Nestled in the serene landscapes of California, Kim Burris, LMFT, has carved a unique path as the founder of The Holistic Counseling Center and a beacon of hope for those navigating the complexities of anxiety, postpartum depression, and spiritual awakening. With over 20 years of experience blending Western psychology and Eastern mysticism, Kim offers a deeply integrative approach to healing that honors the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. Her journey into holistic therapy is enriched by her roots in yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, as well as her clinical training from the renowned California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). As the author of The First 90 Days After Birth: A Self-Care Journal for First-Time Moms, Kim is passionate about supporting new mothers in their transformative journeys. She believes that being human is an ever-evolving practice and that healing is always within reach. In this Mystic Mag‘s interview, Kim shares her insights into holistic therapy, her approach to motherhood and spirituality, and how she helps clients find balance and resilience in today’s fast-paced world.
In your practice, you describe anxiety as a ‘separation of spirit from body.’ Could you explain this perspective and how it differs from conventional views of anxiety?
If you’re struggling with anxiety and have sought treatment, you’ve likely encountered the conventional medical model approach: identify symptoms, receive a diagnosis, and begin medication that you may need to take forever. While there might be initial relief in “knowing what’s wrong,” this approach can often leave you with lingering questions about your future and the possibility of ever healing.
The conventional view of anxiety sees it primarily as a chemical imbalance to correct, a problem with your brain chemistry that needs fixing. As a holistic psychotherapist, I take a more integrative approach, understanding anxiety as what I call a “separation of spirit from body.” From this perspective, I recognize that there is a divine intelligence that lives and breathes within each of us, and anxiety emerges as a symptom of where we’ve become disconnected or misaligned from this higher self.
This disconnection isn’t “bad” or an indication that you’re somehow broken or need fixing. It’s actually an invitation to turn inward and engage in deep, transformative work. This journey might involve exploring your psyche and childhood programming, understanding your nervous system patterns, and examining areas where you feel stuck or notice self-sabotaging behaviors. True healing happens through integration, bringing all parts of yourself into alignment: mind, body, heart, and spirit.
Your work integrates traditional psychotherapy with spiritual practices. Could you share how modalities like somatic therapy, IFS, and transpersonal psychology work together to support anxiety healing?
Integration is the cornerstone of deep, lasting change. That’s why my practice offers a holistic approach to mental health treatment, because working with the mind alone, while valuable for symptom relief, isn’t sufficient for addressing root cause healing. True healing requires us to integrate modalities that serve our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. This is why I primarily weave together transpersonal psychology with mindfulness, depth work, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and somatic practices.
When I work with clients, I hold an existential spiritual frame, exploring the deeper meaning of your life and the larger context in which you exist. We’ll examine essential questions like your purpose and life’s deeper meaning, while exploring your struggles and symptoms from a spiritual perspective. The goal isn’t to “get over” the challenges, but to develop compassion for the lessons your soul is here to learn. At its core, this work is about conscious evolution and awakening—therapy can and should support this journey.
Each modality serves an intentional purpose to support the healing journey. Mindfulness creates the foundation, helping you become grounded and present, essential qualities for engaging in deeper work. IFS allows us to explore the various parts of your psyche that need attention and care. Somatic work and polyvagal-informed practices offer powerful tools for nervous system regulation. Through depth work, we recover your inner child, learn healthy self-parenting, and literally rewire the maladaptive patterns that may be keeping you tethered to past experiences and operating from outdated programming.
It’s important to remember that healing isn’t linear. It’s about weaving these practices into your life, finding stability and symptom relief, then gently exploring the next layer when you’re ready. Over time, life begins to feel more manageable and meaningful, even during challenging periods. There are always deeper layers within to explore, but you’ll develop the tools and resilience to navigate this ongoing journey of growth and transformation.
What type of services do you offer?
At The Holistic Counseling Center, we offer a truly integrative approach to mental health and personal transformation. I founded this center with a vision of providing holistic mental health care that honors the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—bringing together a carefully selected team of practitioners who share this deep commitment to holistic healing.
We provide individual and couples therapy online, integrating evidence-based practices with spiritual wisdom to address a wide range of challenges including anxiety, depression, complex trauma, psychedelic integration, grief, and postpartum stress (just to name a few!). Our integrative approach includes ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, energy healing, breathwork, and holistic psychiatry to support your unique healing journey. For those seeking personal growth and spiritual development, we also offer holistic spiritual coaching to clients worldwide.
One thing that makes our center unique is our thoughtful matchmaking process. Rather than simply pairing you with a therapist or coach based on availability, we take time to understand your specific needs, challenges, and personality to connect you with the right provider.
If you’re curious about working together, you can easily schedule a free consultation call on our website, where we can explore which services might best support your healing journey and match you with a great practitioner from our team. Many of our clients find their ideal therapeutic match on the first call, allowing them to take the next step on their healing journey.
