What happens when we stop chasing symptoms and start listening to the whole?
What Is Holistic Chiropractic? (And What Does “Holistic” Even Mean?)
In our Western culture, we’re raised inside a belief system that is built on science.
If we can’t see something, we’re skeptical. If we can’t measure something, we wonder if it’s even real.
To make sense of our world, we’ve broken things down into smaller and smaller parts. This is the foundation of what’s known as reductionism: the idea that to understand something, we must take it apart and study the pieces.
It’s how we went from being certain that the atom was the smallest building block of our universe to discovering subatomic particles. Subatomic particles are smaller than an atom, and we have broken those down several times as well.
It’s how we’ve studied the human body: first as muscles, bones, and nerves – then discovering cells – and now the parts of those cells.
This approach has value. It’s given us technology, medicine, clean water, and moon landings.
But it’s not the full story.
Because something essential gets lost when we only look at the parts.
Take biology: A cell in a petri dish behaves differently than a cell inside a living human being. Why?
Because inside a person, cells don’t exist in isolation—they communicate with each other. They respond to their environment.
They’re part of a living, breathing system that’s more than the sum of its parts.
This is where reductionism falls short.
And this is why I practice holistic chiropractic care.
Holism doesn’t ignore science—it just adds context.
It asks: What happens when we look at the whole person? How can we find the whole pattern? What are the other factors in their life?
When someone comes in with low back pain, I’m not just thinking about their spine.
I’m thinking about their nervous system. Their stress. Their posture. Their habits and beliefs.
Because in real life, everything is connected.
In a reductionist model, the liver gets treated when the liver is “sick.”
But in a holistic model, we ask why the liver is struggling in the first place—and what environment would support its optimal healing.
To me, healing isn’t about chasing symptoms. That is always a losing proposition.
It’s about creating a space where the whole system can reorganize, integrate, and return to harmony.
Because the body wants to heal.
And when we honor the whole instead of just the parts, healing becomes possible in a whole new way.
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There are a lot of people suffering in our city who don’t know where to go for help—or even know that I might be able to help them.
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With gratitude,
Dr. Josh
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Originally published on Creating Health
https://creating-health.beehiiv.com/p/why-i-don-t-just-treat-your-symptoms