How Did You Become Interested In The Holistic Part Of Psychotherapy?

DEAR SHERRY:

I’m so curious about how you got into the holistic part of psychotherapy. Is it what you went to school for or did you discover it along the way?

Thank you!

CURIOUS

DEAR CURIOUS:

I appreciate you asking me this question!

Ever since I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to be a therapist. I majored in Psychology for my undergraduate studies. School had always been difficult for me, but I loved my psychology courses and it was so easy for me to understand; it came very naturally. I have always believed it was a gift from God.

When I applied to graduate school, I was trying to decide between attending Fordham University and Columbia. I remember sitting in my therapist's office at the time, uncertain where to go. Columbia is an Ivy League school, and I thought it would be my golden ticket to anywhere I wanted to go if I went there. However, I loved the program at Fordham, as it had a more holistic approach. Columbia focused more on a person's mind, and Fordham focused more on how a person relates in their environment. My therapist said to me, “If you go to Columbia, it may be your ticket in the door, but YOU will get yourself where you need to go in life.” I chose Fordham. I am welling up with tears as I write this, as it was one of the most valuable lessons in my life - to follow my heart.

No matter the situation, I have always believed we have a natural tendency to heal and work through our problems as long as we are in a safe environment. I have never subscribed to the medical model of disease or strict cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which only considers a person's thoughts and behavior. In the medical model, if someone is labeled as depressed, it is regarded as a disease, and it negatively influences a person's hope to get better.

It is proven that even if someone has a genetic disposition to depression the brain is malleable. I believe what is commonly thought of as a genetic disposition to depression is a multigenerational pattern of depressed people who pick up the energy around them. For example, if your mom is depressed, you will likely grow up and feel depressed because her energy surrounded you throughout your childhood. It is like osmosis; you soak it in. We all can pick up the energy of the people around us.

When I first became a therapist 30 years ago, CBT was the most common modality for treating patients. I never understood that, as it didn’t take into account a person's emotions. I have always tried to help people to marry their head and their heart. To illustrate, I know it isn’t healthy for me to eat an entire chocolate cake, (rational thinking). Still, I might do it anyway because my emotions and subconscious processes are driving my behavior. You need to delve deeper for actual change to occur. Unless we heal our hearts, we can not change our behavior permanently. We might be able to white-knuckle it for a while, but ultimately we go back to the unwanted behavior unless true healing occurs.

Through advanced studies and continuing my work with clients, I realized that although I was helping people to align their head and heart, I was not fully addressing trauma in the body. I further learned and incorporated techniques to help release trauma in the body. I use The Trauma Resiliency Model developed by Elaine Miller-Karas, Holographic Memory Resolution developed by Brent Baum, and The Body Code developed by Dr. Bradley Nelson. They are all excellent modalities to help release trauma in the body.

I want to share a personal story about the power of aligning the body, mind and spirit. At the beginning of the pandemic, I learned that I had nodules on my thyroid. The biopsy results indicated they weren’t benign, but they were not cancer either. Since they could develop into cancer, one of my options was to have my thyroid removed and be on medication to regulate my body for the rest of my life.

I went home and looked up the cause in Louise Hay's book,You Can Heal Your Life, and learned that these nodules were manifesting because I felt resentful about my career. This was very interesting to me, as I have always wanted to get my messages out to larger audiences, but I was too afraid. When I tried to speak in public, my throat would close up and my brain would shut down.

I knew I needed to overcome my fears when I heard this news, as I did not want to have my thyroid removed. In the last 18 months I have been on a journey to overcome my fears and share my philosophy with larger audiences by developing my workshop Discover Your Roadmap To Healing; Learn how to navigate your life and live in joy and my Dear Sherry Column. I still continue to challenge myself and face my fears.

I am happy to say that my nodules have shrunk 40% without medication. This is a true testament that disease is a dis-ease of the body, mind and spirit. We truly have innate power and wisdom within us and a natural tendency to heal!

With love and gratitude,

Sherry