Acupuncture
The ancient Chinese healing practice of acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat many ailments, especially pain. Today, this therapy that addresses disharmony in the body, mind, and spirit is widely practiced throughout China and is… Read more »
Acupuncture As Energy Medicine
The ancient Chinese healing practice of acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat many ailments, especially pain. Today, this therapy that addresses disharmony in the body, mind, and spirit is widely practiced throughout China and is… Read more »
Animal-Assisted Therapy
Animals have been a part of our lives as long as we have been on the planet. The health benefits of the human-animal bond are far reaching. From guide dogs, to watching fish in an aquarium, to swimming with dolphins, animals provide us with companion… Read more »
Anxiety Disorders: An Integrative Approach
Anxiety disorders are the most common, and frequently occurring, mental disorders. Anxiety is manifested by disturbances of mood, as well as of thinking, behavior, and physiological activity. The five major types of anxiety disorders include generali… Read more »
Aromatherapy: The Healing Power Of Scent
Aromatherapy is a complementary and alternative, holistic, and integrative therapy that uses essential oils to promote both physical and psychological health. It is often used in conjunction with massage, meditation, and other therapies to achieve he… Read more »
Botanicals, Herbs, and Herbalism
While modern medicine has produced many scientific advances, one of the most important “advances” in health and medicine has been the recognition of the value of herbs and herbalism. After all, nature and plants have been an essential part of everyda… Read more »
Caregiving at the End of Life – Issues and Considerations
Caregivers are individuals who provide care to an individual who needs assistance. Caregivers can be professionals but are often unpaid individuals who support a loved one through an illness or the last phase of life. The experience can be immensely… Read more »
Childbirth And Culture – Practices, Beliefs, And Traditions
An intimate and complex experience, childbirth reflects a woman’s biology as well as the social context in which delivery takes place. The experience of every woman is unique to her and deeply personal because of the culture in which she gives birth… Read more »
Chronic Pain: An Integrative Approach to Effective Pain Management
Pain interferes with the enjoyment of life. It makes it difficult to work, socialize with friends and family, sleep, and accomplish activities of daily living. It may reduce productivity and create financial hardships in terms of lost work and high m… Read more »
Color and Health–Exploring the Connection
The use of color in healing has a long history. A fundamental aspect of environmental design, color has also been linked to physical, psychological, and social reactions in all of its uses. Color’s characteristics can influence how it is used and wha… Read more »
Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare
With the advent of astounding scientific and technological advances in every area of health care, today’s health care environment is increasingly fraught with complex patient care issues. Health care professionals often have varying views on legal an… Read more »
Creating Healing Relationships
A healing relationship involves two major elements: a relationship with the self (intrapersonal relationship) and relationships with others (interpersonal relationships). Each is critical to creating a healing environment for an organization’s staff… Read more »
Cultural Considerations at the End of Life
At the end of life, attitudes about the loss of a loved one profoundly affect how both a dying person and his or her family and friends address the dying and the grieving processes. Diverse populations in the United States provide health-care profess… Read more »
Curanderismo and Central and South American Healing Practices
With a long and complex history, curanderismo, or indigenous medicine, is the broad healing tradition found in Mexico and Mexican American communities throughout the United States. For many Hispanics, conventional medicine has not been effective or w… Read more »
Death and Dying
What is grief? What are normal grief responses? What is involved in the final life transition—death? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this course. The role of culture, palliative and hospice care, advance directives, and the… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Death, Dying, and Grief
The dying experience is a profound, individual experience. The experience of loss and grief are as individual and unique as the persons involved. During this time, people often raise questions about the meaning of life.
End-of-Life Issues: Ethical Issues
End-of-life care presents health care professionals with many ethical challenges and dilemmas. Understanding ethical theories and ethical principles can provide a foundation for decision making. This course provides health care professionals with the… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Hospice and Palliative Care
Using a multidisciplinary team approach, the primary goals of hospice and palliative care are to provide symptom control, psychosocial and spiritual care, and optimal quality of life. The role of hospice and palliative care is rapidly expanding due t… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Pain Assessment and Management
Pain assessment and management are especially important for high-quality end-of-life care. To provide quality care to individuals at this stage of their lives, health care practitioners must be particularly skilled at assessing pain, understanding mi… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Physiologic Changes at the End of Life
For health care professionals to provide compassionate, quality care to patients at the end of life, they must understand the many changes the patient undergoes. Holistic end-of-life care provides relief, comfort, and support whenever possible. It in… Read more »
Energy Healing
The old paradigms of health care are shifting as a growing number of researchers, physicians, nurses, and other health practitioners embrace a new view that includes energy healing. Traditional healers have practiced energy healing methods for centur… Read more »
Energy Medicine Therapies: Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Reiki, Reflexology, and Craniosacral Therapy
The concept of energy systems as part of the human interactive environment and healing has been part of many cultures for centuries. Energy medicine therapies use gentle hand techniques thought to help balance a person’s energy field and accelerate h… Read more »
Essentials of Qigong
Qigong is an integrated mind-body-spirit energy healing discipline that has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Qigong is more than exercise. It is a holistic system of self-healing with a focus on posture and movement, breathing techniqu… Read more »
Ethical Foundations in Healthcare
Healthcare professionals face ethical dilemmas every day of their professional lives. Ethical decision-making is an important part of the care they provide to their patients and clients. A sound understanding of key ethical issues helps health care p… Read more »
Food Labels – Deciphering The Mysteries
