John Wesley's Holistic Healing Model Applied to Addiction Recovery

Introduction: Wesley's Holistic View of Body and Soul

John Wesley believed that body and soul were interconnected in an undeniable way: one could not focus exclusively on the spiritual to the neglect of the body, and one could not focus exclusively on the body to the neglect of the spiritual. Either path would lead to ruin, because man is neither wholly angelic nor wholly bestial—he is a combination of animal and spirit, body and soul. Thus, a holistic approach to care is one that embraces both prayer and medicine. God is the ultimate source of healing, but this does not mean He wants or expects people to forego practical steps toward healing, such as developing a social support network to help with the psychological challenge of breaking an addiction. Both Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the Betty Ford Foundation have essentially arrived at the same conclusion: people need assistance in battling addictions like alcoholism. AA acknowledges the need to submit oneself to God while building a personal support network; Betty Ford practitioners adopt a similar generalist approach to psychological healing. Other approaches include the task-centered approach used by social workers. All of these are helpful in alcoholic rehabilitation, and all compare favorably with the teachings of John Wesley.

One of the great insights of Wesley was that there is no universal, one-size-fits-all model for health intervention. Wesley understood that every case and situation is unique, and that every person's health—both spiritual and physical—presents its own challenges and issues that need to be addressed. Thus, Wesley could give one bit of advice to a brother and another to a friend: the former receiving directives aligned with traditional dietary health approaches, and the latter receiving directives with more of a spiritual focus. Wesley saw that some people struggle with health, whether in the body or in the mind, because their spirits are not in the right place, and that by commending oneself to God, one is better able to make use of the grace He sends as the Great Physician. With others, he could see that the spirit was not posing any problems, and that what was needed for healing was simply a better diet, as he recommended to his brother (Madden 189). In either case, Wesley pointed out that for holistic healing to take place, one must employ a two-pronged approach: a prayerful approach to God, who is the source of all healing, and a practical approach to the body and mind—gifts from God that He expects man to care for just as He does any other gift in man's life, from animals to home to finances and beyond.

Thus, Wesley could write to his friend Alex: "It will be a double blessing if you give yourself up to the Great Physician, that He may heal soul and body together. And unquestionably this is His design. He wants to give you . . . both inward and outward health" (Madden 189). With regard to his brother, he could write: "Whether he will or no, carry Dr. Whitehead to him. If he cannot go out, and yet must have exercise or die, persuade him to use [the wooden horse] twice or thrice a day, and procure one for him" (Maddox 10). Dr. Whitehead was Wesley's own personal physician, and when speaking of physicians, Wesley stated that they should be honored because they were appointed by God. As Maddox notes, Wesley affirmed the need for both divine and medical healing. Avoiding medical treatment was not something he recommended. Relying solely upon divine intervention, he believed, revealed a presumptive state of the soul; Wesley saw that souls must be humble, and that people must realize God wants them to use the means of healing He has made available to them so that, through the healing process, His glory can be manifested all the more brightly.

Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-Step Holistic Model

In AA, a similar holistic approach is adopted. The 12-step philosophy is essentially a holistic approach to recovery. AA observes that alcohol addiction is a mind, body, and spirit illness. Recovery must therefore address all aspects of the illness—the psychological, the physical, and the spiritual. To focus on only one or two is to provide only an incomplete response. It is understood that mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual factors together dictate the terms of one's life. The spiritual is a component man cannot do without, since man is part-spirit. The physical and mental components cannot be ignored either, since man is part-animal as well.

AA compares favorably with Wesleyan holistic healing in that both affirm the need for spiritual and medical attention. From the mental front, AA calls for a new mental perspective for those seeking recovery—keeping a positive focus and setting realistic goals. From the physical side, AA calls for good nutrition, exercise, and the cultivation of a healthy environment. This closely mirrors Wesley's call for a healthier diet and exercise for his brother during illness. From the emotional front, AA calls for release from one's past, urging recovering addicts not to be weighed down by feelings of regret and despondency, but to leave the past behind and focus their feelings on moving forward, forgiving themselves and others, and embracing the cathartic process—the purging of negative emotions that can burden one. From the spiritual side, AA calls for having a soul purpose—union with God, divine connectedness, and an ability to intuitively understand how God is guiding one. All of these dimensions combine in the 12-step philosophy to impact one's life positively, enabling the addict to address the illness, the trauma underlying poor decision-making, the emotional issues that persist as a result, and all subsequent life challenges that have the potential to derail one's progress even after significant gains have been made (Miller, Plants).

