Mental health, as defined by the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, “refers to the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity.” On the other end of the flow is mental illness, a term that refers to all “mental disorders.”

Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with distress or impaired functioning. This notion of a continuum sees mental health on one end as “successful mental functioning” compared to mental illness on the other end as “impaired functioning.”

Mental health is how we think, feel, and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad or stressed sometimes. But with a mental illness, these feelings do not go away and are severe enough to interfere with daily life. It can make it hard to meet and keep friends, hold a job, or enjoy life.

Mental illnesses are quite common and affect about one in five families in the U.S. These disorders such as depression, phobias, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and many others are real diseases that one cannot get away from. Fortunately, they are often treatable. Medicines and therapy can improve the life of most people with mental illnesses. But, it is more cost-effective to have a physician prescribe mood stabilizers instead of seeing a psychiatrist. However, follow doctor’s instructions on counseling and referrals to mental health professionals.

People who are emotionally and mentally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships. They can keep problems in perspective. It’s important to remember that people who have good emotional health sometimes have emotional problems or mental illness. Mental illness often has a physical cause, such as a chemical imbalance in the brain. Stress and problems with family, work, or school can sometimes trigger mental illness or make it worse. If you feel that you or someone you care about is at risk, ask for help, it may not be easy at first, but there are ways and steps that may save your own or someone else’s life.

One of the most interesting and effective ways of treating mental health problems is the process by which we get in contact with ‘the components’ of our existence using diagnostic methods and appropriate treatment. The sources of the problem are then discovered by conversing with these ‘’components’ allowing the problem to be treated. The therapist ought to be experienced and should make sure that the patient feels safe and secure in the treatment environment and can contend with his own feelings,

Holistic complementary medicine views the soul as a part of the body that is impossible to examine or measure separately from the whole. A complete human being is the sum total of his parts that are connected together from the time of his creation until his death.

When I examine a person, I have to remember that there is no such different thing as ’soul’. Rather there is bodily energy or a certain bodily power connected with the body itself that influences or is influenced by every event in the person’s life. From this, I have learned that every event in life has a strong impact on the body and mind, which constitute a person’s whole that is in a continual state of flux.

One of the ways to find the source’s of a problem is to look at a person as a totality of emotions, feelings, energy, and a body then to try and examine how certain feelings and emotions

are expressed within this totality, for example, if I feel sadness, what is this sadness? Where is it expressed in the body, and can I get in touch with it in order to examine its source? How can I assist it? What is it trying to tell me?

As another example we can use stomach ache. We would try and talk with the stomach area to find out what it is trying to tell us. Listening to the area that hurts can provide answers to the source of the pain: What caused the pain? How can we treat it etc.? In actual fact, listening prepares the gateway for healing. We are the body; we do not distinguish between the body parts. On the contrary, we create a therapeutic conversation which can reveal a great deal about ourselves and how we can treat ourselves. We discover that there is no single soul in any one place, rather there is a complex of feelings through all our sensory organs creating one perfect totality which is constantly changing, every moment of our lives. It is therefore this that provides the possibility for change and recovery.

My experience as a therapist, the diagnostic tools and treatment that I use such as communication, bio-energy, and healing can help me tremendously in locating the source of the problem (where it is expressed in the body), and ‘conversing’ with the body. Sometimes, the conversation itself provides immense relief, and the patient’s overall energy increases. Sometimes, this is the beginning of a lengthier process in which the sources of the problem are investigated: past cycles or dimensions, childhood, adolescence, family etc. At each stage, we can check which genetic effects or event ‘created’ the ‘energy block’ (pain, distress, or fear) making it easier to find the true source of the problem and to treat it using appropriate methods including the giving of suitable medicines.

It should be remembered that this treatment requires plenty of self-awareness and the ability to cope with the weight of emotions or feelings that surface during therapy. It does not suit all people at all stages of life since there are times when it is hard for us to cope with certain feelings and emotions. Consequently, the therapist must make a diagnosis and only use this method when he is certain the patient can be helped without coming to any harm.