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Alternative and complementary treatments you may want to incorporate into your life include:

• Animal Therapy. There are many social and emotional benefits to having a pet. In animal therapy, therapists may use a variety of pets to meet specific treatment goals such as increased social interaction and improved mental health. Dogs can also be used as psychiatric service dogs to help you perform tasks that your mental health condition may prevent you from doing.

• Expressive Therapy. Art, dance and music therapy allow you to express your emotions and reduce stress in a creative and fun way. Expressive therapies help you to resolve inner conflicts, release deeply repressed emotions and grow as a person by learning more about yourself. These types of therapy can improve your physical health as well as mental health.

• Culturally-Based Healing Arts. Culturally-based healing arts are traditions that revolve around the belief that wellness is a state of being between our spiritual, emotional/mental and physical selves, and that illness is caused by an imbalance of forces. Those who practice these arts believe that herbal/natural remedies combined with sound nutrition, exercise and meditation/prayer, may correct this imbalance. Examples include Oriental medicine (acupuncture, shiatsu and reiki), Indian traditions (ayurveda and yoga) and Native American healing practices.

• Relaxation and Stress Reducing Techniques. These techniques include:
  
       - Biofeedback. Teaches you how to control muscle tension and “involuntary” body functions like
  
         heart rate and skin temperature by using techniques like retraining your breathing in stressful
  
         situations to induce relaxation and prevent hyperventilation.
  
       - Guided Imagery or Visualization. Allows you to enter into a state of deep relaxation and visualize
  
         a mental image of recovery and wellness
  
       - Massage Therapy. Releases tension and pent-up emotions through physical rubbing, kneading,
  
         brushing and tapping of the muscles

Adapted from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s publication, Alternative Approaches to Mental Health Care.