Reuniting Science and Spirituality: Whole-Being Healing for Pets, People & Practitioners
- Erin Bannink, DVM, DACVIM
- 4 hours ago
- 9 min read
Across cultures and centuries, healing has always been more than treating a body. It has been about the whole being — body, mind/emotions, and Spirit — and the interplay between them.
In ancient traditions, health was understood as balance rather than merely absence of illness or disease. Emotions, thoughts, relationships, environment, and our inner spiritual life were woven into the art of healing.
In the modern era we have inherited an incredible legacy of scientific medicine in oncology patient care—cellular biology, imaging, diagnostic precision, targeted therapies, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, nutrition. At the same time, we are now seeing a re-awakening to what healers throughout history always knew: that meaning, connection, and Spirit are not optional extras in healing.
They are central.
When Medicine Shifted
The late 18th and 19th century brought astonishing scientific discoveries — vaccines, microscopes, anesthesia — transforming our understanding of disease and expanded our ability to address certain illnesses. Yet this era also introduced a new philosophy: Positivism, which declared that only what could be measured or seen was real.
This mindset fueled progress but also quietly narrowed our definition of health. Spirit, intuition, and consciousness — once central to healing — were reclassified as irrelevant or “unscientific.” Medicine became focused on fixing physical problems, often forgetting that the mind and Spirit play vital roles in recovery and resilience.
As a result, modern medicine became brilliant at saving lives, yet sometimes less skilled at nurturing life force. Veterinarians and physicians alike have witnessed this paradox — the patient who is medically “stable” but emotionally or spiritually depleted. The caregiver who feels burned out and disconnected, despite doing meaningful work.
This is not a failure of medicine. It is a symptom of separation — the separation of heart and mind, science and spirit, physical and spiritual.
Why This Separation Matters in Healing
Whether we are caring for ourselves, our clients, or our animal companions, we are working with complex living systems. Emotions influence immune function. Stress chemistry affects healing time. The presence or absence of hope can shift outcomes in ways data still struggles to quantify.
We know this intuitively, even when research hasn’t yet explained it fully.
The great irony is that modern science is now beginning to circle back toward what traditional medicine always knew: Mind, body, and spirit are one continuum.
Studies in quantum physics, psychoneuroimmunology, and epigenetics reveal that consciousness and environment shape biology. Research on meditation, heart-brain coherence, and the human–animal bond demonstrates that our emotional and energetic states influence physiology — both ours and our pets’.
Healing, then, is not just mechanical repair. It’s an energetic recalibration of a living being.
Remembering the Wholeness We Already Are
Reuniting science and spirit doesn’t mean abandoning data or returning to superstition. It means restoring balance — letting logic and love share the same space again.
When we combine the clarity of science with the intuitive and energetic power of Spirit, we practice medicine that heals not just bodies, but beings. We serve life, not just extend it.
You don’t have to choose between evidence and energy, or between measurable results and meaningful connection. The truth is, healing happens where both meet.
Bridging Evidence and Energy
This union of science and spirituality is a big passion of mine. At MettaPets we honor evidence-based medicine — chemotherapy protocols, surgery, targeted therapies and new technologies in cancer patient care — while also recognizing that healing involves more than molecules. It includes mindset, meaning, and spiritual health.
When I sit with a family facing a pet’s cancer diagnosis, I bring both clinical precision and the awareness that every interaction carries energetic weight. I also talk with every client about a multidimensional treatment protocol from which they can choose to create a comprehensive care plan.
Conventional Medicine Options
Fresh, clean, balanced diet
Herbal Therapies
Supplements
Acupuncture
Mental Emotional Wellness interventions
Energy Medicine
Spiritual Wellness interventions
This is whole-being medicine: Science guided by spirit. Treatment informed by compassion. Knowledge infused with wisdom.
Reuniting science and spirituality does not mean blending belief systems; it means remembering that the physical and the unseen are parts of one living reality.
