Energy Psychology: Integrating Mind/Body Healing Practices to Enhance Psychotherapy
with Michael Mayer, Ph.D.
Where: Sponsored by Community Institute of Psychotherapy. Location of workshop: CIP, 1330 Lincoln Ave, San Rafael, Ca, 94901,
Register: 415-459-5999 x 10, www.cipmarin.org
Cost: $60 if received by 1/22/10, $80 late registration; Non members &70 if received by 1/22/10, $90 late registration.
CEUs: 4 CEUs approved for MFTs andLCSWs, and 4 CEUs submitted for approval by the MCEP for Psychlologists
Description: Participants will be introduced to an integration of behavioral healthcare, Qigong, and psychotherapy stemming from Dr. Mayer’s thirty years of private practice, and testing this combined approach in an integrated medical clinic that he co-founded. Qigong (of which Tai Chi is the best known system) is a many thousand-year-old method of self-healing practices which can be done with movements or in stillness. You’ll learn how to integrate Qigong into psychotherapy without using Qigong movements, and without mentioning Qigong. Combining theory, case illustrations, and research, this integral bodymind healing approach can help alleviate anxiety, hypertension, chronic pain, insomnia, etc.
Qigong (of which Tai Chi is the best known system) is a many thousand-year-old method of cultivating the energy of life through breath, posture, movement, touch, sound, and imagery. There is now much scientific evidence about the efficacy of Qigong in the treatment of insomnia (Irwin, 2008), lowering blood pressure (Kuang, 1991) preventing falls amongst the elderly (Province,1995), etc. The Wall Street Journal (Weil, 2004) said that Qigong is “the hottest trend in stress relief.”
In popular literature in the field, energy psychology has been associated with tapping and muscle testing. Dr Mayer’s approach to creating an integral (Walsh, 2006), comprehensive energy psychology instead focuses on Gendlin’s Focusing (1978), depth psychotherapy, symbolic process work and cross-cultural practices such as Qigong. Unlike the quick-fix books on energy restoration, this book uses time-tested, age-old practices from sacred traditions in combination with well-established clinical approaches.
Course Outline:
9:30- 9:45AM-
• General Introduction: Expanding the Paradigm of Psychotherapy: Cross Cultural roots of Psychotherapy, Mind/Body Healing, and Energy Psychology.
• Presenter’s background including co-founding, and being a psychologist at, an integrative medical clinic.
• Brief case example of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
9:45-10:45AM
• Psychotherapy, behavioral healthcare, and cross-cultural energy psychology traditions: Combining Eastern and Western tools.
• Psychotherapy and Qigong – Theoretical framework and case example of anxiety treatment.
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-11:30AM-
• Qigong movements as a complementary treatment for behavioral healthcare: relaxation, energizing, limbering joints, hypertension, balance and prevention of falls in the elderly, somatic complaints, chronic diseases, etc. (Research including peer-reviewed research is summarized in Pelletier, 2000; Mayer, 2004, 2007).
11:30 – 12:00 PM
• Using Qigong with no Qigong Movements and no mention of Qigong. Introduction broadening and deepening the scope of bodymind healing interventions in brief and depth psychotherapy using static Qigong practices- relaxation and breathing methods, self-touch using acu-points to aid self-soothing, the imaginal/somatic dialectic.
• What psychotherapy and Qigong give each other
12:00-12:30 PM-
• Powerpoint presentation regarding the cross-cultural pre-modern roots and modern psychological roots of self- healing methods for mind-body health problems.
12:30-1:00 PM-
• Integrating psychotherapy, behavioral healthcare with Qigong: Applications for other Psychological and Psycho-physiological disorders Case examples: Chronic pain, hypertension , insomnia; trauma, {Practices from Dr. Mayer’s Bodymind Healing Qigong DVD are used in trauma trainings by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Medical Director, the Trauma Center, Boston University School of Medicine.}
1:00- 1:15 PM
• Psychotherapy as Changing your Life Stance
• Transmuting internalization with body-based psychotherapy.
Case Examples: Social phobia, sexual trauma.
• Knowledge of Qigong/ Tai Chi stances enhances awareness of somatic changes at moments of “felt shift” (Gendlin,1978) in psychotherapy, and enhances anchoring of these new life stances.
1:15-1:25 PM-
• Research and Ethics . Research and Ethics APA Ethics Code.
1:25-1:30– Questions remaining.
What are leaders in the field saying about Dr Mayer’s approach to energy psychology, called Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy? (For a more complete list please click here . )
Michael Mayer gives us the breadth and depth of energy psychology and helps us see how it can be part of all of our healing.
James S. Gordon, M.D.
Author of Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression,
Founder and Director, The Center for Mind-Body Medicine
Former Chairman of the White House Commission
on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Drawing upon over 30 years of his psychotherapy practice and personal training, Dr. Mayer has provided a seminal contribution to the field of mind-body interventions for a wide range of common disorders, as he offers us a treasure house of energy-based practices to cultivate our self-healing powers. His book is profound in its scope, evidence based, bridges Eastern and Western traditions, and provides practical insights and skills that can be of enormous value to both individuals and organizations seeking to attain optimal health.
– Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier,
Clinical Professor of Medicine,
UCSF and University of Arizona School of Medicine
Author of The Best Alternative Medicine: What Works? What Does Not
This scholarly and eminently readable book integrates eastern and western forms of self-healing techniques and examines the capacity of various approaches that put human beings at the center of their own self-care. I applaud Dr Michael Mayer for his monumental work, which hopefully foreshadows the shape of body-mind approaches for years to come.
– Bessel van der Kolk, MD
Medical Director, The Trauma Center, Boston University School of Medicine
Past Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University