HOLISTIC COUNSELING

Can the mind influence the body? To what extent? What importance do emotions play with regard to overall well-being?

By now it is a scientific truth that emotional states and psychological and physical well-being are interrelated and reciprocally influence each other. Medical and neuro-scientific research has demonstrated that emotions have a significant impact on the brain and on the body. Scientific studies have demonstrated that a positive or negative  mental attitude is capable of influencing  health.

But can we intervene on our emotional state? In what way and to what extent?

Over the years, the ancient Eastern traditions developed methods and techniques for the study of the mind based on self-reflection and meditation. In recent years, Western scientists have become interested in these methods for the study of self-awareness, and consequent self-control. Neuro-scientific research has confirmed that during meditation areas of the brain are activated that are directly connected to the immune system, the nervous system and the endocrinal glands. Understanding and controlling your emotions and stress management can therefore have a profoundly positive effect on your general well-being. 

HOLISTIC COUNSELING integrates various approaches in order to develop human potential and harmonize mind and body. It is not aimed only at individuals suffering from problems or distress, but also at whomever is interested in embarking on a path of Inner Growth and Self-Awareness. By means of a broad range of introspective techniques,  greater mental and emotional clarity can be achieved and  creativity and potential can be developed.

HOLISTIC COUNSELING integrates:

-       Interpersonal and communication Counseling techniques in order to resolve problems or distress;

-       Holistic Education for self-help and growth within the specific context and complexity of interpersonal relationships;

-       Psychosynthesis techniques, which explore self-awareness through expressive techniques such as design, writing, and music, and instruments of self-reflection such as guided imagery;

-       Neuro Linguistic Programming exercises;

-       Mind and body relaxation and breathing exercises taken from Meditation and Eastern disciplines, aimed at enhancing self-awareness in view of the harmonious and global development of the Self.

HOLISTIC COUNSELING provides individuals, families and groups with the practical instruments required to understand and resolve conflicts and to explore inner resources and potentialities, through the attentive observation of individual behavior, attitudes and personal characteristics.

Each individual’s personal characteristics are the result of contact with the various factors that have influenced them, positively or negatively, starting from birth. The place and type of society in which we were raised, the education received from the family, and personal experiences  have all conditioned us and often created rigid behavioral patterns that cause us to react automatically to daily situations. A vicious circle is created that can result in a feeling of entrapment, in which the same errors are perpetuated and  the same situations relived again and again, causing anxiety and stress.

The relationship with a Counselor, who provides emotional  support and guidance, enhances the exploration and use of inner resources so that the individual can respond more consciously and efficiently to daily situations, experiment with change, and resolve  problems that arise in an autonomous manner

By means of practical exercises of self-observation and self-reflection, and through the use of various expressive and meditation techniques,  personal characteristics can be better identified and one can learn how to draw on an inner wealth of resources and energy.

Improved self-awareness promotes cognition of emotions, actions, mental patterns and reactions. The capacity to recognize automatic emotional responses and the ability to intervene on such emotional state is developed, so that negative responses can be neutralized and eliminated.

HOLISTIC COUNSELING assists developing greater intuition and mental clarity. Through personalized exercises, you can learn how to relax, recharge yourself, and activate your inner energy.

COUNSELING assists persons suffering from a sense of discomfort or a problem that they are unable to resolve on their own. Its purpose is to teach people how to help themselves, providing them with the instruments required to identify  personal strengths and limitations, as well as to teach them how to confront problems in a more constructive manner.

-       It is a supportive instrument that enhances the self-analysis of problems and teaches how inner resources can be activated so that the individual can discover the relative solutions on their own;

-       It is developed through an honest dialogue with a Counselor, aimed at enhancing self-awareness in order to create more satisfying interpersonal relationships;

-       It takes place within the context of a supportive relationship in which the  Counselor does not propose solutions, but instead seeks to facilitate development of self-awareness of particular situations or problems, stimulate decision-making and improve interpersonal communication skills, as well as promote  exploration of new and more satisfying lifestyle choices.

PSYCHOSYNTHESIS, created by the Florentine psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, is a unitary concept of the human being, which proposes exploring self-awareness, developing self potential and creativity, and harmonizing all components of the personality by means of expressive techniques such as free-form design, writing, or music, and instruments of inner reflection such as symbolic guided imagery and meditation.

Through the careful and constant observation of one’s own subjective world, one comes into contact and becomes aware of the multiplicity of the Ego and how it has been conditioned. By means of self-awareness and acceptance of all components of one’s Ego, including those that we like least and which we tend to relegate to a corner, we can harmonize our self as a synthetic whole.

NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING is a pragmatic school of thought - an 'epistemology' - that addresses the many levels involved in being human. NLP is a multi-dimensional process that involves the development of behavioral competence and flexibility, but also involves strategic thinking and an understanding of the mental and cognitive processes behind behavior. NLP provides tools and skills for the development of states of individual excellence, but it also establishes a system of empowering beliefs and presuppositions about what human beings are, what communication is and what the process of change is all about. At another level, NLP is about self-discovery, exploring identity and mission. It also provides a framework for understanding and relating to the 'spiritual' part of human experience that reaches beyond us as individuals to our family, community and global systems. NLP is not only about competence and excellence, it is about wisdom and vision. (Dilts)

HOLISTIC EDUCATION proposes new methodologies of intervention for problems regarding the entire span of human life. One of the principal characteristics of holistic education regards self-awareness and interpersonal relationships. We cannot understand an individual’s problems if we do not consider his network of relationships, because all life involves interpersonal relationships. Differently from a psychotherapist, who concentrates on diagnostic and therapeutic specialization in relation to the psychological areas of the personality, the counselor considers the entire personality, paying attention to formative processes and the overall evolutional trend.

MEDITATION AND EASTERN DISCIPLINES. What is normally intended by the word “meditation” indicates a multitude of practices and techniques deriving from Eastern disciplines such as Yoga, Buddhism and Taoism.  It is a method of mental observation aimed at developing awareness of one’s mental processes. Meditation, or, more precisely, meditation practices, had their greatest development in Eastern spiritual traditions. The technique that I utilize (Mindfulness) is one of the most simple, but also  one of the most efficient: through body relaxation and attention to breathing, one seeks to become an external observer of one’s own thoughts, emotions, and sensations, which must simply be observed but not analyzed. Mindfulness comes from Buddhist practices of Smatha and Vipassana insight meditation and  trains the mind to fix attention in the present moment. The most recent medical research has demonstrated the strict relationship between body and mind, which reciprocally influence each other. Studies of the human brain have demonstrated, for example, that stress negatively influences the immune system, and that the mental attitude of a physically ill patient can strongly influence the healing process. These meditation practices have been studied for a number of years in order to measure their effects and applications in the field of medicine. It has been demonstrated that meditation techniques that stimulate the areas of the brain tied to pleasure and serenity can create a state of psychological and physical well-being. It has further been demonstrated that meditation reinforces the immune and glandular system when practiced on a regular basis.