What We Mean by “Spirit” in Whole-Being Healing
At MettaPets, we use the term Spirit in an inclusive, evidence-aligned way. It’s not about religious affiliation or belief systems. Spirit is the dimension of our being that makes life feel meaningful, purposeful, and connected. It is what unifies us with something bigger than our physical body.
Spirituality can be understood as “the search for meaning, purpose, and connection with self, others, the universe, and ultimate reality, however one understands it, which may or may not be expressed through religion.”— Sheridan, M.J. (2004), Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Social Work: Social Thought, 23(4)
Spirituality is related to the bigger questions about life:
Who am I?
Why do I matter?
What is our bond?
How do I contribute?
What lives beyond the visible?
In caregiving for animals and their families, this spiritual dimension matters deeply: in helping a pet feel safe, in helping a family find purpose in care, in supporting a veterinarian to maintain compassionate presence.
When we honor the spiritual dimension of life, we invite wholeness. In both human and veterinary medicine, acknowledging the role of Spirit supports emotional resilience, deepens empathy, and helps us navigate the uncertainties of illness with more peace and clarity.
These are topics we explore in my Pet Cancer Caregiver Mentorship and my Veterinarian Mentorship programs.
The Science of Spirit: Evidence for Whole-Being Healing
Modern research is once again affirming the power of meaning, connection, and compassion in health:
Mind-Body Science: Studies in psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics show that thoughts and emotions influence immune function, inflammation, and healing responses.
The Human–Animal Bond: Interacting with pets increases oxytocin (the “bonding hormone”), reduces cortisol, and improves heart-rate variability, key markers of emotional regulation and resilience.
Spirituality & Health Outcomes: A 2022 JAMA consensus report concluded that spirituality is associated with better health outcomes across serious illness and should be included in patient care discussions.
Mindfulness & Gene Expression: Reviews of mind-body practices show beneficial effects on stress-related genes (e.g., NR3C1, IL-6, TNF-α), revealing measurable biological pathways through which calm and connection promote healing.
Meaning-Centered Care: A 2024 meta-analysis found that meaning-centered interventions improved well-being, reduced anxiety and depression, and increased quality of life in patients with cancer — effects equally relevant for families caring for beloved animals through illness.
Each of these findings tells the same story: when we nurture the inner world, the outer body responds.
Why this Matters in Veterinary Care
We are working with living systems — the body of the pet, the nervous system of the human caregiver, the emotional ecosystem of the family, and yes, the spiritual longing for meaning in illness and healing. Research is now showing that what once was called “soft” or “intangible” is actually biologically meaningful.
Body, mind/emotions, and Spirit are not separate. They are interwoven. Pets are powerful actors in this system because they live in the field of connection, silence, presence. They invite us into that field.
Evidence and energy are not opposites. Together they form the foundation of true integrative medicine.
Integrating Science and Spirituality: A Wholeness Model
At MettaPets and through the care approach I offer to each client, we invite three dimensions into partnership:
Clinical/physical care – evidence-based medicine, nutritional support, pharmacology, oncology protocols for pets, veterinary excellence.
Emotional/mental care – support for caregivers, communication, nervous system regulation, relational presence, the power of the human-animal bond.
Spiritual energetic care – meaning, purpose, connection, energetic fields, consciousness, the invisible threads of life and healing.
Each dimension alone is valuable; together they are synergistic. When a pet family receives only the physical plan, they may feel technically supported but emotionally or spiritually disconnected. I always offer treatment interventions that address all three of these dimensions of healing and wellness.
Most people never engage with the last two, choosing to stay in the familiar realm of the physical. However, when we create a comprehensive care plan that incorporates the medical treatments with presence, meaning, energetic support, we can create the conditions for deeper healing and greater resilience for both pets and people.
The Healing Triad: Body, Mind/Emotions & Spirit
Each aspect supports the others. When one is neglected, imbalance occurs; when all three are honored, healing deepens — even when cure is not possible.
Bridging Science and Heart in Veterinary Medicine
In clinical practice, the healing relationship itself becomes a therapeutic agent. A calm voice, a moment of stillness, or a compassionate touch can reduce stress hormones in both practitioner and patient.
