The Medicine Wheel Psychotherapy is a holistic and integrative approach to psychotherapy based on the concept of the Medicine Wheel from the Native American people in both the North and the South. This approach sees the whole person as an organic, rational, emotional, and interrelated being.
Thus, it seeks to bring healing by incorporating the care of the body and the environment it depends on to exist, the development of the intellect as a critical "human tool" to survival and fulfillment, the resolution of inner "barriers" to a more complete and authentic self, and the search for one's place in the mix of things.
In other words, it sees the person as the integration of body (and Earth), mind (intellect), soul (inner life), and spirit (the human interdependence with all existence).
Symptoms such as rage, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, addictions, obsessive/compulsive patterns of behavior, and thoughts of suicide so rampant in our time, could be the result of imbalances in the person caused by deficiencies in one or more of these areas of human development.
Depression, for example, can be the result of one or a combination of the following factors: 1) A chemical imbalance in the brain. 2) A lack of self-identity or self-esteem due to being disconnected to one's family, ethnicity, culture, or sexual identity. 3) Being stagnated due to the lack education or opportunity. 4) Feeling overwhelmed by an unresolved trauma from the past (such as being a victim of sexual assault). 5) Experiencing isolation after a relationship break up. 6) Feeling trampled by the high pace of modern living. 7) Experiencing a sense of despair when witnessing wilderness being destroyed for development.
After a careful assessment, we can pinpoint what area(s) of development has been compromised in your life and how to bring balance again. True joyful existence happens with the experience of wholeness, even in the face of tragedy, regret, and disappointment. You can make that first step in becoming your more complete self.