Integrative Psychiatry Part 1: The Why and What of Integrative Psychiatry
Introduction
At Mace Behavioral Health, we take an integrative approach to psychiatry. An integrative approach combines conventional psychiatric approaches (i.e. DSM diagnosing, prescription medications) with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies (i.e. talk therapy, supplements, breathwork, life skills coaching). In this article, we will explore the what and the why of taking an integrative approach to psychiatry. This article will give insight into our approach at Mace Behavioral Health and enable you to make informed decisions about your care.
What is Integrative Psychiatry
Let’s discuss what treatments are included within an integrative approach. While definitions vary, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) categorize the various CAM treatments by how they are administered: nutritional (i.e. supplementation, diet, probiotics), psychological (i.e. psychotherapy, mindfulness, meditation), physical (i.e. message therapy, chiropractic manipulation), and combinations of psychological and physical (yoga, acupuncture, dance/art therapy). As can be seen, CAM approaches vary widely, from Vitamin D supplementation to Qigong. This breadth of treatment is reflective of the holistic nature of integrative psychiatry. It is this wide array of effective treatment options that make integrative psychiatry compelling.
Why Integrative Psychiatry?
There are several reasons why an integrative psychiatry may be a superior approach to a more limited, conventional approach. For one, while conventional approaches have been successful in helping many individuals with severe mental illness attain a stable and satisfying life, there are still many who have not found success with this narrow mode of treatment.
Holistic
A broader approach addresses our experience as complex individuals in a complicated world. An integrative approach resists the belief that all our experiences are reducible to chemical imbalances in the brain. Rather, integrative practitioners understand that many factors influence our experience of mental well-being, such as our family, social lives, work satisfaction, physical touch, existential concerns, etc. including, of course, the neurological, genetic, and chemical contributions of our biology. An integrative approach seeks to treat individuals holistically, with considerations for all the factors that may contribute towards mental well-being.
Culturally Expansive
An integrative approach also enables us to treat clients in ways that align with an individual’s cultural values. CAM interventions include treatments that are non-Western, such as yoga and Qigong, meaning an integrative psychiatric provider can be more flexible with individuals who struggle to adopt an exclusively medical treatment model.
Reduced Side-Effects
Lastly, CAM treatments often have low side-effect profiles. Even when traditional psychiatric care is successful, there may be a number of undesirable side-effects, such as weight gain or downstream neurological impacts. Considering side-effects is part of weighing the pros and cons of medication management, but CAM treatments may provide more options to reduce symptom profiles with less side-effects. The goal of integrative psychiatry is to achieve the maximum level of mental health benefit with the least number of undesirable side-effects.
Conclusion
Clients and their lives are complex and deserve a treatment regimen that engages with that complexity as comprehensively as possible. At Mace Behavioral Health, we want to give our clients access to the treatments that work for them—both conventional and alternative—to promote maximum health and functioning. In this article, we provided an overview of why we have chosen an integrative approach and what treatments are included within that model. But how does one actually go about implementing an integrative approach? What can clients expect from integrative treatment? Are all treatment modalities equal? And what does Mace Behavioral Health offer? Let’s take a closer look at these questions in Part 2!
