications that were synthesized products from plants, some don’t always work like they were supposed to.

· Invention of syringe:

· As I mentioned, before 1800, there were no synthesized compounds. One of the first was morphine, which was compounded from the Coca plant. Alexander Wood in 1853 invented the syringe and his wife became the first morphine addict. There are many safe uses for other products made from the Coca plant, Novocain, for instance, but the problem is, when you synthesize a medication from a plant, it becomes much more potent, south American natives chew coca leaves and obtain many therapeutic effects but the morphine had only certain properties narcotic

E. Pharmacologic and biologic Treatments

Mind Body Medicine – Psychiatry is a treatment modality that is based on Mind/Body medicine:

· An example of mind/body medicine:

· Example of Equlibrium and Health:
· Health as wholeness – holeness as balance. Our bodies prefer to be in a state of balance, however it is a dynamic balance.
· NO one is perfectly healthy. I see this everyday in my practice.


· Stress has direct relationship with somatic illness – people complain of acid indigestion and headaches and the origins can be directly related to stress, it is also a precurser of depression.

· Typically my patient will come in and say,
· “Hey doc, I feel terrible, I don’t have any energy”.

· So being a psychiatric nurse practitioner, one would start thinking, well sadness, well depression, well maybe suicidality”.

· But because I understand that life has to be in balance, I start to ask questions. When did you get to sleep last night – Oh, I only slept 2 hours.
· OK, how what did you have for breakfast, “Well I had a cup of coffee”.
· So what have we learned from two questions.
· We always have to look at people as a whole.(that’s what nurses do look at things holistically)


· You know, I didn’t sleep well either, you’re not that special”

· Maybe it’s nutritional. Maybe you need to see a nutritionist to look at what you’re eating – are you a McDonald;s junkie. Are you getting enough exercise. The wonderful thing about exercise are those endorphines. When you get the runners high, you really do feel better.


Types of therapy

There’s individual , group, milieu

Individual: Make them cry –the answer isn’t immediate
· Working as a visiting nurse, my patients would tell me, “Oy my back hurts, and I have such pain when I walk and my eyes aren’t so good” They’re 80 years old, I ask them, if they were 50 and it was a work day what would you do. “of course, I would get up and go to work” I am constantly telling people to dirvert their attention from their problems.

Family Therapy- the identified patient
Suppports, triggers,

Group: Group sessions help each other
· Assistant group leader; patient in my group believed he was my co leader in my group. He said he was recovering from heroin addiction and his mother went off, left him, to go off with a young stud in Mexico. Subsequently was seen in my detox months later. He picked up heroin but was smiling. He had bladder cancer. Why was that good news, he’s back on heroin and now he has cancer. Well his mom returned to take care of him. What came first the need for his mom’s nurturing or the cancer. I cannot say.;-

· Group – lady angry – in opd detox group. stating she had met a woman who remembered that she heard the young girl scream from the closet each day. Patient states she took out her anger by breaking glass on the floor. Its ok he has shooes.

Melieu: using the setting; give example

· Delusions:
I was doing a C and L for a Spanish speaking male. I had the head nurse interpreting for me. This fellow used to work in a cemetery, now he’s in a nursing home and I’m evaluating him for depression. He says, “Hey, don’t I know you”. I said I didn’t think so. He continued, “Didn’t I raise you from the dead”.

· Hallucinations:
There is a 85 year old Spanish speaking woman in the nursing home. I am seeing her because she is agitated. When I meet her, I ask her what is wrong. First I have to tell you that this nursing facility is well run with no health violations. Well, the lady says, I am tired of the rats biting me at night – I wouldn’t give this a second thought since she has a prior diagnosis of schizophrenia but she is pointing to areas on both wrists with marks on her – self inflicted – but it got me going.


· So lets get to how I use natural health methods: As a psychiatric nurse practitioner with a doctorate in Naturopathy, I tell my clients that there is nothing more natural or holistic than using words to change mood.

· (we started out this lecture by changing your mood with a joke)

· There is evidence that stress directly leads to heard disease. So if we can reduce stress by therapy, by the use of adjunctive medication, then we can reduce morbidity.


· Dwelling on your negativity only causes the stresses to increase

· I work in day treatment program for mr/mental patients. The ability to go to program on a daily basis and accomplish something is very powerful.

· Drug addiction: One aspect of psychaitry is dealing with drug addiction. Why, people self medicate.

· If you have a headache you have choices, aspirin, motrin, naproxyn, tylenol.

