Connecting the Cell and the Self: How Biography Becomes Biology and How to Heal

Connecting the Cell and the Self:
How Biography Becomes Biology and How to Heal

September 9 (6 - 9:30pm)
Sept 10 & 11 (9:30am – 5:30pm)

Disease tells a story, not just of our cells and our diagnosis (biology), but of our self and our life (Biography) as well. This course provides an exploration of the relationship between our biology and our biography and offers a methodology for integrating this knowledge into clinical practice.  Biography is often the ‘untreated symptom’ in our treatment plan. It is also often the ‘missing piece’ in a patient’s healing puzzle. This course provides a theoretical framework to guide patient care, and practical Mind-Body Therapeutic Techniques and Therapies to address each component of a patient’s healing process.

Course Content:

• Present a theoretical framework for practice that emphasizes the connection and relationship between the Cell (Biology) and the Self (Biography) in clinical care.
• Define and explain the relationship between Stress and Illness
  • Offer an expanded definition of what comprises “Stress” and how it negatively affects health and wellness (research)
• Facilitate exploration of the connection between childhood trauma and chronic adult disease
  • Define “Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs)” and explain how they create the basis for future disease and health challenges
• Provide detailed instruction in the following Mind-Body Therapies to connect the Cell and the Self:
• Mindfulness IS Medicine
• Clinical Guided Imagery - listening to pain and symptoms/attaining inner guidance
• Using Narrative & Contemplative Medicines
• Biographical Exploration - Working with Patient Biography as a Therapeutic Modality
• Internal Family Systems Theory/Therapy
• Cultivating Healing Presence in the Therapeutic Relationship
• Creating Professional Resilience and Preventing Burnout

Student Learning Objectives: 

• Explore an expanded definition/understanding of Stress within the context of Mind-Body Medicine
• Gain a working knowledge of the latest research into the impact of stress (and our response to it) in health and disease
• Gain a working knowledge of the theory, latest research and available resources on the impact of childhood trauma in adult disease, including an understanding of what qualifies as “trauma”
• Clarify the difference between acknowledging the role of biography in the disease process VS blaming the patient for creating their illness. I will clearly explain how and why acknowledging and exploring a patient’s biography as part of an integrative approach to treating chronic disease is an empowering and liberating experience that enhances treatment effectiveness
• Understand how working with stress and trauma fits into the spectrum of an integrative, whole-person approach to treating patients
• Learn practical therapeutic techniques for incorporating the treatment of stress and childhood trauma, and its impact, in clinical treatment of chronic diseases
• Exposure and instruction in application of the following Modalities of Treatment:
  • Mindfulness AS Medicine. (Epigenetics and Neural Plasticity in healing)
  • Clinical Guided Imagery to explore meaning/message of pain/symptoms & to tap into inner guidance/wisdom
  • Somatic Psychotherapies including Internal Family Systems Theory/Therapy
  • Cultivation of a healing Therapeutic Relationship. (Psychoneuroimmunology)
  • Cultivation of Healing Presence
• Define and explore “narrative medicine” and “contemplative medicine” as powerful approaches for shifting the patient’s perspective while healing their biography (which will add missing pieces to their ‘healing puzzle’) to support curing their biology
• Gain strategies and tools for creating personal and professional resilience and preventing practitioner burnout.

Click Here to view the course flyer.

Click Here for more information and to register.