Holistic Physical Therapy: What’s With the Adjective?

Physical Therapy Layers

Now that you fully and completely understand what physical therapy is (just kidding, though you’ll be off to a good start if you read the first post), you must be asking yourself (or at least I think you should be), why use an adjective, like holistic before physical therapy?

To answer that question, it’s important to point out the variability and specialization within the physical therapy profession itself. First, there are many types of physical therapy like orthopedic, neurologic, pediatric, geriatric, and pelvic health to name just a few. Second, every type of physical therapy can be found in a variety of practice settings. This includes outpatient, hospital-based, skilled nursing, acute rehabilitation, home health, and even in the primary and secondary educational school settings. The last layer to understand — and some may argue the most skilled layer — is the layer of skill specialization. This is the how part or the delivery of physical therapy interventions. This layer is determined by areas of interest for the physical therapist, their experience level, and most importantly the continued education that follows the formal educational component. This is where knowledge intersects clinical practice, and the patient/client care is delivered. As with any licensed, medical profession, there are professional requirements necessary to maintain a physical therapist license. One of these requirements as stated above is continuing education. Unlike the academic environment where one learns the foundational skills and knowledge sets to graduate as a physical therapist, a physical therapist can choose any topic of interest to pursue, obtaining clinical education units or CEUs. These CEUs provide enhanced tools and skills to apply in their clinical setting where they work. Ultimately, the consumer of physical therapy benefits from the ongoing skill acquisition of a physical therapist. In my case, I have been drawn to a knowledge base that focuses on the wholeness and complexities of the human body from the deep, foundational rhythms that are innate to being a human and drive our bodies into areas greater capacity to move, communicate, heal and participate in a variety of environments.

Adj. Holistic

According to the Oxford dictionary, holistic is an adjective used to describe a “belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole… [In medical practice, it is] treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of an illness.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary further defines holistic as “relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts.” There are several more references on the term holistic, but for the most part, all focus on the wholeness of something.

Wholeness?

The human body is a sum of the whole — many parts working together to create movement, movement that develops and promotes health and wellbeing. There are 11 physical body systems: Muscular (muscles/tendons/fascia), Skeletal (bones/ligaments), Neurological/Sensory (nerves/brain), Cardio-vascular (heart, vessels/blood), Pulmonary (lungs/diaphragm), Digestive (stomach/intestines, liver/gallbladder), Urinary (kidney/bladder), Immune (lymph nodes/lymph), Reproductive (uterus/ovaries/testes), Integumentary (skin), and Endocrine (thyroid/pituitary/adrenal). Because I am a physical therapist, I specifically address the physical body — all eleven systems working together to produce mobility and function. When one of these systems is injured, all the others will compensate. But there is more to being human, right? We have thoughts. We have emotions. We have a soul that connects us to something bigger than ourselves. These concepts deserve their own blog post and as such are important parts of how I practice physical therapy and the foundation for my business, Simple to BE. I am in awe of human resilience, especially when viewed under the lens of trauma. I am especially drawn to embryology — how the human body forms. This is a straightforward run into human development, from the birth process (natural trauma) through becoming an adult. I tell all my students that the more you understand how a baby develops, the better you will be at treating the person who is aging. Aging is simply a reversal of development, but I digress.

Change — It Happens

While I am drawn to the beginning of human life and development, I am equally passionate about how we age and how we experience changes that affect the aging process. Each of us innately understands that change is inevitable and often unavoidable. Change happens to us. At times we cause the change purposefully; other times change is imposed on us. The one thing we all can agree on is that change is the one constant each of us will experience over the course of our lifetime. Change DOES happen. Change WILL happen. The really powerful thing about change is that each of us has the ability to determine how those changes will affect the wholeness of our life, positively or negatively.

Definition of Holistic Physical Therapy

My definition of physical therapy has evolved, and as a result, how I practice as a physical therapist has as well. Now that you have taken the time to understand the diversity of physical therapy and how my understanding of wholeness and change impacts the human experience, my hope is that you will read my definition of holistic physical therapy with a fresh set of eyes and a renewed understanding of health and wellness and how it may apply to your own journey.

This is now my definition of physical therapy, of holistic physical therapy:

Holistic physical therapy (as it ought to be done best) is a medical treatment model that focuses on the wholeness of the body including the mind, emotions, and soul of the patient to create a space for healing. It seeks to support the whole person on their own individual journey to health, wellness, and mobility.