Holistic therapies, like meditation, are "fringe" therapies. They are not generally employed by members of the "authorized" community of health practitioners, for two reasons: First, a kind of professional respectability and elitism have come to be associated with the psychological approach; social work, psychology, and psychiatry have an established place in institutions of higher learning, whereas fringe therapies do not. Second, since physicians treat the body, there is an institutionalized prejudice against nonmedical treatment that has the same focus. Chiropractic has encountered this problem, as have other forms of holism, such as bioenergetics, yoga, diet therapy, and rolfing. Although much of value may be offered by these fringe therapies, they have also resulted in abuse to consumers. Because of a general absence of licensing standards and of scientific credibility, people frequently are drawn in by the sometimes extravagant promises of unscrupulous or overly enthusiastic fringe therapists. In this area, as in all others that affect the consumer, the proper attitude is one of healthy skepticism and restraint. BIOENERGETICS Of these holistic therapies, bioenergetics is perhaps considered the most respectable because it _is_ used by some psychologists. Bioenergetics attempts to diminish an individual's psychological defenses by means of sequences of specially designed {53} physical exercises that, in a controlled and deliberate way, stress the person physically. Practitioners of bioenergetics believe that physical exercises of this kind rapidly put a person in touch with buried (repressed) feelings and speed up the process of inner integration that all holistic practices, as well as traditional therapy, wish to achieve. YOGA Yoga exists in various forms. The two main varieties are hatha yoga and raja yoga. Hatha yoga emphasizes physical flexibility; raja yoga teaches breathing techniques and meditation. Hatha yoga, because of its focus on the body, belongs to the family of approaches we are considering here. Hatha yoga practitioners believe that the physical flexibility and control that are acquired through an extended period of physical training in yoga exercise tend to influence your mental orientation. You become, in this view, more flexible, less rigid, less defensive, less subject to stress, more open, responsive, alert, and capable of warmth in human relationships. EXERCISE THERAPY