We look at the whole picture, the entire lived experience that influences health.
Our work examines health through many lenses that intersect, and it often helps people who are underserved or experiencing trauma — for example, veterans suffering from PTSD, children with serious illness, low-income residents grappling with systemic racism and neglect, and others.
The paper published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies described the emergent theory that artists can express empathy through their art, help humanize pediatric healthcare, and help patients feel heard.
The four-day virtual conference covered the themes of walking to connect, walking is good medicine, parks and health, and biking to health.
Institute Scholar Claudia Witt, MD, MBA co-authors a paper for the use of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine for the treatment of COVID-19. The paper, Complementary, alternative
The summer the Institute Scholars and Fellows meeting focused on climate change and health. While visiting the Mount Washington Arboretum, the group experienced Shinrin-yoku, forest bathing, a
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND (May 22, 2019) — The Institute for Integrative Health, a health-centered nonprofit and think tank that focuses on improving optimal health for people
The Institute is pleased to welcome Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, of Case Western Reserve University, as our newest TIIH Fellow! Dr. Gullett, who specializes in family medicine
Institute Scholar, Judy Rollins, RN, PhD, is leading a study to understand how art may create a more empathetic and compassionate environment that helps patients feel
A new multimedia exhibit by Institute Scholar Paul Dieppe, MD, is a source of respite and inspiration for visitors and staff at Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset, England.
A roundup of Institute Scholars and Fellows news, including Andrew Ahn, Stephen Woolf, George “Bud” Brainard and Jeffrey Greeson.
The Institute hosted an expert panel at its August 2016 meeting of Scholars and Fellows to discuss the challenges and developments in measuring integrative health outcomes.
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Over the past thirty years, we’ve been part of a movement to shift the primary approach to health from a focus on disease to a more complete approach. As reflected in our tagline, “For Health of People, Places, and Planet,” how we are building on “person health” and looking at the context of peoples’ lives and communities as well as the health of the planet we all share.
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Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is debate about whether or not one actually needs to experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.
