Health is Holistic—Emotional, Physical, Intellectual, and Spiritual
By IHAS Graduate Teresa Young

I’m keenly aware, as I reflect on the 3-year program that I completed through The Institute of Healing Arts and Sciences and Dr. Dorothy Martin-Neville at the dawn of the 21st century, that the content my colleagues and I studied is still almost secret knowledge two decades later. The divide is still great between Energy Medicine and conventional medicine, between the worldview in which our bodies communicate to us what wants to become conscious and the one in which we regard our bodies as vehicles—like used cars—that our neurological “control centers” operate and our physicians “repair” when possible.

However, we are making progress. We still may not be routinely asked by our physicians what’s going on in our lives, even at the onset of dramatic symptoms; we still may often be oblivious to the body’s communications until the onset of dramatic symptoms. But most of us—and our primary care providers—do acknowledge the impact of stress on the body. The impact of emotional upset. We get the logic of cause and effect patterns like chronic depression eventually leading to physical illness or “dis-ease” if not addressed.

Through the IHAS curriculum, my fellow participants and I gained a holistic understanding of the body/mind/spirit that forever impacts our views of health and wellness, of illness and disease. No matter what forms our various holistic practices take, they are grounded in this knowledge:  In order to be healthy, we must be whole, in loving relationship to all that we each are, yin and yang, happy and sad, sunshine and shadow, rather than only the parts and pieces, beliefs and goals, values and prejudices that we accept without deeper consideration, or that others accept in us.

These days, the assimilation of decades of critical research in quantum physics, biology, and epi-genetics is closing the divide between what has been considered spiritual or metaphysical and what has been considered rational and scientific. IHAS graduates are busy bringing this “new” knowledge into everyday life, while furthering our continuing evolution as individuals, families, and communities. It’s a very exciting time to be doing our work. And FYI, I’m this site’s administrator. At some point I hope to have links to IHAS graduates’ sites here.

Personal Development—Healer, Heal Thyself

The IHAS experience was also one of intense personal development. Founder Dr. Dorothy Martin-Neville’s integration of psychotherapeutic and energetic modalities—her W.I.S.E. MethodTM—left no room for “hiding out” behind the pursuit of purely theoretical knowledge from whatever deep work and healing we each needed.

Through individual, partner, small group and large group processes, we were responsible for learning to find and communicate with that within us that needed to heal or grow, and for learning to articulate what was happening, what was shifting, what we were uncovering and applying. Because if we could understand it in ourselves and one another, we were on a path toward being of service in ways that were healthy and sustainable over the long haul.

The human evolutionary process continues, thus our beliefs about and approaches to “health care” continue to evolve, too. The IHAS curriculum gave its students tools and processes that have stood the test of eons and been confirmed by all manner of scientific measurements. IHAS graduates are using these tools in holistic practices that are their own journeys of ongoing evolution and contribution.

The Institute of Healing Arts and Sciences Curriculum

The Institute of Healing Arts and Sciences Home Page

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