May is Mental Health Awareness Month! And, May is Celiac Disease (an Autoimmune Disorder) Awareness Month! I find these seeming separate areas of health as highly interrelated examples of the mind-body link.  I love that there is a single month that invites us to attend to both. I am not saying one disorder necessarily leads to the other, but those of us who understand health through a mind-body integrative lens understand that many autoimmune disorders have roots in mind-body imbalance, even if the disorders themselves are understood within Western Medicine as either physical or mental/emotional.  Treatment of both mental and autoimmune disorders often require both neurobiological and psychospiritual and relational interventions.  Honoring both Mental Health and Celiac Disease in May allows us to honor our very mind-body-spirit selves!  

Mental Health and Wellness are often linked to Physical Health and Immune System functioning, even when the source of either the mental or physical disorder is genetic and biologically based. Equally attending to both mental and physical health as part of your neuro-psycho-spiritual-biological health is a daily, sometimes hourly, even minute to minute process that extends way beyond the month of May. However, it is fantastic that we have a whole month that cues us to be mindful of the importance of both mental health and physical health. 

In my many roles at Moonstone Center, my message is steady.  Mental health is a mind-body-spirit-relational integrative process that often requires intervention in each aspect of our human functioning to achieve overall health and balance. This healthy balance can be powerfully achieved through collaborative inter-professional teams made of both Complementary-Alternative and Conventional Therapies.  At Moonstone Center, Yoga therapy, Acupuncture, Nutrition, and other Complementary-Alternative interventions are valued hand in hand with Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Systems Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, and other Western Medical interventions. Having the month of May honoring both Mental Health and Physical Health makes complete Mind-Body sense! 

Enjoy a video from the archives that first aired March 21, 2013!  It is still quite relevant for you Oh Healer!  And for May and Mental Health Awareness...and Celiac Disease Awareness Month!

Holistic Integrative Mental Health Treatment  First Aired:  March 21, 2013 -  NOTE: Promoted event with Dr. Terry Marks Tarlow already held with great success in May 2013!

 

Thank you and honor to each of you wonderful Healers who are mothers, stepmothers, adoptive mothers, foster mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties and devoted nurturers.  Oh Healer, you are nurturing and mothering so many, whether you have given birth or not, and often regardless of gender!  We say Happy Mother's Day! and THANK YOU! to each of you!!!  OM, Joy!