ABSTRACT
Our western society and, specifically, our medical and scientific community have focused their attention on treating symptoms and diseases. While this allopathic approach is rational and logical, it is not the only approach to healing. This chapter will focus on complementary medicines. These practices are not alternatives but complementary to traditional western medicine. Complementary techniques in the post-acute treatment of brain injury are used in many places around the world. These techniques include such practices as T’ai Chi, acupuncture, hippotherapy, yoga/meditation, massage therapy, music therapy, etc. These practices will be discussed later in the chapter. Since Hippocratic times, there have been two distinct schools of thought in medicine. One school of medical thought sought to understand the physiochemical working of the human body and created ever-changing theories about the cause of illness and disease. It defined health as the absence of symptoms and defined disease as an entity and as a localized condition. People with similar conditions were considered to have a specific disease. Physicians sought to get rid of the disease or intervene between the physiochemical cause and its effect. The practitioners of this school of thought called themselves Rationalists, and this approach developed into the modern biochemical model.
