Holistic Healing is the safest, best way to help your pets get well and stay well!
Holistic Healing is something that took me a little while to understand. When I graduated, I was a normal, conservative, everyday vet. I did what I was taught, which was pretty much work out a symptom, and then aim a prescription drug or a surgical intervention at the problem, and hope that worked! And to be honest, it often did.
But I didn’t understand the costs. I didn’t understand that the animals I was helping as a vet were all different, all unique, and that one-size-fits-all approaches weren’t the best. I truly didn’t know any better, even though i always wanted to help the animals in the best way possible.
About 18 months out from graduation, I woke up to a huge problem that I got taught NOTHING about at university – soft tissue pain, neck and back pain. That was my first step along the road that led me to being a holistic, integrative, intuitive veterinarian. I started using bodywork, massage, and physical therapies with my clients, and I have been ever since. It’s still one of my most important and powerful healing tools to this day.
But it wasn’t until I got seriously sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Lyme disease, and Western medicine ran out of answers very quickly, that I had to explore holistic, alternative, and complementary approaches to try to get well. I was really badly unwell for about 3 years – unable to work. Then I had about 15 years of being chronically unwell, trying all sorts of things. Eventually, I worked out how to get properly well, fully recovered.
I’ve applied everything I’ve learned to my veterinary practice. And I want to share this deep understanding with you, so you can apply it with your pets.
Holistic Healing begins with an appreciation that every animal, every being, is unique and different. At the same time, each animal needs to be considered as a whole. Not as a collection of symptoms, or one organ out of balance. A whole being. All of the being needs to be understood and considered. And all of the treatments, interventions, and medicines we use need to be treating the whole being, making the whole being stronger.
Holistic healing is in contrast to Western medicine, which is reductionist, always breaking the whole down into small parts, symptoms, diseases, and then using drugs or other interventions to kill the disease. The problem is that this approach, while ‘curing’ diseases, often damages the whole being and makes them more vulnerable to more diseases!
Holistic Healing always remembers that the being in question lives in an environment, and that this environment has profound impacts on health. Where they live, who they live with, the presence or lack of stress in the family, what they eat, and how they are cared for all need to be understood, considered, and often adjusted.
Holistic Healing is open to ALL of the treatment options
You can’t say you are holistic if you refuse to consider prescription medications or surgical interventions. If you are completely anti-Western, allopathic medicine, then you have gotten stuck in fundamentalism. I always use natural, holistic treatments first if I can. I have a bias and a preference towards this kind of gentler, safer, more natural medicine. But I’d be doing the animals I care for a grave disservice if I weren’t ready and willing to dispense prescription medications or send a dog in for a dental under general aneasthetic when needed.
Holistic Healing starts for me with the environment. Removing all toxic things – physical and non-physical. Getting the human end of the leash as healthy and relaxed as possible. making sure that all of the animal’s needs are being met.
The next thing to consider is the animal’s diet. All animals do best on a species-appropriate fresh whole foods diet. In the case of dogs, that can be raw (a little better) or cooked (a close second best). Cats are better on raw. I strongly recommend NO processed foods AT ALL. I consider them to be a slow poison. You may need to add a high quality topper and supplements to make your pet’s diet complete and balanced.
Holistic Healing is all about preventative medicine. An ounce of prevention is ALWAYS worth a pound of cure. This looks like always doing everything you can to increase vitality and longevity. In every way possible. Never miss a check up.
Holistic Healing of disease is where I will want to begin with a thorough history, examination, and diagnostics – blood work, imaging, etc, so that we can make sure we know exactly what is going on. The Western Medical tools we have are incredibly valuable to help us understand where the body might be out of balance.
Then I’ll create a comprehensive holistic treatment plan – diet, supplements, herbal medications like CBD or medicinal mushrooms, therapeutic touch, energy healing, probiotics, faecal transplants, +/- prescription medications if I feel they are REALLY needed.
Holistic Healing is a science, and an art. One of the things I discovered that really does make a difference when I was unwell is Energy Healing. I use that with every animal I work with. IN addition to all of the other things, it is the icing on the cake!
If you want to work with me, learn more at www.thehealingvet.com
If you would like to enjoy a video of me talking about these topics, you can do so at this link.
Loki the kitten, exploring the shed roof.
