Alternative healing as a complement to traditional, western therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the current status of Wisconsin mental health professionals’ opinions, knowledge, and experiences regarding alternative modes of healing in conjunction with Western therapy. The review of the literature gave a synopsis of three Era’s of modern medicine and four models of psychotherapy. In addition, the theory of universal energy and three methods of alternative therapies were explored. Modern use of therapy and treating the mind, body, spirit were explored by telephone interviewing mental health practitioners about their knowledge, interest, and willingness to include alternative forms of healing as a complement to therapy in their practices. The results of the survey showed that there is an interest in alternative healing amongst Wisconsin mental health professionals where 77% of the professionals agreed or strongly agreed that mental health professionals should have knowledge about the most prominent alternative treatments. In addition, 63.5% of the participants thought alternative healing should be incorporated into therapeutic training at the graduate level. Professionals’ desires to learn more about alternative healing could lead to including alternative healing in the curriculum of mental health training in university settings.