holistic mental health

Here you’ll find stories related to holistic mental health. As we’ve learned through our research and interviews, the importance of the mind-body connection cannot be overestimated. Our mental, psychological, spiritual, and emotional state of mind has a direct impact on the physical health of our body, and vice-versa. To this end, any holistic approach to healing must also address mental health, and do so in a holistic manner that prioritizes root cause healing over symptom masking (aka, the same way we advocate for healing physical issues).

Holistic mental health touches countless different topics, and experts from a number of different disciplines can share relevant insights. We’ve spoken to integrative psychiatrists, children’s psychologists, meditation gurus, energy healers, mindfulness advocates, and many more experts — not to mention the people who have healed mental health issues naturally, often through addressing physical root causes. 

Read these articles to learn more about holistic mental health and be inspired by those who have overcome mental health struggles naturally.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa Explains Psycho Neuroimmunology: How Emotions and Trauma Affect Your Immunity and Disease Risk

Donna Jackson Nakazawa Explains Psycho Neuroimmunology: How Emotions and Trauma Affect Your Immunity and Disease Risk

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is the author of seven books about what she likes to call “gnarly problems” that span the intersection of science, emotion, and human life, most recently the book Girls on the Brink. One of the gnarly topics she’s done a deep dive on is something called psycho neuroimunology, which is the field that looks at the interplay between our mind and our immune system. As she learned in her research, the relationship between the two is strong — and it all starts in childhood. Read on to learn more about the emerging field of psycho neuroimmunology, what it has to do with adverse childhood experiences (ACE) research, how emotions affect the body physically by way of the brain, and more. 
Ally Hilfiger on How the Long-Term Effects of Lyme Disease Landed Her in the Psych Ward

Ally Hilfiger on How the Long-Term Effects of Lyme Disease Landed Her in the Psych Ward

Imagine suffering from range of ailments that totally controlled your childhood and then having a psychotic breakdown at 18 that led to institutionalization. For Ally Hilfiger, now 32, that was the reality of the bulk of her childhood. When she was 7, Ally Hilfiger was bitten by a tick, but not diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease until 19. For all those years in between, she had to deal with severe fatigue, joint pain, difficulty retaining information, fainting spells, shooting pains, migraines, and serious anxiety attacks. No one could figure out what was causing her physical and neurological complications.