“Compelling data points to the efficacy of incorporating lifestyle interventions for overall health and the bidirectionality between physical and mental health.

- Drs. Gia Merlo and Steven G. Sugden (American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine)

The Whole Therapist™ as a “One-Stop Shop” for Integrative Mental Health Continuing Education

In an April 2025 article in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, Drs. Gia Merlo and Steven G. Sugden validate the importance of lifestyle factors in psychiatric and psychological processes with the statement:

“Compelling data points to the efficacy of incorporating lifestyle interventions for overall health and the bidirectionality between physical and mental health.”

This statement substantiates the importance of recognizing and addressing lifestyle factors that are known to influence mental health and well-being.

This is not new to us therapists. Time and time again, we engage with clients who present with anxiety, depression, trauma, and relational distress, exacerbated by chronic exhaustion, poor sleep, nervous system dysregulation, chronic pain, emotional burnout, and social isolation.

Our profession is now actively recognizing that lifestyle factors are not adjacent to mental health treatment. They engage, influence, and inform each other. Our challenge as mental health providers is that we have not been educated on how to ethically bring lifestyle factors into our therapy spaces in a consistent way.

That is why I developed The Whole Therapist™ to be a "one stop shop" that delivers a robust, empirically based curriculum-to-practice program that you can begin incorporating into your therapy sessions as soon as you are comfortable. You can start integrating the techniques immediately.

Why We Need an Integrated Approach

If your practice is anything like mine, you may be noticing that clients are becoming increasingly curious about whole-health concepts. I suspect part of this comes from the constant stream of algorithm-driven health content people are exposed to online, much of which leans heavily into flashy trends and questionable claims. Search for almost any health concern connected to stress, lifestyle, or the mind-body relationship, and suddenly your feed is flooded with ads promising rapid transformation, miracle fixes, and limited-time offers designed to create urgency rather than understanding.

There is a troubling side to this. Many meaningful cultural traditions and healing practices have been watered down, commodified, or repackaged into oversimplified solutions that can be misleading and, at times, harmful. At the same time, though, I have noticed that this wave of exposure has also increased public awareness of the broader connection between lifestyle, nervous system health, the body, and emotional well-being.

Clients often bring these ideas into session as questions, curiosities, or even quiet hopes that something outside traditional treatment might help them feel better. Interestingly, I have found that even when the online messaging is overly simplistic or hyped, it can still open the door to thoughtful conversations about evidence-based, research-supported whole-health approaches. Beneath the noise is a growing recognition that lifestyle and mind-body practices can meaningfully influence mental health, and when people are struggling, they are often willing to explore new possibilities for healing.

New Science Leads to Accepted Applications

Current science has created a new space for mental health providers, as reported by Merlo & Sugden (2025) and the American Psychiatric Association. Providers interested in developing these empirically backed techniques within their scope of practice have a professional obligation to address these issues in a relevant, sensitive, and ethical way. I have developed The Whole Therapist™ to do just that.

This program is not about turning therapists into nutritionists, exercise physiologists, sleep specialists, or other highly specialized medical providers. The goal is simply to help therapists thoughtfully and ethically integrate whole-health concepts into their existing work while staying grounded in their scope of practice.

You will learn how to ethically explore whole-health and lifestyle topics, and their impact on mental health and well-being with your clients in a safe way. You will learn how to gently and effectively invite and empower your client to take control of their lifestyle as a form of daily medicine that will enhance their mental health and well-being during the 167 hours a week they are not engaged in therapeutic processing in your office. This program provides you with the ability to explore integrative, holistic, science-backed techniques that we, as therapists, have not traditionally brought into practice but that are becoming increasingly relevant to, and in demand among, the clients we often serve.

So, rather than pursuing multiple advanced certifications across various disciplines, I invite you to explore The Whole Therapist™, my comprehensive framework that provides you with the research, ethics, clinical application, practical tools, and ongoing support you need to stay abreast of this "new frontier" in mental health applications.

The Whole Therapist™: Mutually Beneficial Practice

The holistic interventions discussed in this course are designed to be incorporated gradually into your practice. The initial modules lay the foundational and scientific psychological frameworks for exploration with clients, and the final modules focus on specific skills that you are encouraged (and supported) to implement as soon as you feel comfortable with the practices.