An important element of health is the ability to understand what is in the food we eat. Knowing how to read and understand food labels can help individuals make healthier food choices. Many consumers do not fully understand what the labels on their f… Read more »
Healing Effects of Physical Activity and Movement
Physical activity and movement are essential elements of any program designed for obtaining or maintaining health and well-being. While most individuals associate physical activity with aerobics, many activities comprise a well-rounded and interestin… Read more »
Healing Elements of Meditation
Although there are many ways to meditate and many different forms of meditation, they all share the characteristic of intentionally training a person’s attention and concentration. Meditation practices are used by diverse cultures, are rooted in the… Read more »
Health and the Human Spirit
Spirituality plays an important role in health and healing. This course will explore the forms and expressions of spirituality; discuss culture and its relationship to spirituality; examine the relationship between spirituality and aging; explain spi… Read more »
Health Effects of Meditation
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all grounded in the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. Evidence of meditation’s health effects has been well documented: the practice offers improvement in t… Read more »
Healthy Lifestyles: How Stress, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Substance Abuse, and Nature Affect Brain Health
Individuals’ lifestyles can have a powerful impact on the health of their body and mind. The brain is affected by virtually every aspect of their life including their levels of stress, the foods they choose to eat, the amount and type of physical act… Read more »
HIPAA and Patient Privacy
Personal health information is protected under federal law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides for the protection and security of personal health information. Both health care professionals and consumers must und… Read more »
HIV/AIDS Education for Healthcare Professionals
Since they were first described in 1981, more than a quarter of a century ago, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remain a persistent and widespread threat to the health, well-being, and human potential o… Read more »
Holistic and Integrative Health: An Introduction
The past several decades have brought tremendous growth in the numbers of health care facilities and providers offering integrative health care training and services. Consumers in the United States use these complementary and alternative medicine (CA… Read more »
Holistic Stress Management
Stress affects each of us every day and while some of us rise to the occasion, others experience a myriad of physiological, psychological, and spiritual effects. How we cope with stress can determine the current and future state of our health and wel… Read more »
Humor and Health
How many times have you felt better after laughing? Humor and laughter make people feel alive and bring a unique perspective to life. They relieve stress and connect people to one another. Humor is a complex phenomenon and an essential part of human… Read more »
Integrative Therapies for Cancer Pain Management
Many advances have been made in the treatment of cancer during the last several decades and yet effective cancer pain management remains an overwhelming issue for more than 80% of patients. Today, there are numerous options for cancer pain management… Read more »
Intimacy, Sexuality, and Healthy Aging
Loving and being loved are essential to maintaining a positive, healthy attitude. Quality of life is often related to affection and tenderness shared with loved ones. With a healthy self-esteem and a willingness to communicate with a partner, older a… Read more »
Introduction to Gerontology
Opportunities are unlimited for the individual who knows the field of gerontology. Demographic changes and changes in health care have influenced the development of a variety of gerontologic roles. This course will provide a broad overview of the fie… Read more »
Journaling: Healthy Living Through Self-Discovery
Writing has been an important part of the human experience for centuries but has only recently been recognized as a therapeutic tool for healing. Used to document personal and historical events, describe emotions and feelings, reduce stress, and expl… Read more »
Legal Issues in Healthcare
Health care professionals today are acutely aware of the need to understand the legal environment in which they practice. Ever-shrinking resources, shorter lengths of stay, high-acuity patients, availability of more complex information, diverse patie… Read more »
Light, Health, and Healing
Light has been a part of all life since the beginning of time. It plays a critical role in the health and well-being of every living thing on the planet. As humans have evolved, they have often moved away from the natural light of their ancestors and… Read more »
Manual Bodywork Healing Therapies
Touch is one of the most primal needs of any human being. Manual bodywork healing therapies address the need for human touch, enhance health, and heal the body, mind, and spirit. Health care is evolving and integrating the worlds of alternative and a… Read more »
Meditation and Brain Health
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all based on the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. Exciting research is showing that a regular practice of meditation causes physical changes in the brain t… Read more »
Meditation and Religious Traditions
Although there are many ways to meditate and many different forms of meditation, they all share a unifying characteristic: each one focuses on intentionally training a person’s attention and concentration. Meditation practices are used by diverse cul… Read more »
Meditation Types and Practices
There are many types of meditation. Some types appeal to people of an intellectual nature, while other types appeal to those who prefer the path of love and surrender. Individuals with an active approach to life may prefer meditation techniques invol… Read more »
Mental Health and Aging
This course will provide health care professionals with an overview of mental health and aging, including mental health wellness strategies, mental health disorders, cultural competence, cultural diversity, complementary and alternative medicine trea… Read more »
Music and Sound as Energy Healing
In an age where people increasingly turn to holistic methods of healing, music therapy and sound healing have entered mainstream health care and can be used successfully with people of all ages and disabilities.
Music and the Brain
Most of what we know about music and the brain has been discovered in the last 20 years. Music is universal across all cultures and, like other arts, is a function of specific social and cultural influences. Listening to or playing music can provide… Read more »
Music Therapy and Alzheimer’s Disease
Music therapy influences an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being and is especially exciting as a modality that can improve the quality of life for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The type of therapy used in in… Read more »
Music Therapy and Sound Healing
In an age where people increasingly turn to holistic methods of healing, music therapy and sound healing have entered mainstream health care and can be used successfully with people of all ages and disabilities. This course examines sound and music a… Read more »