Psychologist Nicole LePera developed the idea of Holistic Psychology thanks to her direct interaction with patients, and her own personal experiences. Her approach is to focus simultaneously on mental health and physical well-being, because she believes that no form of effective therapy can prioritise one over the other. What’s more, many scientific studies have shown that the mind and body mutually influence one another. Holistic psychology gives us the chance to change in a manageable and lasting way, by taking responsibility for our own well-being, in order to improve and heal ourselves, break bad habits, and identify the patterns that define our lives: it works like a real awakening.
We are capable of controlling many aspects of our lives, because genetic determinism is not an absolute truth: our environment affects the expression or repression of genes, as does our behaviour. Genetic determinism does not consider the impact of family, trauma, and general background, yet these elements are of great importance. The new paradigm of epigenetics paints a clearer picture, by placing the proper emphasis on the impact our environment and everyday experiences have on our health. It also allows us to participate in our own healing, and actively take care of our well-being. Studies have also shown that we are not only influenced by our own experiences, but also by those of our predecessors: parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. While we can’t change the conditions in which these people lived, or the environment in which we were born and raised, we can connect to our inner child, in order to heal their childhood wounds and traumas, and therefore find our authentic Self.
