On Beyond Meds, therapist and herbalist Jon Keyes discusses some of the traditional approaches to helping people in psychological distress that have been practiced in other cultures and times.
“At the core of the practice of folk counseling is the idea that we don’t need to be healed, or need repeated cleanses or elimination of ‘bad’ parts of ourselves. Instead, folk counseling is about nourishing a person so that they can live life optimally,” writes Keys. “There is a wide variety of human experience and many different ways of processing life. In most traditional healing modalities, a person is seen as being born with an underlying temperament, or constitution. Some run hot, some cold. Some have a more heightened nervous system, others appear more slow and calm. These are differences to be celebrated and not pathologized. Folk counselors celebrate this diversity, just as they celebrate the diversity of plants and tress growing outside their home.”
Folk Counseling (Beyond Meds, May 29, 2015)
