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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Why the Mind-Body Approach to Psychological Trauma Is Not 'Alternative'

Why the Mind-Body Approach to Psychological Trauma Is Not 'Alternative'

James S. Gordon
Founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C.

On a recent trip to London, The Guardian interviewed me during Depression Awareness Week about the UK release of my book "Unstuck". The reporter was particularly interested in Center for Mind-Body Medicine's Global Trauma Relief program and our work to bring population-wide psychological healing to places around the world that are afflicted by war and natural disaster.

I'm certainly pleased that the author recognizes CMBM's groundbreaking efforts to teach and support hundreds of thousands of people in Kosovo, Israel, Gaza, Haiti, Southern Louisiana, and U.S. military bases where soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a shame, however, that his tone is so dismissive of integrative medicine and that he fails to recognize the fundamental importance of self-care for psychological and physical healing.

Please note that as of this writing, corrections are being made online for several factual errors, including the following:

In Gaza, we trained 90 clinicians initially; only a few of these were "educators" (as the article states).
CMBM now has 160 groups meeting in Gaza each week, not 48, as reported.

Beyond factual errors, though, I'm disappointed with the tone of the article. I want to emphasize that our approach to psychological trauma relief is not about "belief," as the article repeatedly implies. It is based on hard evidence that is just as rigorous -- actually more so -- than most of that provided by the drug companies he seems to accept as the standard.
read more here
Why the Mind-Body Approach to Psychological Trauma Is Not 'Alternative'

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