For veterinarians, this means caring not only for the animal’s physiology but also for the energetic field of the exam room. For pet parents, it means recognizing that you own calm and presence directly influence you pet’s comfort and healing potential.
Healing is a shared, living system — a conversation of energies.
The same Light that heals the human heart flows through every living being — the science of connection is also the Spirit of life.
How Divine PowerHouse Supports Spiritual Health
As the founder of Divine PowerHouse, in addition to my integrative oncology patient care at Oakland Veterinary referral Services, I offer energetic and spiritual modalities that complement the physical dimensions of care. The full spectrum of this whole-Being wellness model is, thus, accessible to motivated clients.
Life Activation
A single healing session which is a consciousness activation process rooted in the Mystery School tradition, designed to awaken deeper awareness, inner clarity, and energetic alignment. This creates fertile ground for all healing so that you can live with more peace, less fear and make better decisions.
For pet parents, it often brings renewed emotional steadiness, a profound sense of peace and a renewed connection with life.
For veterinary professionals, it supports resilience, purpose, and the capacity to hold light in challenging environments.
Energy Healing & Balancing Modalities
Other lineage-based energy sessions (including aura healings and EnSofic Reiki) help clear energetic blocks, balance the flow of life force, and promote harmony in the biofield that influences both body and mind.
This can support physical systems to function from a place of coherent energy rather than mere repair.
Meditation & Light Leadership Training
These practices cultivate inner quiet and clarity, supporting both caregivers and clinicians in maintaining compassion without burnout. They also nurture intuitive sensitivity to the non-verbal language animals speak.
Ritual practices invite you to tune into the field of consciousness, reconnect to the bigger picture, and embody your role as a conscious creator of your life and a more centered healer/advocate for your pet.
Reflection: Bringing Wholeness Into Life
Where in your caregiving or professional life can you invite more presence or compassion? One deep breath. One pause before delivering care. One moment of stillness with the pet or family.
How can you honor both science and Spirit, evidence and energy, in the way you care for yourself and others you serve?
What would change if every treatment plan also included meaning, purpose, and connection?
How might you re-vision your caring role—not just as “doing” medicine or “surviving cancer”—but as participating in a field of life and consciousness, where each moment is both scientific and sacred?
As we evolve medicine and deepen our connection to our inner wisdom, may we also heal the centuries-old divide within ourselves — between knowing and feeling, data and devotion, science and Spirit.
Because when heart and mind work together, both humans and animals thrive.
Whole-being healing is not a new concept; it’s a remembrance.
As science and spirituality reunite, medicine becomes not just a system of treatment, but a path of transformation — for pets, for people, and for those who serve them.
At MettaPets and Divine PowerHouse, we stand at this intersection: where data meets devotion, veterinary science meets energetic awareness, evidence meets intuition, healing becomes sacred service, and care become conscious.
Thank you for being part of this evolution of healing. Together, we can reclaim the fullness of life in Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Further Exploration: The Spiritual Roots of Whole-Being Healing
If this integrative view of science and Spirit resonates with you, I invite you to explore its deeper foundations through my work with Divine PowerHouse.
There, I share the ancient Mystery School lineage and energetic healing traditions that informs my approach to energetic and spiritual healing — including the Life Activation and other time-tested modalities that help awaken the divine blueprint within. These teachings illuminate how consciousness, Light, and energy shape healing on every level, and how we can consciously participate in that process for ourselves and our animal companions.
Client Testimonial
Working with Dr. Bannink at DivinePowerHouse has been truly transformative! From the start, I felt welcomed into a deeply nurturing community committed to personal growth and spiritual empowerment. The Energy Healings, Classes, and Initiations are exceptional, offering profound and practical tools that are useful no matter where you are at in your journey. Dr. Bannink is the embodiment of kindness, authenticity, and integrity, and her deep passion, extensive training/knowledge, and intuitive wisdom are unmatched. Divine PowerHouse is a safe and welcoming environment to embark on your spiritual and healing journey, whether you are navigating challenging times or seeking personal growth and healing. - Brittany