Soul-based care isn’t actually new. In fact, both the fields of medicine and psychology started with the soul in mind. I’m just set on bringing it back.
To be honest, I don’t really know when I became so passionate about learning and teaching about the soul. I only know it has felt like my soul purpose for a very long time. The more I learn about healing in general, the more I know the body, mind AND soul must receive attention in order to reach whole person health.
I was always an observant child. My father had an accident when I was nine years old – an event that broke his spirit even though his body could have fully recovered. That incident changed not only his own life, but everyone’s around him. The household went from a seemingly healthy family to a disabled world that revolved around the effects of the accident. No one was unaffected and the family unit itself fell apart.
I look back at that time and mark it as the end of my youth. I grew up very fast after that, feeling the weight of adult responsibility much sooner than anyone would want. Somehow I knew how to help, pitching in to assist my mother in the kitchen and around the house, while also maintaining good grades in school. Both my mother and father leaned on me in one way or another and at the time I was glad to help. It made me feel useful in a situation that always felt unsteady.
In retrospect, I now know I was studying the health of the soul way back then. I had no words for it at the time, but I was slowly learning about the precarious nature of the human condition while also realizing that something deeper was at play.
It wasn’t until my father’s death just past my 21st birthday when I started to understand the soul. The day before he died—December 25, 1990—I saw my father’s soul for the first time as he realized he was going to leave this lifetime. As our eyes met in that moment, a much deeper exchange of information and understanding occurred even though we never spoke a word. He knew it was his time and the simultaneous show of fear and resolve that formed in his eyes provided the most intimate moment we ever shared. I will never forget that instant as it informed everything I did after that point.
The death of a parent changes us. In this case, it set me on a soulful journey to understand that kind of sacred transition more fully. I was already a junior in college studying psychology but I had no idea I had just begun studying the soul as well. Without the events of my own life up until that time, Soul Health would not exist—my trademarked Soul Health Model would never have been born. I have long understood that everything happens for a reason and my father’s accident and subsequent death, although immensely painful, also paved the way to provide hope to others in creating the blueprint in helping others feel whole once more.
I understand the human condition, both because of my extensive psychological studies and my personal experiences related to the soul.
My own pain transformed to purpose as I developed the tools to help others understand their most sacred self. The interesting thing is that as a young child I knew I would be teaching others when I grew up. I had no idea what the subject would be, but I played “school” in my childhood living room over and over again. I also knew I’d be signing books, practicing my signature as I learned to write my name in cursive. When I was in grade school, I was intrigued by King Tutankhamen and the idea of afterlives. In high school, I studied mummification and the rituals Egyptians followed in helping souls cross over. In graduate school and during my post-doctoral fellowship, I studied spirituality as an aspect of health, while also reading everything I could about the soul, reincarnation and various other related topics. I also took my first energy healing classes (Pranic Healing for both physical and mental health), followed by Reiki, stone healing, medical intuition, intuitive arts, etc.
The Soul Health Model™ was born out of my awareness that other wellness models lacked several aspects of the human condition that seemed to challenge everyone I knew. I added the “soul” aspect to help others understand that everyone is unique in what influences both disruption in their lives as well as what it takes to heal. As time went on, I began to teach the model to clients and workshop participants, one who asked if I’d considered creating certifications for healthcare providers and other professionals to learn to use the model in depth. Nearly ten years later, I offered the first of four levels of certifications to understand the soul from a much deeper level so other practitioners could integrate what I know into the work they do as well. The first offering of the certification was such a success that all participants said they wanted to move on to Level Two as soon as they could.
In the process of writing my book, Anxiety: Treating Body, Mind and Soul, I extended the model to include a “root system” to the tree that originally depicted the Soul Health Model™. “As above, so below” then became a pictorial image of a tree which illustrates the many “soul factors” that influence every human in how they manage life.
As I evolve, the Whole Soul Model© evolves as well. As I deepen my understanding of myself, my understanding of the soul deepens, too.
The story of Soul Health seemed important to share as others become interested in learning how to integrate the soul and spirituality into their own work. There’s much more to share, but the basic journey might help you understand why I’m so invested in helping others resurrect the soul to its rightful place in health—to the center of all aspects of well-being.
I’m honored to share what I know and I’m hopeful all of you will take the concept of Soul Health where it needs to be in your own lives and work if you serve others. Integrating the soul back into healing is my way of bringing ancient wisdom to the modern soul. While our innermost self is sacred, we still need to apply it to our current way of living.
A colleague recently said that AI is taking over the world, but soul healing will never be replaced by technology. The truth is, the soul will go on forever regardless of how innovative computers become. It is the most sustainable aspect of who we are and it is here to stay. I’m humbled to have been called “The Pioneer of Soul Health”. If that is my legacy, then I’ll take that title any time.
Katherine T. Kelly Ph.D., M.S.P.H.
With 35+ years of direct clinical experience, Dr. Kelly doesn’t just believe in helping others to heal; instead, her mission is to help them to evolve. Using her own integrative and trademarked framework—the Soul Health Model—Dr. Kelly approaches her work with clients from a “whole person” or “whole organization” perspective. She provides a uniquely progressive, yet down-to-earth approach and is well-known in therapeutic, medical and corporate communities. She thrives as she helps clients and organizations to reach what she calls “conscious evolution” through a variety of self-designed strategies. Her dedication to healing has been widely recognized as she was the recipient of the Provider of the Year Award by the regional Mental Health Association and was nominated as an Incredible Woman for a local community television network, which spotlights role models to inspire young women to pursue their own passions.