· You don’t call a doctor and ask for advice. Well this is a method some people use for mood regulation.

· You’ve all heard of the person going to the party, “oh have a drink and loosen up”

· This is using alcohol’s disinhibiting property.

· People use cocaine to elevate mood,

· they use heroin to aleviate psychotic symptoms.

· People use marijuana to escape. That’s the key word.


· Using all these and other substances results in an escape from reality. You don’t worry, you’ve escaped your stresses.

· The problem with this is – in order to have the same relief, the same escape it takes more and more and if you don’t take the substance you feel much worse – withdrawl.

· Detoxes were set up because stopping drinking.

· Using drugs like cocaine increases dopamine – the bodys reward system – excited euphoria. Dopamine has many other functions as well.

· Estasty on the other hand, reduces the dopaimen. Parkinsonism is the lack of dopamine. Endorphins is the opiod effect. It occurs naturally in the body, can be induced by the mind or runner’s high. Opiates induce this same effect artificially.

· I once gave a lecture about drug addiction to a group of nurses, trying to give them a clue as to why their patient’s were using drugs. We talked about the self medication theory. We can actually discuss this a bit now. When I got to the part where I talked about cocaine use – they tell me – is like having a climax during sex- several hands raised and the staffmember wanted to know where they could get some. It would be ok except for the fact that it’s illegal, unhealthy, and potentially dangerous.

· Why people want to stop using?:

· expense, losses, controls their lives.

· Methodone is a substitute but patient’s need daily fix.

Some definitions – types of clients that I see; LET ME SAY FIRST, THAT MOST OF MY CLIENTS REALLY WANT HELP AND DO VERY WELL ON MEDICATIIONS – THESE ARE THE EXCEPTIONS


· MANIPULATION:
o Person who wanted detox and to call his wife –
manipulation.Dual Diagnosis Substance abuse and psychiatric illness treatment neede:

· I had a guy come in for an intake for psychiatric serverices: Stated he had just gotten out of NYU medical center due to taking an OD, taking a bottle of lamictal with vodka. He said he was missing the lamictal but continued his lexapro which he still had. He has been coping by buying a small amount of vodka to keep him steady. Turns out he was drinking a half pint a day, but he said he had not relapsed because he has his AA book and reads it every day. De nial is not a river in egypt –its what this guy had.

· Grandiose and in denial:
I was working as a nurse in a detox doing intakes. Patient asked to use the phone. “Hi honey, yeah I’m in the detox, I’ll be here five days, time to get cleaned out, clean up my act. Give my love to the kids. OK now can I call my wife”

· Impaired coping mechanisms:
This is a young Asian, single male who was smuggled over from China. He is constantly having problems, but appears to be a good problem solver! He earns money by going back and forth to the NJ Casinos via bus. The company provides $7 as an incentive for clients to go gambling in Atlantic City, but our entrepreneur decided this is a good job, “money for nothing!” But our valiant fellow is generous as well. He always gives the driver $1 tip as an incentive for doing a good job.

· Also impaired coping mechanisms:
This is a young Asian, single male who has been in the hospital many times since being smuggled from China. He comes to see me and my associate for symptoms that include a belief that he is a space alien and he believes his fellow aliens have given him a space ship to rent out. That’s how he makes a living. This fellows main problem, at this time is, he isn’t quite sure how to run the space ship. He says, “The instructions aren’t in Chinese” My associate and I decided that there must be another way because in Star Trek the characters can go into any random space ship and fly off. Our answer is, “The Universal Translator”





· The importance of medication education:
This person comes to a day program, probably mentally diminished. She qualifies for the following reason:
She came over to a counselor friend of mine. She said, “I’m confused. I looked at the package insert for the psychiatric medication I’m taking and it says, “THIS MEDICINE REDUCES SEX DRIVE”. I was wondering, how does this effect me, I don’t drive???

PART 3 SELF HELP, FAMILY AND GROUP THERAPY




· Self help groups:
There are many examples. Weight watchers, AA, NA, CA, MA. The theory is the same. If you’re trying to quit anything, having a group is important to support you on your attempt. AA is the original self help group. Before AA, alcholism was considered a lack of will power and moral weakness, through AA people who were alcoholics went to sanitoriums or the salvation army. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob.came up with a way that people could teach each other the methods to stop drinking and support each other during the process.


