When I was first approached about the idea of publishing a special issue on Holistic School Psychology: Understanding the Mind-Body Connection to Address Student Concerns, I admit I was a bit taken aback. I had just returned from living in China for five years, and working at the University of Macau, where mind-body connections did not represent anything innovative. They represented the past. I lived on an island where I was surrounded by gardens, fountains, massage rocks to walk on barefoot, and numerous holistic health practices which I could view or partake in daily. Acupuncture was not novel but instead was practiced regularly and seen as solving a variety of ailments (My physician offered it two days a week). I spoke regularly with local monks, and temples seemed to be located everywhere. Once, very early in the morning, I walked by a river and noticed individuals in a public park practicing a variety of beautifully choreographed workouts. I discovered at least 100 people practicing what was a type of t'ai chi ch'uan. I'm sure to everyone else this early morning practice appeared like quite a normal daily routine. So too, it was rather amazing to see workout equipment built into most parks. And beautiful fountains and pagodas around many corners. It was a magical place.
I believe I learned to live, function, and think in many Eastern ways. It was a difficult process for me. In fact, it still is. It required a great deal of thought and reflection. I studied Confucianism, Taoism, the idea of interdependency between study and thought, acceptance of contradictions, and holistic thinking (Davis & D'Amato, Citation2014). The idea of suppression of emotional expression was a great challenge—as was moderation in all things (Guo &Uhm, Citation2014). Thus, I feel that the time has come for such a Special Issue to bridge the gap between the East and the West. We pride ourselves on being an international journal that represents school and educational psychologists from around the entire world. As part of our belief, it is time to study many practices that date back thousands and thousands of years (Davis & D'Amato, Citation2014; van Schalkwyk & D'Amato, Citation2015). We must hold these practices up to an empirical magnifying glass, and determine if they really do help children, youth, and families.
So please join me in exploring our first two-part Special Issue that uniquely covers areas such as stress, health problems, chronic illness, cancer, biofeedback, hypnosis, Autism, mindfulness, asthma, and music therapy, to name a few of the articles. Please closely examine practices that are used around the world. Such investigation is one of the many purposes of the International Journal of School & Educational Psychology. If you truly consider these interventions, you will find, like me, they will require a different style of thinking, and a great deal of thought and reflection. But I know you will find them worth the time and effort. Thinking differently and working outside the box can offer a significant payoff. It is time for us to leave behind the medical model and focus on teaching children and schools how to meld mind-body mental health in to the process of contemporary, positive schooling.
I especially want to thank Drs. Melissa Bray and Cheryl Maykel, the Editors of this two-part Special Issue, all the authors, and Dr. Tyler Renshaw who has offered us a review of all of these manuscripts from the Special Issues. Also, please note that all articles can be found online at our journal webpage (www.tandfonline.com/usep). Thank you for your openness to international ideas and global transformation. Each day our world continues to change. And we are more alike than we are different. I hope you learn and enjoy a distinctive presentation of many Eastern ways and interventions.
About the author
Rik Carl D'Amato, PhD, is Editor-in-Chief of IJSEP and past Editor of School Psychology Quarterly, the APA Division 16 journal. He is a Professor of School Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, USA. He is author or co-editor of nine books and hundreds and hundreds of publications and presentations. His interests are in ecological clinical neuropsychology, school psychology history, cross-cultural psychology, serving children with TBI, schooling, and school interventions.
Notes
Old Chinese Proverb.
References
- Davis, J. M., & D'Amato, R. C. (Eds.). (2014). Neuropsychology of Asians and Asian-Americans: Practical and theoretical considerations. New York, NY: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8075-4_4.
- Guo, T., & Uhm, S. Y. (2014). Society and acculturation in Asian-American communities. In J. M. Davis & R. C. D'Amato (Eds.), Neuropsychology of Asians and Asian-Americans: Practical and theoretical considerations (pp. 55–76). doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8075-4_4.
- van Schalkwyk, G. J., & D'Amato, R. C. (Eds.). (2015). From the Confucian way to collaborative knowledge co-construction (Special Issue, Volume I). New Directions for Teaching & Learning. 142, 1–97.10.1002/tl.20135.