Mind-Body Medicine

Last week, another chaplain resident and I attended a five-day training presented by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. What a phenomenal experience. It was a sold-out event, with well over two hundred people in attendance, including over twenty from the hospital system that I am part of. We're talking doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, hospice workers, and the rare chaplain or two.

I have encountered many of the healing and self-care tools presented, including meditation, relaxation, biofeedback, movement, and guided imagery, these have been presented in the past as alternatives to science-based medicine. I loved that this training presented significant scientific evidence supporting these tools, including many controlled double-blind studies. The fact that my hospital system and the Veteran's Administration, among others, is beginning to adopt these tools is most promising. As a chaplain, I know that mind and body and spirit are deeply interconnected.

Much of our time was spent in small process groups: eight sessions of two hours each. My co-worker and I noted how these groups compared to the group we have in our Clinical Pastoral Education residency, and how difficult it was for many people, especially mental health workers, to get comfortable being a group participant. Perhaps they are used to leading groups, and not being a participant, or perhaps they just focus on one-on-one client meetings. Part of my hope is that this work may begin a renaissance of group therapy as part of the overall treatment plan for people dealing with mental health issues.