Review of Whole person healthcare, Volumes 1, 2, & 3 (2007).

Reviews the book, Whole person healthcare, Volumes 1, 2, & 3 by I. A. Serlin, M. A. DiCowden, K. Rockefeller, S. Brown, J. Sonke-Henderson, R. Brandman, and J. Graham-Pole (2007). With the more-than-1,000-page tour de force titled Whole Person Healthcare, Ilene Serlin, current president of the San Francisco Psychological Association, has purposefully edited a three-volume series aimed at humanizing the fields of psychotherapy and health care. Throughout the series, all of the authors carry the message that integrative treatment strategies in psychotherapy and health care are more valuable than reductionist "treat the symptom rather than the person" approaches as a way to humanize patient-client interaction. Whole Person Healthcare persuasively presents the principle reasons for integrating human-centered strategies into psychotherapeutic and health care practices. Volume 1 of the series, Humanizing Healthcare, sets the tone for the other two volumes, providing a conceptual scaffold for framing humanistic and positive psychological theories within an applied health care setting. Volume 2 of the series, Psychology, Spirituality, and Health, focuses on presenting concrete, evidence-based examples of integrative therapeutic techniques such as imagery and visualization, meditation, meaning finding, prayer and psychospiritual practices, yoga, tai chi, and qi gong. Volume 3 of the series, The Arts and Health, provides a critically important contribution to the field because the art therapies are so often forgotten in the world of managed health care. Volume 3 gives evidence-based examples of the valuable contributions of artistic interactions within therapeutic contexts. The collection of readings in Whole Person Healthcare covers a wide spectrum of modern healing approaches, and this series is a must for any practitioner of integrative, holistic therapies. However, there are two practical barriers of note. First is cost: The price is too steep for most readers, especially students and new professionals who are still in the process of training. Second is accessibility: In the age of instant Internet access and hyperlink text, the content could be more available to both clients and therapists as a Web-based resource. Those two reservations aside, I would urge serious consideration of Whole Person Healthcare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).