How to Build a Whole Wellness Team

When you bought your home and moved into a new neighborhood, you checked out the local hospital, local public schools, the fire house, and the local grocery store. You were making sure that all of your needs were met. But do you do that for your wellness? Do you scope out resources before a crisis hits? In most cases, sadly no.

What is a whole wellness team? A whole wellness team is a team of health professionals and doctors with group effort take care of all of your wellness needs; mind, body and spirit.

The cornerstone to the success of health is based on the relationship you have with doctors and health practitioners. Does your doctor listen to your specific needs? Does he/she have a personal interest in who you are and your philosophies about health?

Who are the major players in a whole wellness team? Over the years of my personal and professional experience, I have come up with some major players in building a Wellness A-Team.

1) Medical or Osteopathic Doctor: Choose a family doctor who respects and honors a whole person approach to health practices. Doctors are becoming more open minded as the demand increases. Create the demand. Ask your doctor what type of training and awareness they have in their practice about whole body modalities. Be willing to be open minded to hear their perspectives positive or negative of what they know.

2) Straight chiropractor: Keeping the nervous system free of interference will keep you moving with life’s balancing act. Countless case studies have shown by removing the interference from the vertabrae off the spinal cord, the body opens up to it's full potential of healing. Straight chiropractors focus wholeheartedly on your posture, balance and the state of your nervous system with the deep knowledge of the skeletal system and how it can best perform for you. If you are looking for a brass tacks approach to health without fluff, straight chiropractic is quick, easy to understand and powerful.

3) Holistic Chiropractor with Specialized Kinesiology: It is an invaluable asset to have a health professional who can do well trained muscle testing on you. They incorporate the Traditional Chinese Medicine methods along with chiropractic and muscle therapy knowledge. They may incorporate homeopathy, herbs and vitamin supplementation to augment their adjustments and your healing response.

4) Acupuncturist: Acupuncture is a wellness modality that has been around for 3,000+ years and from some sources predates recorded history. Acupuncture has countless applications on many disorders but not limited to infertility, digestive disorders, fatigue and chronic pain. Sometimes the other modalities can’t rectify an imbalance at certain lots in your life where acupuncture may provide solutions.

5) Dietician or nutritionist: Be careful to find yourself a whole food dietician or nutritionist to work with. This health professional is employed to help you make lifestyle changes to encourage “spring cleaning” in your body like removal of toxins, habits and imbalance. They are to educate you to refrain from eating food products with artificial additives and preservatives. They should encourage you to move away from commercially processed food as best as you can and teach you to read labels, cook healthfully, drink water and naturally based drinks.

6) Massage therapist: Every “body” needs a massage therapist. They help your lymphatic system process and release toxins. Massaging the issues from the tissues is an old adage thought of in the massage therapy community. Minimally speaking, it feels so good to receive healthful, loving, respectful touch from a professional. Studies have shown that we subconsciously feel more loved when we regularly receive this kind of therapeutic touch. Unfortunately, to the ignorant mind, massage therapy has been confused with brothel house practices. This is a crazy myth that needs to be busted!

7) Classical Homeopath: Homeopathy is a respected health modality that utilizes diluted minute traces of vegetable, animal and mineral to stimulate the natural healing response in the body. Homeopathy was developed by a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700's. If you are a highly sensitive person, homeopathy may be a “remedy” for you. If you have intolerances to over-the-counter or prescribed drugs, homeopathy may provide an alternative as it has no fillers or binders in it’s make up.

8) Holistic based psychologist: Let’s face it. Life can be pretty hectic sometimes and it’s nice to get proper counseling so we can have fantastic lives and get help when we need to create change. But it’s imperative to find a therapist that is a results driven psychologist. Who has time to go to the therapist and rehash last week’s, month’s and year’s news with no real growth? Most folks don’t in this high paced world we live in. That’s why it’s a good idea to seek holistic based therapist that’s really looking to get results quickly. Ask your therapist what mind body modality do they employ to help you get to the next level of your life. What tools do they have to help you accept who you are and how to express your presence in life?

9) Fitness Personal Trainer: This might appear to be a luxury but it’s not. There are affordable, skilled, knowledgeable trainers at your local fitness center awaiting your interest in fitness training. It’s imperative you stay motivated to move your body and keep fitness as a regularly scheduled activity. Fitness trainers can help you explore the power in your body and how fitness can add value to your life. A fitness trainer is also interchangeable with a Sensei of a martial arts dojo, a yoga, pilates or qigong instructor. All of these professionals support you in properly moving your body. If you are a solitary practitioner, it’s a good idea to train with a professional for a short period and then continue to practice on your own. Never underestimate the power of your body. Lacking awareness in this area, unintentional injury can occur. Sometimes unintentional injuries from performing yoga and exercise can occur when one doesn’t realize they are moving their bodies structurally unsound.

It is important to understand that you won’t employ all of these professionals at the same time but it is a good idea to keep them in your “rolodex” of contacts. When the need arises, you will be prepared to handle anything that comes your way or when your internal nudging suggests better quality of life, you have a starting point for the resources needed to make change.

You deserve the very best in your health. Never let yourself believe any different. With building a team of professionals at every corner of the health pyramid, success of longevity and quality of life are yours.

(C) 2011 Courtney A.Ragonesi