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MSc course module

Integrative medicine

Health, disease and wellness are ingrained into our model of existence. We are physical beings, but we are also spiritual beings and interconnected beings.

Overview

This option explores the mind-body-spirit paradigm and its implications for an integrative and holistic approach to wellness and healthcare. Health, disease, healing and the psychosomatic are viewed through a transpersonal but pragmatic lens. 

  • What is the relationship between the mind, the body, and the spirit?
  • Can there be meaning in disease?
  • What role does placebo and nocebo play?
  • What does “psychosomatic” mean? Is it really all in my head?
  • How can we integrate the transpersonal approach with modern medicine and healthcare?

Synopsis

Is a somatic experience, like a physical symptom or an illness, just a physical event in a complex biological system? Or is it a manifestation or a somatic translation from something deeper or wider? Can we somehow reconcile the psychosomatic into spiritual, psychological, transpersonal, and biological models simultaneously?  Integrating the various dimensions of our experience of health and wellness is what this option is about.

The option covers theories and models, but importantly also focuses on applications. This would be of interest to healthcare providers, coaches, therapists, counsellors, spiritual guides, or any of the range of practitioners who work with, or are interested in, the mind-body-spirit paradigm, and what this may mean in practice.

With an emphasis on personal engagement and experiential learning, and through case scenarios, discussions, activities and reading, the course journeys through integrative health from a transpersonal perspective.

Accordion Content
  1. Examine models of health from various perspectives
  2. Explore the latest research into the mind-body-spirit experience
  3. Reflect on your personal experiences of the psychosomatic and discuss with peers and the tutor
  4. Consider key concepts such as the placebo and nocebo effect and somatization
  5. Analyse case scenarios and application into real-world settings
  • Models and perspectives on mind-body-spirit integration
  • Psychosomatic medicine from a transpersonal perspective, including approaches to the so-called “psychosomatic disorders”
  • The dynamics between the psyche, the somatic, and medicine, including an introduction to psychoneuroimmunology, psychopharmacology and the placebo/nocebo effect
  • Applications of transpersonal coaching to health, disease and wellness, including an integrated wellness directed lifestyle, breaking bad habits and addictions and cultivating resourceful habits, integrated management of chronic disease and impairments, and management of pain and physical discomfort
  • Exploring purpose, meaning and integration of physical pain, physical symptoms and signs, suffering and dying
  • The relationship between modern medical psychiatry, psychology, and the transpersonal

Option tutor

Hennie Geldenhuys

Hennie Geldenhuys, M.B.,Ch.B M.Fam.Med

Certified transpersonal coach and trainer, hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner

Enquire now for February 2023

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