Promoting Overall Health and Wellness Among Clients: The Relevance and Role of Professional Counselors

Abstract

Given the rise in health care costs and the premature morbidity and mortality rates in the United States, the authors discuss the relevant constructs of wellness and holistic health as they relate and apply to the profession of counseling. Implications and application of the Indivisible Self model of wellness (J. E. Myers & T. J. Sweeney, 2004) in counseling are highlighted. ********** A movement in the profession of counseling incorporates a wellness philosophy and wellness-oriented approach within the counseling change process. The construct of wellness pertains to an orientation of lifestyle in which body, mind, and spirit are fully integrated in efforts to achieve an optimal state of health and (Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer, 2000). Wellness, according to Myers et al. (2000), involves the physical, social, psychological, emotional, intellectual, and environmental dimensions of life. According to Ardell and Langdon (1989), quality of life is an important aspect of wellness. Hence, the term wellness involves the intentional act of embracing health-enhancing values, motives, and behaviors in efforts to promote good health. Simply put, wellness involves an individual's ability to achieve and maintain healthy living. Definitions of wellness and health diverge depending on the professional specialty (e.g., psychology, counseling, education, medicine; Compton, Smith, Cornish, & Qualls, 1996). To illustrate contemporary thinking about health and wellness, Arnold and Breen (1998) conceptualized health as an empowerment among communities, groups, and individuals as they strive to improve and advance their particular health aims. In this context, health care professionals equip individuals and groups to better function in and contribute to their communities and society as a whole. This concept is congruent with the counseling profession's overarching goal of assisting clients to maintain a lifestyle of optimal health and healthy living. Current models of wellness illustrate a shift from a set of restricted, narrow characteristics toward a more holistic, integrated perspective (Savolaine & Granello, 2002). Consequently, wellness paradigms represent a reevaluation of the traditional pathogenic biomedical model of health care and emphasize instead the entire spectrum of health that includes health-promoting variables (Gordon, 1981). THE CONSTRUCT OF HOLISTIC HEALTH Gross (1980) defined holistic health as practices and philosophies that consider total individuals in their approaches to well-being (p. 96). The major themes of this construct revolve around prevention of illness, the implementation of alternative methods in the treatment of illness, and ultimately the achievement of good health and personal fulfillment (Gross, 1980). In essence, the construct of holistic health includes the advocacy of the interconnectedness of mind and body, healthy living, and a balanced lifestyle (Ardell, 1985). The term wholeness has historical roots within ancient Greece. Grounded in Greek philosophy, the word holistic is a derivative of halo, meaning (Gross, 1980; Witmer & Sweeney, 1992). A prominent aspect of the Greek medical tradition as well as the Jewish healing tradition was the notion of treating the whole person, thereby conceptualizing an interrelated, interdependent relationship between mind and body. The concept of holistic health dates back thousands of years to ancient Middle Eastern religions. The idea of holism evolved into an accepted notion during the 1920s when Jan Smuts, a South African philosopher, conceptualized holism as the belief that the whole, as in a living entity, is more than the sum of its parts (Gordon, 1981; Gross, 1980; Tamm, 1993). Dunn (1961), the initiator of the contemporary wellness movement, further associated the concept of wellness with holism when he alluded to the significance of progress toward fostering high-level wellness; living life to one's fullest potential; and developing an integrated body, mind, and spirit. …