Examples of other Mind-Body Approaches

Nutrition
Healing is often hard work.  Your body needs adequate nutrition to make it possible and effective.  Eating with nutrition in mind while in therapy is as reasonable and necessary as making sure your car has enough gas in the tank to take you where you want to go--but the possible connection between diet and success in therapy is easy to discount or try to avoid.  Eating food with adequate nutrients will translate to being better able to look at and process difficult memories, to work through times of conflict with your partner or child, to stabilize your emotions as you cope with anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder.  Time spent on healthy eating is an investment in your therapy outcome as well as in your life.  I am not a nutritionist, but if a client is willing I help them stay accountable to their nutrition goals as a supplemental aspect of their therapy, and encourage them to see a holistic health practitioner if desired.

Physical Exercise
The benefits of regular exercise are wide and well-known--but like nutrition it can be easy to set it aside, and forget about its potential direct positive impact on the therapy process and on quality of life.  It is known to be an effective mood stabilizer, sleep aid, stress-reducer, anger-reducer, anti-depressant, and anti-anxiety intervention.  To the extent that my clients are able, willing and ready, I encourage them to incorporate regular physical exercise into their life, with the expectation that it will help them significantly in their progress towards their goals for therapy and at home.

Yoga
I have seen yoga's ability to connect people to their bodies, emotions, and selves in ways that other interventions sometimes do not.  Like exercise, yoga's benefits are wide-reaching, and include stress reduction, emotional regulation, increased energy, and many more.  It combines the present-moment awareness of mindfulness with a grounding focus on the body that can help integrate and unify the self--a stance that can set the stage for improved progress in therapy, relationship with the self, and relationship with others.

Medication
Conventional medication may not sound like a "mind-body approach" in the way of holistic health, but I think that it certainly is a mind-body intervention and can be invaluable and absolutely necessary in certain situations.  While some people may take medication to lessen painful symptoms but refuse to engage in the self-examination of therapy, it has been shown that medications usually work best when combined with therapy--and for some, therapy simply has little effect until medication can do its work.  Side-effects are a legitimate concern, but sometimes the fear of side-effects keeps people from experiencing the extensive potential benefits.  For clients that are struggling and are at all open to trying medication, I help them weigh the pros and cons, and refer them to a trustworthy psychiatrist if they decide to go that route.

Spiritual/Religious Practice
I always ask new clients if they have an existing spiritual or religious practice.  However, unless a client expresses interest in discussing spiritual or religious matters during therapy I do not bring it up myself; I proceed with helping the client use the healing tools that suit them best.  I also recognize that many have been deeply wounded and abused by the beliefs and actions of many religious communities, and that the wounding or rejection continues today.  At the same time, for clients who have found their way to a healthy spiritual/religious life that fits them,  I encourage them to actively incorporate this aspect of themselves and their life into their therapy and healing.  I recognize that it has been documented that having--and relying upon--a spiritual/religious life often has a positive effect on mental and emotional health in a way that is unique and sometimes very powerful.