Holistic Medicine, Integrated Medicine, Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

The term, alternative medicine, originally arose as a way to offer persons needing help, often with “chronic” ill health, pain, and disease, an alternative to drugs and surgery. The term is still used in this way but has been somewhat softened by the broader term, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The word complementary supports the concept that allopathic approaches and alternative approaches can be used together as complementary parts of a holistic medicine approach. Thus CAM is often referred to as integrated medicine.

Dr. C. Norman Shealy, the founding President of HU was the founding President of the Holistic Medical Association, and has been a pioneer in this field since its origins. Norm began his medical career as a neurosurgeon who discovered that chronic and debilitating pain could be much more effectively addressed with methods other than surgery or drugs. Many of his innovative energy medicine devices and alternative approaches have become standard protocols in the alternative medical field. The HU faculty includes a number of highly respected pioneers in the field of alternative approaches to health and well-being including Carolyn Myss, Judith Cornell, Christine Hibbard, and Patricia Norris.

The university’s mostly distance learning graduate programs of study includes courses in: personal development, consciousness studies, holistic medicine, energy medicine, integrated and alternative medicine, holistic healing, spiritual research, spiritual direction, and transpersonal psychology.