Listening carefully to how your mind heals itself, helping it to find its own way, requires attention, humility and flexibility. Sometimes the best way to help natural healing is by getting out of its way, witnessing its course of action. Though healing often needs help, it’s not always clear exactly what that help needs to be. As healing unfolds and progresses, the ways you help it must be responsive and adaptive. It is wise to keep an open mind to all possible avenues of healing, even if they may seem odd and unfamiliar.
The Three Layered Healing Plan organizes a variety of helpful approaches in a way that best helps your mind to heal. The layers are organized by increasing need and intensity. You can add, subtract and modify the layers as you need to. Your objective is to give healing what it needs, so it can take care of you.
You might be tempted to jump to the highest layer of treatment (medication) without realizing that a less intense approach may be more effective and promote lasting change, producing the greatest long term rewards. The risk of rushing too quickly into using medication is that it could hinder the natural flow of your healing by blunting your emotions. It could also expose you to unnecessary side effects. Making decisions that are consistent with your natural flow of healing will produce greater long-term as well as short-term rewards.
The layers of assistance in the Three Layered Healing Plan are:
Layer 1: Enhancement
Using healthy attitudes, behaviors and compassionate love to empower your natural healing process.
Layer 2: Guidance
Gently but firmly redirecting the flow of healing with psychotherapy and
other non-medicinal treatments.
Layer 3: Restoration
Removing, with medical treatment (when needed), severe distracting or disabling symptoms in order to reengage the flow of healing.
With proper timing and skillful application, you can use these layers to synergize and complement one another while promoting your natural healing flow.
An effective healing plan incorporates as many of these three layers as are needed. It is not just a treatment plan, and it is not just a wellness plan, it is a comprehensive plan of wellness and, as needed, treatment that remains fully observant of and responsive to your unique healing style.
When things are going well and maintenance of a healthy resilient state is the goal, Enhancement may be sufficient. If you feel like you are going the wrong way with distorted perceptions and unskillful behaviors, Guidance, may be needed. If you have symptoms of panic, obsession or despair that are so severe that they distract or even block your capacity to take action to be well, Restoration with medication may reduce your symptoms enough to restore your flow of healing