· Family therapy – many times I will see someone and they are in doing well, but their family members don’t change their perception of the person and keep pushing the same buttons. I have treated drug abusers that leave rehab after learning how to be clean and sober and they return months later. The reason is, the family members don’t know how to react to their ‘changed’ relative or friend. It’s uncomfortable when your husband is usually drunk and you make the family decisions. All of a sudden, the rules have changed, now he’s asserting himself, you’ve got to change and change is uncomfortable so unconsciously the patient is encouraged to return to the old habits so the equilibrium of the family doesn’t change. Therapy is very important because one person is in therapy and changes – you need the support of his primary group to reinforce these changes.


· Group therapy- I do a medication management group. The best part of a group is that patients can talk about how they feel and it’s the group leader’s job to get the reaction of peers. If I lecture about a topic it’s not group. If a topic is brought up and a peer reacts to it – there’s more power. Patient’s typically say that they are thinking of something and a peer talked about it. Medication group. Talking about how a peer lost her mother. The patient had attempted suicide a couple of days later. One patient stated, we shouldn’ t let people come to the program when that happens because it made me feel bad. Well it brought back her issues of loss with her parents and depression. Other paients made statements about their loss. The result was I was able to process their feelings and offered that the purpose of the program is to offer client’s support with their own issues and offer a safe place to come when they’re feeling hopeless.




Hypnosis explanation: Psychiatrists theorize that the deep relaxation and focusing exercises of hypnotism work to calm and subdue the conscious mind so that it takes a less active role in your thinking process. In this state, you're still aware of what's going on, but your conscious mind takes a backseat to your subconscious mind. Effectively, this allows you and the hypnotist to work directly with the subconscious. It's as if the hypnotism process pops open a control panel inside your brain.
It provides an especially convincing explanation for the playfulness and uninhibitedness of hypnotic subjects. The conscious mind is the main inhibitive component in your makeup -- it's in charge of putting on the brakes -- while the subconscious mind is the seat of imagination and impulse. When your subconscious mind is in control, you feel much freer and may be more creative. Your conscious mind doesn't have to filter through everything.
Hypnotized people do such bizarre things so willingly, this theory holds, because the conscious mind is not filtering and relaying the information they take in. It seems like the hypnotist's suggestions are coming directly from the subconscious, rather than from another person. You react automatically to these impulses and suggestions, just as you would to your own thoughts. Of course, your subconscious mind does have a conscience, a survival instinct and its own ideas, so there are a lot of things it won't agree to.
The subconscious regulates your bodily sensations, such as taste, touch and sight, as well as your emotional feelings. When the access door is open, and the hypnotist can speak to your subconscious directly, he or she can trigger all these feelings, so you experience the taste of a chocolate milkshake, the satisfaction of contentment and any number of other feelings.
Additionally, the subconscious is the storehouse for all your memories. While under hypnosis, subjects may be able to access past events that they have completely forgotten. Psychiatrists may use hypnotism to bring up these memories so that a related personal problem can finally be resolved. Since the subject's mind is in such a suggestible state, it is also possible to create false memories. For this reason, psychiatrists must be extremely careful when exploring a hypnotic subject's past.



American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA)
The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) embraces nursing as a lifestyle and a profession and provides a means to create bonds within the nursing community. Because true healing comes from within, the AHNA recognizes that nurses must first heal themselves before they can facilitate the healing of others. There are many roads to healing, and individuals must seek their own paths. The AHNA serves as a bridge between the traditional medical paradigm and universal complementary and alternative healing practices.
The AHNA was founded in 1981 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Its membership is open to nurses and other individuals interested in holistically-oriented health care practices throughout the United States and the world. AHNA supports the education of nurses, allied health practitioners, and the general public on health-related issues.
AHNA supports the concepts of holism: a state of harmony among body, mind, emotions and spirit within an ever-changing environment. The vision of the American Holistic Nurses Association is to be the definitive voice for holistic nursing. It is the mission of the American Holistic Nurses Association to unite nurses in healing.
The AHNA philosophy embraces the beliefs that:
1. Nursing is both an art and a science with the primary purpose to nurture others towards the wholeness inherent within them.
2. Nurses have a unique opportunity to provide services that facilitate wholeness.
3. Holistic Nurses demonstrate expertise in a variety of roles and activities.
4. Holistic nursing assists people to assume personal responsibility for self-care.
5. Clients, families, and communities have the right to health care that honors the body, mind, and spirit.
6. Disease and distress are viewed as an opportunity for increased awareness of the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit.
7. Holistic modalities and therapies provide support and options in healing.
8. The American Holistic Nurses' Association serves as a foundation and dynamic force for nursing practice. We are committed to unity and healing self, the nursing profession, and the planet.