What is Holistic Psychology?

People often ask us, What is holistic psychology? This question is not so easy to address, and in the introduction to Volume I we discuss myriad qualities of psychological theory and practice that are more clearly holistic in nature. In many ways, the Journal itself is our ongoing response to this question, and in so being, it is a 'living definition' of holistic psychology. Holistic psychology is alive - it is an acknowledgement of the complexity, fluidity, and interplay of knowing, that which is known, and the continuously unfolding and interdependent relationship between the two. By asking, What is holistic psychology?, one has already stepped into the realm of exploring what is beyond the mind-centric psychological model that has shaped our field for decades. 

To reiterate, the answer (if there is one) is not so clear, and this is in part what has inspired the creation of the Journal of Holistic Psychology - the question itself has inspired us to initiate an ongoing community dialogue and exploration. That said, if holistic sensibilities include such things as multiple perspectives and perspective-taking, then any 'definition' of holistic psychology would also necessarily emerge in an organic and continuously-unfolding way from and within numerous ways of being, numerous ways of knowing via the discipline of psychology, which from our perspective includes much more than simply the human mind or brain. 

In the introduction to Volume I, we speak to the great complexity of multi-perspectival appreciations, of ways of appreciating part-whole, or individual-all approaches to 'seeing' and experiencing the world. In short, holistic psychology is an all-inclusive dialogue from countless perspectives that honors the fact that each perspective finds its wholeness as a direct result of being an included 'part'; i.e. holistic is whole-istic.

The Journal of Holistic Psychology looks forward to the many ways our community will explore this question.