Health as a Whole A Neurofunctional Rehabilitation Approach to Integrative Health
When health becomes coordination
In the world of integrative healthcare, one idea is becoming increasingly clear:
This coordination can harmonize, become deregulated, and then be re-educated.
This is precisely what the Health as a Whole approach:
a rigorous, modern, and deeply human methodology that uses movement, breathing, and body awareness to create the internal conditions for healing, prevention, and rehabilitation.
1. A model based on life sciences
The Health as a Whole approach Health as a Whole on solid foundations:
• Neuroscience of stress
How the nervous system reacts, protects itself, becomes dysregulated, and can calm down again.
• Biomechanics
How the body moves, compensates, or realigns itself.
• Functional breathing
How a free diaphragm becomes a lever for circulation, stress management, and posture.
• Everyday physiology
Sleep, digestion, inflammation, energy: everything is interconnected.
• Fascia and tensegrity
Understanding the body as a continuous network rather than as a collection of parts.
• Somatic psychology and emotions
The direct link between internal states, posture, breathing, and emotional regulation.
Nothing esoteric, nothing mystical:
an approach that is well-founded, accessible, reproducible, and consistent with contemporary healthcare practices.
2. The 6 levels of rehabilitation in the Health as a Whole model
The approach is based on six levers that interact, complement each other, and re-educate the entire system.
1. Anatomical
. Examples: posture, fascia, joint mobility, muscle chains.
2. Physiological
Optimize major functions:
breathing, digestion, sleep, circulation, immunity.
3. Behavioral
Adjust habits that influence health:
rhythm, stress, loads, daily movements.
4. Mental
Relieve overload, restore clarity, stabilize attention.
5. Emotional
Understanding and regulating, decoding triggers, supporting the therapeutic relationship.
6. Respiratory
Activate the parasympathetic nervous system through three-dimensional, fluid, and functional breathing.
These are not theoretical concepts: they are tools that professionals can apply in the clinic the very next day.
3. The main lever: neurological security
Health as a Whole on one essential principle:
If the nervous system is not safe, nothing in the body changes permanently.
When breathing becomes fluid,
when posture supports relaxation,
when movements cease to be exhausting,
then:
the pain subsides,
traffic is improving,
emotional regulation increases,
sleep stabilizes,
digestion becomes balanced,
Rehabilitation is accelerating.
Creating these conditions is not a luxury:
it is the foundation of all modern therapeutic approaches.
4. Yoga is not Yoga Therapy: the essential distinction
To fully understand the approach, one key idea must be clarified:
Therapeutic yoga is not yoga.
Yoga (traditional/studio)
wellness activity
general practice
sequences, breathing, relaxation
Yoga therapy
neurofunctional rehabilitation approach
individualized interventions
specific therapeutic objectives
based on biomechanics and physiology
applicable to all conditions (within their area of jurisdiction)
focused on patient autonomy
Yoga therapy optimizes physiology, not performance.
It complements medical, paramedical, and psychological care.
5. The model that makes the difference: the prerequisites of the parasympathetic nervous system
Carina often sums up the essentials as follows:
"Healing begins when the nervous system feels safe."
To this end, the Health as a Whole sets the following prerequisites:
a stable but relaxed posture
a movable diaphragm
an uncompressed column
balanced muscle chains
effortless 3D breathing
a "fair" effort (≈ 50%)
increased body awareness
It is these foundations that enable any treatment —physiotherapy, osteopathy, psychotherapy, medicine—to be more effective.
6. An approach that is deeply complementary to other disciplines
One of the main objectives of this series of articles is to clarify the relationship between yoga therapy and:
physical therapists
massage therapists
osteopaths
occupational therapists
psychotherapists
Each specific article will show:
➡ Where our practices converge
➡ Where they differ
➡ Where they naturally complement each other
Because building tomorrow's healthcare requires dialogue, nuance, and bridges.
A model for tomorrow's healthcare
The Health as a Whole approach Health as a Whole replace anything.
It reinforces, supports, clarifies, and complements.
It provides the nervous system with the conditions it needs so that the rest—
manual therapy, movement, psychotherapy, medical care—
can work more effectively.
It is an approach that transforms our understanding of the body and living beings.
It is also an invitation to work together to build the healthcare of tomorrow: more integrated, more intelligent, and more humane.