Tree Models & Root Causes: Catholic Holistic Healing Series

Integration expresses itself in harmony with God's design and the functioning of the shared aspect of human nature

The image of a tree is a beautiful illustration of cause and effect. Expressions like the "fruit of our labor" and "root cause" illustrate the relationship between different life elements. In this article, I propose combining insights from two trees, the Functional Medicine Tree from the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Tree of Life from the John Paul II Healing Center, as a model to understand how we get stuck and how to get free.

The Functional Medicine Tree

"Functional Medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual." - https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/

Functional medicine treats chronic disease by addressing the "root causes." To do this, the practitioner considers the patient as a complex, interconnected, biological system. The symptoms of whatever disease the patient has are not the focus of diagnosis or treatment. The symptoms are the canary in the coal mine. Exploring the patient's story and how the events of their life, environment, and behavior interact with their unique genetic predispositions exposes the cause of the symptoms. The Institute for Functional Medicine uses the Functional Medicine Tree as an illustration of these dynamics.