Holistic medicine is an approach based on the assumption that the patient’s organism and the individual spheres of his or her life form a unified whole, and treatment is about restoring harmony in all areas of life, not just treating a particular part of the human organism.

Holistic medicine is actually more of a philosophy or worldview about the practice of medicine than a specific method of healing practices. This worldview is based on a holistic approach to the patient and his or her reported ailments and diagnosed diseases. The term ‘holistic’ is derived from the Greek word holos, meaning ‘whole’, so holistic medicine is based on the assumption that the human being – the patient – is a holistic system. According to holistic medicine, both the body and the soul of the patient should be treated, and improvement in one area of life also brings improvement in other areas (and vice versa). According to holistic medicine, the body, mind, soul and emotions are one and when one area fails, the other areas also begin to fail. Another principle of holistic medicine is that one should look for the actual causes of an illness, rather than just treating the symptoms. Often, doctors who refer to the principles of holistic medicine use natural medicine methods in their treatment practice.

Within holistic medicine, the patient is treated as a person – a psycho-physical unity – not as a disease entity. It is also assumed that the patient will actively participate in the treatment process, not just passively submit to it. The most important principle of holistic medicine is the belief that balance and harmony at all levels of human life is a prerequisite for health and happiness.

The motto of one proponent of the use of holistic medicine was the saying: “It is more important to know which patient has disease than what disease the patient has” (William Osler).