A lot of alternative medicine is really centered on emotions.

“And so the emotions then are not just something that’s on the side or a symptom, but the emotions are actually part of the disease and the disorder and the pattern,” Fauntleroy explained. “And so we’re really looking at how someone’s trauma is living in their body. It’s an embodied approach to healing. It’s looking at even just someone’s frustrations, someone’s hopes, someone’s brokenheartedness in their relationship and treating those things as if they’re real because they are real.”

Alternative medicine has a philosophical lineage.

“It comes out of philosophies that say that the real world is not just the world that we can measure,” Fauntleroy said. “As we see in modern science, the real world is energy and our emotions are energy. And so we’re looking to treat the emotions as part of a full picture of wellness and health. Being healthy is not just your body, but it’s also the vibration of your thoughts. It’s the vibration of your emotions. It’s waking up every day with inspiration. It’s going to bed every night with a sense of fulfillment. It’s having people around you that you love. It’s having prosperity. All of those things to the indigenous mind are as much a part of health and healing as are the size, shape and abilities of your body.”

It’s also effective for the mind and heart.

“Those things are all connected,” Fauntleroy said. “They exist on a continuum. When your body isn’t doing well, your energy is focused on healing your body, then you can’t think as clearly, you can’t be as self-aware. When we’re in an emotional state, we can’t take care of our body as much. We all have those examples where we’re broken-hearted and maybe don’t eat for a couple of days. So we know on a practical level that our mind and our body and our heart are interconnected.”

Holistic medicine and alternative medicine look at the body, mind and spirit as a continuum instead of as separate things.

“For example, in acupuncture work, I might work on a meridian for an emotional thing, as well as the physical symptoms that are showing up in the body. And they work together. They show up together in patterns,” Fauntleroy said.

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