Introduction:

Functional medicine doctors use specialized training and techniques to find the root causes of complex illnesses. They may investigate multiple factors causing a condition, or they may look into multiple conditions causing one symptom.

A doctor in functional medicine works holistically, considering the full picture of your physical, mental, emotional, and sometimes even spiritual health.

They consider factors like diet, genetics, hormonal changes, prescription and over the counter medications, and other lifestyle components. This type of doctor may be ideal for people with chronic ailments that aren’t easily managed by conventional medical techniques.

What Does a Functional Medicine Doctor Do?

Functional medicine doctors look at your full history to identify the root causes of an illness. They usually spend more time with you than conventional doctors. They collect detailed information about the disease and your overall lifestyle.

A functional medicine doctor may ask about:

• A timeline of symptoms
• Sleep patterns
• Exercise habits
• Nutrition
• Stressors
• Personal relationships
• Emotional wellbeing

What Conditions Does a Functional Medicine Doctor Treat?

Most functional medicine doctors solve complex and multifaceted health issues. Examples include depression, chronic pain conditions like arthritis, and inflammatory diseases. The unique processes used by these doctors may help people manage the daily symptoms of chronic disease.

Conditions that can be treated with Functional Medicine:

• Adrenal diseases
• Dementias.
• Arthritis.
• Asthma.
• Autoimmune diseases.
• Cancer prevention.
• Cardiovascular diseases.
• Diabetes.
• Digestive disorders.
• Fibromyalgia.
• Environmental and food allergies.
• Women’s health disorders
• Thyroid disorders.

Education & Training

Functional medicine doctors have gone through traditional medical school training. They may then choose to get additional certification from an organization such as The Institute for Functional Medicine. Doctors then apply functional medicine teachings to their original field of practice.

Conclusion:

The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to chronic disease management. It seeks to answer the question, “Why are you ill?” so you can receive personalized, effective care for your needs.  The foundation of functional medicine is the use of food as a first-line therapy. The right nutrition, combined with lifestyle and behavioral interventions, will help you take charge of your health.

Introduction:

In Therapeutic Touch, therapists lay their hands on or near their patient’s body with the intention to help the healing process. In doing so, therapists believe that they are intentionally directing or modulating an individual’s energies by interacting with his or her energy field. The focus is on balancing the energies of the total person and stimulating the body’s own natural healing ability rather than on the treatment of specific physical diseases.

The Basis of Therapeutic touch:

  The human being is an open energy system composed of layers of energy that are in constant interaction with self, others, and the environment.

  Illness is an imbalance in an individual’s energy field.

  Clearing or balancing the energy field promotes health.

  All humans have natural abilities to heal and enhance the healing in others.

A typical session is:

A session lasts approximately 15 to 30 minutes. You will sit in a comfortable chair and lie down fully clothed. The Therapeutic Touch practitioner will begin by discussing your goals for healing. He or she will then use light touch and/or sweeping hand motions above the skin surface to assess and balance the energy in and around the body.

The Therapeutic touch practitioners do the following:

1. Center themselves in the present moment and bring themselves to a calm, quiet state of consciousness.
2. Review the client’s energy field. 
3. Clear and mobilize the client’s energy field, direct energy to achieve wholeness, and balance the field.
4. Evaluate and close the treatment. 
5. Ask for feedback and answer client questions.

Conclusion:

The aim of Therapeutic Touch is to assist the recipient in tapping into their own healing process and to restore completeness and wellbeing at the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of the person.

Therapeutic Touch does not attempt to cure disease, but rather to stimulate the body’s natural healing process. According to Therapeutic Touch texts, the major effects of Therapeutic Touch are a deep relaxation response, reduction of pain and anxiety, and faster wound healing.

Practitioners believe that this therapy promotes health and wellbeing and eases the dying process.  Patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or radiation have found it helpful in reducing side effects of treatment, such as nausea, vomiting, weakness, or fatigue. Others have seen reduced feelings of anxiety or grief.

Therapeutic Touch can benefit people of all ages and all states of health or illness, as well as plants and animals.

This therapy is generally very safe, but precautions need to be taken with pregnant women (since there is more than one energy field), and people with some forms of mental illness. Experienced practitioners will take these factors into account.

Introduction:

Rolfing is a physical therapy that helps to improve your posture and treats chronic muscular-skeletal pain conditions, such as lower back pain, sciatica and stiff and painful shoulders. Rolfing was founded by Dr Ida Rolf, a research biochemist from the Bronx who lived 1896-1979.

Rolfing is a systematic and holistic method of manipulating the muscle and fascia to help the body return to structural balance in movement and gravity.

What Are the Benefits of Rolfing?

The benefits of Rolfing include improved posture and structure. This is achieved through body manipulation and realignment by using specialized techniques. Practitioners believe that body is at its most efficient and optimal functional level when it is completely balanced.

By resolving discomfort, alleviating pain, and releasing tension in the body, Rolfing® enables the body to conserve energy, improve and optimize movement patterns, reduce inflammation and chronic stress, as well as provide improved athletic performance. 

Incorrect posture can lead to several severe complications and conditions that negatively affect your life. Rolfing® has a proven track record of reducing spinal curvature and improving neurological function.  

Rolfing is perfectly safe and non-invasive to the patient, making the experience rather pleasant and relatively pain-free.

Side effects of Rolfing:

Rolfing negative side effects, if any, are temporary. Most common side effect if the client is new to bodywork is the release of long held body toxins, which may lead to having cold symptoms days later. Additionally, some may have reaction such as headaches, soreness, swelling, and or nausea.

Difference in Rolfing and massage:

Rolfing and massage differ most significantly in one key way: massage is great for short-term relaxation or relief of pain, while Rolfing changes the structure of the body to provide long-lasting ease and relief.

Conclusion:

The principles of Rolfing contradict established medical knowledge, and there is no good evidence Rolfing is effective for the treatment of any health condition. It is recognized as a pseudoscience and has been characterized as quackery.

Introduction:

Attachment therapy is based on attachment theory and explores how one’s childhood experiences might impact their ability to form meaningful bonds as adults.

In attachment-based therapy, therapists work with people who need help rebuilding trust in relationships, especially because people with dys-regulation of attachment tend to fall into difficult interpersonal relationships.

Techniques:

Often, the mantra “winning back power” is used in attachment therapy, and you’ll often explore events from your childhood and determine how these experiences might impact your life today. 

At the beginning, expect to deeply reflect on your relationship with your primary caregiver, that often means your parents, grandparents, or foster/adoptive parents. Be prepared to analyze how those early dynamics continue manifesting today.

What Attachment Therapy Can Help With:

Attachment therapy can help if you have symptoms of an attachment disorder

• Find it difficult to be emotionally stable
• Often  inability to form deep relationships due to fear
• Worry about abandonment
• Worry your partner doesn’t love you despite their words/actions
• Find yourself  afraid to be alone
• Feel distraught in relationships, especially as they become more intimate
• Have poor self-esteem

Benefits of Attachment Therapy :

Attachment therapy can help you address some of the subconscious, persistent issues from your childhood that still impact your ability to form meaningful relationships as an adult.

Conclusion:

In summary, attachment theory can be used to understand the development of coping patterns or relationship patterns and the underlying dynamics of a person’s emotional difficulties. Clinicians not only can help those with high attachment anxiety and avoidance to modify their ineffective coping strategy, but also can help them understand the underlying unmet needs. Moreover, clinicians need to know that people with different insecure attachment patterns i.e., anxiety and avoidance patterns may use different coping strategies to manage their life difficulties. This therapy helps patients to break old patterns of behavior and lead a fulfilling and balanced life.