The Betty Ford Foundation and Generalist Theory

The Betty Ford Foundation uses a similar approach, but comes at the process of healing addiction from the standpoint of generalist theory. In generalist theory, the macro, micro, and mezzo systems—and the way they interact—provide the practitioner with a holistic view of the client. This is important given that every client who comes to the Foundation for help is essentially a stranger, and the practitioner needs to know more about that person in order to treat him or her holistically (Marsh, Doel). This approach ensures that the individual suffering from addiction is viewed by the treatment provider in an all-encompassing manner. The treatment provider will consider the client's environment, utilize an ecological and systems perspective, and place the addiction within a systems context. Generalist theory allows the treatment provider, social worker, or counselor to work with individual clients, whole families, large or small groups, entire organizations, and communities. One of the goals of the generalist approach is treatment of the broader society as well—not just the individual—because at the macro level it must be recognized that the addicted individual is but one manifestation of society and represents a social, moral, physical, and spiritual ill in the community at large.

Such recognition of the need to treat the larger society also aligns with the Wesleyan perspective, for Wesley saw that spiritual connectedness was vital for the entire community and for all of society—not just one individual here or there. Wesley's approach thus also carried macro, micro, and mezzo level dimensions, allowing him to write treatises for the whole of the community in general while giving individualized advice on a case-by-case basis, and making mid-level remarks that could further assist people who shared common characteristics or maladies in their spiritual or physical lives.

One commonality between the Betty Ford Foundation and AA is that both adopt a strengths-based, positive approach to healing. Generalist theory posits that people and systems must be viewed from the perspective of strength rather than weakness. This allows one to identify the strengths of the addict and build upon them, while also addressing the needs of the community—identifying community strengths, determining how they can be leveraged, and recognizing what additional services are needed (Marsh, Doel). This holistic view of the client and his or her community is wholly in line with the Wesleyan approach to healing, as it is comprehensive and interventionist from a practical and positivist standpoint. The generalist framework does not exclude spiritual focus; rather, it recognizes the importance of a faith-based network of support in the same way AA does. It is all about understanding the interconnectedness of things, as the AA approach to healing the mind, body, spirit, and emotions demonstrates in its path toward mending lives and redirecting energy toward more positive and healthier goals.

Works Cited

Brand, Matthias, et al. "Ventral Striatum Activity When Watching Preferred Pornographic Pictures Is Correlated with Symptoms of Internet Pornography Addiction." Neuroimage 129 (2016): 224–232.

Doweiko, H. E. Concepts of Chemical Dependency (9th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015.

Gambrill, Eileen. "Evidence-Based Practice and Policy: Choices Ahead." Research on Social Work Practice 16.3 (2006): 338–357.

Gilbert, David A. "The Novena to St. Boniface of Tarsus: A Pastoral Program for Addressing Sexual Addiction in Colonial Mexico." Catholic Social Science Review 19 (2014): 87–109.

Laaser, M. Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

Madden, Deborah. 'A Cheap, Safe and Natural Medicine': Religion, Medicine and Culture in John Wesley's Primitive Physic. Brill Rodopi, 2007.

Maddox, Randy. "John Wesley on Holistic Health and Healing." Methodist History 46.1 (October 2007): 4–34.

Marsh, P., & Doel, M. The Task-Centred Book. London: Routledge Books, 2005.

McKeague, Erin L. "Differentiating the Female Sex Addict: A Literature Review Focused on Themes of Gender Difference Used to Inform Recommendations for Treating Women with Sex Addiction." Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity 21.3 (2014): 203–224.

Miller, Jerome and Nicholas Plants, eds. Sobering Wisdom: Philosophical Explorations of Twelve Step Spirituality. University of Virginia Press, 2014.

Reid, W. J., & Epstein, L. Task-Centered Casework. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.