Our story began on Kauai, the northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain. Long before their professional paths crossed, Dr. Fleischacker and Dr. York both traveled to this remote piece of paradise where they developed a deep fascination with native Hawaiian culture holistic perspectives on health and wellness. Hawaiian traditional medicine revolves around the concept of “lokahi”, meaning balance or unity of all things. It is believed that wellness is achieved only through harmony between the mind, body, and spirit, and water (“wai”) represents the idea that all things are connected. At the time that Dr. Fleischacker and Dr. York first began studying Hawaiian health practices, modern psychology was only beginning to acknowledge the interdependent relationship between the mental and the physical.
Since then, advancements in neuroscience have proven this connection to be stronger than we ever imagined. Discoveries such as neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and adapt due to experience, highlight the profound influence of our subjective states on biological functioning. Neuroimaging studies have shown the significant impact of emotion on physical health. We now know that stress directly affects every bodily system from organ function to our immune system, and increases the risk for a variety of medical conditions including hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. By wearing down the body’s defenses and lowering the immune response, chronic stress leaves individuals much more vulnerable to all sickness, even cancer. Conversely, higher levels of emotional wellbeing are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. If you’ve ever felt your stomach tighten up when you were anxious, you’ve experienced the mind-body connection.
Inspired by our early learnings of lokahi, we created Associates in Neuropsychology & Wellness in order to harness these rapid multidisciplinary advances into our clinical arsenal. Our goal is to offer our community the latest, cutting-edge psychological interventions and assessment procedures which are based upon an integrative model and rooted in empirical research. Through a comprehensive approach that considers all aspects of functioning, including the emotional (mind), physical (body), cognitive (brain), and social (environment), we are able to understand our patients’ entire narrative. Our clinicians appreciate the complexity of one’s personal ‘psychology’ and recognize the need for a holistic approach in treating the ‘whole person’ and not just the symptoms.
