Bodymind Healing in Psychotherapy: Ancient Pathways to Modern Health
Date: January 18, 2008, 12:00- 4:00 PM. Meal and meeting 12:00-1:00, Workshop 1:00-4:00 PM.
Cost: Non-members $100; $75 for members (this includes a catered lunch)
Presentation Description: Participants will be introduced to an integration of behavioral healthcare, Qigong, and psychotherapy stemming from Dr. Mayer’s thirty years of training. He tested these methods in an integrated medical clinic which 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 will be shown to help alleviate anxiety, hypertension, chronic pain, insomnia, etc.
Attendees will learn:
•Participants will broaden their perspective of the cross-cultural, pre-modern roots of psychotherapy and mind-body healing methods and how this expanded perspective can enhance treatment with cases of anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia, etc.
• Participants will learn how to apply various static Qigong methods in their psychotherapy practice without ever using a Qigong Movement or mentioning a word about Qigong. Some of these methods include: breathing, methods involving simultaneous relaxing and energizing, self-touch, and anchoring new life stances through awareness of somatic movements that a patient makes at a moments when there is a “felt shift.”
• Participants will learn about ethical issues about which to be aware in integrating Qigong into psychotherapy.
For those who want to get acquainted with Dr Mayer’s work before the presentation, they can purchase either of his two books and/or DVD at www.bodymindhealing.com/store:
• Secrets to Living Younger: The Self Healing path of Qigong, Standing Medtation and Tai Chi, (Bodymind Healing Publications, 2004), about which Dr Wayne Jonas past Director of the National Institute of Health, Office of Alternative Medicine says ” A wonderful guide for learning the ancient healing practices of Qigong. Full of clear and practical exercises.”
• Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy: Ancient Pathways to Modern Health, (Bodymind Healing Publications, 2007), about which Dr Ken Pelletier, author of The Best Alternative Medicine: What Works and What Doesn’t says, ” …profound in scope, evidenced based, bridges Eastern and Western traditions, and provides practical insights and skills that can be of enormous value to individuals seeking to attain optimal health.”
• Bodymind Healing Qigong DVD ( Bodymind Healing Publications, 2000), about which Dr Bessel van der Kolk, medical director of The Trauma Center, Boston University Medical School says, ” I liked your Bodymind Healing Qigong DVD so much that in the course I taught we started with two or three sections of it every day.”
RSVP by January 10, 2008 to: Kerstin Gutierrez, Psy.D, (925) 552-5255.
Location:
Mullen Commons
In Courtyard of St. John Vianney Catholic Church
1650 Ygnacio Valley Rd. (down the hill from John Muir Medical Center).
Directions: After exiting at Ygnaicio off of 680 go up to the top of Ygnacio and the hill where the first Marchbanks is; but don’t take this Marchbanks. The second Marchbanks is down the hill further and requires you to go down to the next light, do a U turn and come back up Ygnacio. Then back up the hill, in a few blocks turn right into this second Marchbanksand take a left into the Vianney Catholic Church driveway, and go up the hill to their parking lot.
Bio: Michael Mayer, Ph.D. licensed psychologist, hypnotherapist, Qigong/Tai Chi teacher, specializes in self-healing methods for health problems, and presents his approach to bodymind healing at professional conferences, national/international workshops, universities, and hospitals. He was co-founder of, and a practitioner at, a multi-disciplinary medical clinic practicing integrative medicine Dr. Mayer pioneered the integration of Qigong and psychotherapy, and was the first person in the United States to train doctoral psychology students in these methods. He is an award-winning author of twelve publications on bodymind healing including peer-reviewed articles, and his most recent book Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy: Ancient Pathways to Modern Health.