You often speak about anxiety as an invitation to inner work and alignment. Could you explain how this reframing helps clients on their healing journey?
When we look at anxiety as a symptom and not a sign that there’s something wrong or broken within us, we can transform our relationship with it, using these experiences as opportunities for growth and expansion. This orientation helps us look inward, not just outward, for answers and healing.
The holistic approach to healing anxiety means we use all available healing modalities, not just medication, not just meditation, but a complete integration of tools that serve your unique journey. It’s all about learning how to connect with your own heart, track your experiences, and learn the language of your mind, body, and soul. As this relationship with yourself deepens, you can learn to listen to your inner wisdom, your inner compass. This is the part of you that is connected to cosmic consciousness and can guide you towards what tools, approach, practice or therapist is best to support you with symptom relief, deep healing, and ultimately, integration.
When you begin to see your anxiety as a messenger rather than an enemy, an important shift occurs on your healing journey. Instead of fighting against your symptoms, you learn to listen to them with curiosity and compassion. This gentle turning toward rather than away from your anxiety often brings immediate relief, and over time, leads to deeper self-trust and more sustainable healing. Within your anxiety lies important information about your needs, boundaries, and areas of your life calling for attention and care. This reorientation transforms your anxiety from something to fear, into a trusted guide on your path of personal growth and spiritual awakening.
You emphasize that healing is always possible. How do you help clients move from feeling overwhelmed by anxiety to seeing it as an opportunity for growth and transformation?
One of the most important truths about healing is that it isn’t linear. And that change happens 1% at a time, not all at once. When we begin to orient to anxiety as something asking for our attention, rather than a curse or life sentence, a profound shift occurs. This reframing opens the door to curiosity, compassion, and ultimately, deep healing. Because true healing isn’t about living a life without pain, suffering, or anxiety symptoms; it’s about living in alignment with your highest self and learning to grow through life’s challenges.
There’s immense power in focusing on taking just the next step, recognizing that healing moves in a spiral rather than a straight line. When you understand there’s no clean beginning or end to this journey, you can offer yourself more compassion and patience as you gently peel back the layers of your psyche and heart. The focus shifts from trying to be “done” to embracing continuous learning and evolution.
This understanding—that healing is the journey, not the destination—often brings both challenge and relief. While there might be initial frustration in realizing the work is never “done,” this perspective usually brings ease and compassion for your past, along with inspiration for taking the next step without rushing your healing process.
If you’re ready to integrate this approach into your own healing journey, I recommend starting with one simple self-love practice in your daily life. Many people become frustrated and abandon their healing work because they try to implement too many changes at once. Working with a therapist or coach can help you discover practices specifically tailored to your unique needs and where you are on your path. While deep healing unfolds gradually over time, you can begin taking steps today toward alignment and integration.
To support you on this journey, I’ve created a free Self-Love Guide offering 12 simple but effective practices to help regulate your nervous system, reconnect with your inner wisdom, and find relief from anxiety symptoms. I suggest picking just one to practice over the next few weeks. You can download the guide and dive in here:
https://www.theholisticcounseling.center/self-love-guide
Your work addresses anxiety at multiple levels – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Could you walk us through how these different aspects interconnect in the healing process?
We cannot separate our mental health from our emotional, physical, and spiritual health—all spiritual paths, as well as current neuroscience, point to the deep interconnectedness of the human experience. The holistic approach to treating anxiety isn’t about using every available tool and technique, but rather about assessing from all these perspectives to discover the most valuable next step on your unique healing journey.
For my clients struggling with anxiety, I’ve found that holistic practices offer powerful ways to soothe both the mind and body simultaneously. Whether through meditation, mindfulness, energy work, or somatic practices, these approaches help calm racing thoughts while easing physical tension. As we reconnect to the universal energy that surrounds us, while staying grounded in the present-moment, anxiety’s grip can start to soften—racing hearts slow, breathing deepens, muscles soften, and mental chatter quiets. These practices work by engaging your natural capacity for self-regulation and healing, helping you respond to anxiety with curiosity and compassion rather than fear or avoidance.
With consistent practice, these approaches become reliable resources for both symptom relief and deep healing, creating lasting changes in your nervous system patterns and mind-body connection. For some, this alone provides the relief they seek. For others, these practices create the essential foundation of safety and stability needed to explore and heal deeper layers of trauma or past experiences held in the body—experiences that may be at the root of current struggles and symptoms.
This integrative approach to mental health recognizes that true healing emerges from honoring all aspects of our being and not just trying to ‘change your mind’. When you can recognize and honor how anxiety shows up in your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and spiritual disconnection, you can step deeper into the healing journey and move towards healing the root cause of your suffering. True holistic healing is all about coming home to yourself. I hope you offer yourself moments of compassion today, and have found some inspiration for taking the next step to support yourself. Wishing you well on your healing journey!