Smack dab in the middle of the program is a module that focuses on you, as the clinician, and the personal benefits you can gain from integrating mind-body and lifestyle practices into your sessions and your own life. The rationale for your personal embodiment of these practices as a professional ethics responsibility is strong and backed by research. Compassion fatigue and burnout are professional hazards that research shows impact you and your professional efficacy. The practices you will learn help mitigate those issues and manage their symptoms. I deeply care for you as a healthy provider and want to help you maximize your own therapeutic presence to optimize therapeutic outcomes with your clients and stay in love with your career.

"One Stop Shop" Course Components

The Whole Therapist™ is loaded with goodness beyond the educational basics. You will benefit from my professional experience in these practices. I have been actively building and integrating mind-body and lifestyle techniques into both my personal and professional domains for more than two decades.

Over the last few years, I have realized that sharing the knowledge and experiences that benefit my practice has transitioned from a personal desire to a professional obligation. So even though I cringe every time I see myself in an online video, I have managed to overcome my discomfort to bring you this program.

The Whole Therapist™ is designed to be accessible to you and your clients as soon as you feel comfortable. That could be very early on in the program, or after you practice, embody the processes, and adapt the scripts to your liking. The course is comprised of eight modules that take you through:

• The foundational science relating to nervous system functioning

• Client safety built on trauma-sensitive languaging, contraindications, and honoring identities

• Motivation and sustaining growth

• Rationale for clinician self-implementation, burnout, and ethical responsibilities

• Cultural humility and responsiveness, honoring origins and contexts

• Mindfulness, meditation, breath practices, and visualization techniques

• Movement, sleep, exercise, nutrition, sunlight exposure, and related lifestyle factors

• Videos, scripts, practical implementation guidance, movement and breath practices, and integration tools for immediate clinical use

Attached to each module is a workbook that includes scripts, handouts, tracking and reflection forms, documentation considerations, and interdisciplinary collaboration and informed consent forms.

This is not a static course. I offer opportunities to process and connect after each module within the course itself, as well as post-course individual and/or group training and consultation as you move forward, introducing these valuable techniques to the different populations you serve.

And importantly, this training is approved for up to 10 CE hours (2 Ethics CE credits) for LCSW, LAC, LCPC, LMFT, LMSW, LBSW, and CBHPSS professionals, in partnership with NASW. (To receive CE credits, you must enroll in the course through the NASW Montana website.)

Moving Forward with The Whole Therapist™

Drs. Merlo and Sugden (2025) point out that this newly legitimized field of Lifestyle Psychiatry occupies a space "between psychotherapy and psychopharmacology," and we, as integrative mental health providers, can and should tap into it. As a new field, we have an opportunity to contribute at the ground floor.

Research is always evolving, and keeping up with scientific and practical advances in new fields can be overwhelming. As part of my "one stop shop" goal, I look forward to doing that work for you as we build the community surrounding holistic approaches to mental health.

So once you have enrolled in the course and begun the integration of these effective techniques into your scope of practice, I will be in touch regularly with advances in scientific research, program improvements from integrative disciplines and our own community, improvements in our adaptable tools, and opportunities to ensure that your success is as profitable as I know it can be. I'll be reviewing the research, translating it into clinical care, providing additional handouts, and passing along links to fund research. As the research evolves around lifestyle as medicine, so will your knowledge through correspondence.

And one final note. I understand that not everyone will share my passion for holistic integration and lifestyle as medicine, but I genuinely believe everyone who takes this course will find it personally valuable, even if you are not immediately ready to move forward professionally with these core constructs. For those who seek immediate implementation, this platform is a "one-stop shop" not just for CE credits, but also as an ongoing community that supports and disseminates the important, transformative work that holistic integrative mental health offers. And I am here for personal consultation if and when you have questions, want further training, or have a particularly tough case you would like to discuss.

I assure you, whether you are a highly experienced practitioner with 40+ years of built-up compassion fatigue settling in your lower back, a mid-career practitioner hoping to reinvigorate a passion for care that has grown stale, or an early-career therapist who still cracks up when remembering that undergrad goat yoga experience with friends, you will find value in this program and our growing community. If you have questions, suggestions, or comments, please reach out.

Merlo, G., & Sugden, S. G. (2025). The power of lifestyle psychiatry: A new approach to mental health. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 19(7), 1034–1044. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276251329915

The Whole Therapist is an online course that teaches holistic interventions driven by 'lifestyle is medicine' principles. This course will help you personally mitigate clinician burnout and introduce adaptable tools to help your clients between sessions.

The Whole Therapist: A Holistic Integration Course for Therapists Ready to Deepen Their Care-and Their Impact (up to 10 CE units)

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