Psychotherapist's Journal - Thoughts and Tools to Inspire Wellness in Mind and Body - by Karen Gorrin

Mind-Body Wellness Workshops at the Sammamish Club

Join me at the Sammamish Club this fall to learn about the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and physical health. We'll discuss recent modern science discoveries that you can utilize to optimize your own health and well-being.

Choose your session:
Wednesday, October 15 at 7:00 PM
Saturday, November 15 at 1:00 PM
Wednesday, December 3 at 9:30 AM

Where:

The NEW Mind-Body-Energy Studio
The Sammamish Club
2115 NW Poplar Way 
Issaquah, WA 98027

Fee:
$40. The cost of this workshop may be applied towards Thrive, the 8-week wellness program designed to create harmony in mind and body coming to the Sammamish Club in January 2008-created and facilitated by Karen Gorrin.

Facilitated by Karen Gorrin 

For more information or to register, contact Karen Haigler, Aquatics and Programs Director. To learn about the Sammamish Club, click here.

Support Group for Women Living with Depression

I am pleased to tell you about the new group I'll be facilitating - it's for women who are navigating through depression: Join women like yourself who seek a path through the experience of depression. In this educational support group, we'll take a mind-body approach to understanding and reversing the role depression plays in our lives. You'll learn to cultivate a greater capacity for self-compassion, discover meaningful ways to contribute to the community, and deepen your connection to yourself and others. Together we'll move from seeing the world as a small place, to remembering the many possibilities that await us.

All About Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue: The Mind/Body Connection

Last night I enjoyed the opportunity to meet and hear Jacob Teitelbaum, MD speak about Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue at the Seattle Public Library. Teitelbaum is the medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Centers and is a patient consultant that specializes in the treatment of these conditions. He also authored From Fatigued to Fantastic among other titles.

The focus of Dr. Teitlebaum's talk was the treatment protocol he refers to as SHIN: Sleep, Hormonal Deficiencies, Infections, and Nutritional Deficiencies. If FMS/CFS are an "energy crisis," Dr. Teitelbaum believes it's possible to turn the circuit breakers back ON. Included in his talk was reference to the Mind/Body connection. Here are the qualities Dr. Teitelbaum tends to see in the psychology of his patients:

Low Self Esteem
Overachiever Seeking Approval Where It's Never Received
Trying to be All Things to All People
Taking Care of Others at the Expense of the Self
Unable to say NO

From my own clinical experience, I agree with his conclusions. I'll take a step further to say that the majority of clients I have seen with a FMS/CFS diagnosis have also lived with chronic stress, often related to childhood neglect or abuse, or due to a sudden traumatic event, and many describe poor attachment to their primary caregivers, a contributing factor to developing chronic stress and the sense of aloneness and uncertainty about oneself and the world.

Naturally, this profile does NOT match everyone diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. But it does point to common mind/body aspects of the illness for many people. It also suggests the necessity of a multi-modality approach to healing.

I consistently use the mind/body psychotherapy Lifespan Integration when working with clients with the kind of trauma described above. Lifespan Integration helps to heal past hurts without re-traumatizing. It is especially helpful for relieving anxiety, lifting depression, and helping people re-connect with themselves and their bodies. Mindfulness Meditation also helps to reduce stress and restore people's ability to connect with themselves, and to self soothe. I believe these treatment modalities, when used together with protocols like the SHIN recommendations, can offer a very gentle yet powerful healing.

Thank you, Dr. Teilebaum, for recognizing the deep connection of mind and body in the healing journey from illness to wholeness. It was a pleasure to meet you!

In the News: How the Brain Rewires Itself

Thank you to my Lifespan Integration colleagues for telling me about the article, How the Brain Rewires Itself by Sharon Begley, in the January 19, 2007 issue of Time Magazine. A fascinating read, especially for those interested in neuroscience. What interested me most about this article was the information about nueroplasticy, meaning, the ability of the mind to change the brain.

As a holistic psychotherapist, I have been trained in a mind/body psychotherapy called Lifespan Integration, which helps people heal the effects of neglect and abuse without re-traumatizing. The reason Lifespan Integration works, believes it's developer Peggy Pace, is due to this same nueroplasticity, or the brain's ability to adapt and change.

The article traces the journey of scientists understanding about how the brain works. Until recently, writes Begley, the adult brain was considered to be hardwired and fixed in form and function. But research over the past few years tells a different story. We now know the brain has the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience.

The idea that the mind can actually change the brain could have an enormous impact on health and the healing process. Something we may otherwise have viewed as an insubstantial thought, writes Begley, could affect the very material of the brain itself, altering neuron connections in a way that can treat mental illness or increase ones capacity for empathy and compassion.

Yet all of this would be little surprise to the experienced mediator. The practice of single-point focus, and releasing the thoughts of the grasping mind, can actually change the way we think, feel, and experience the world. The possibility in all this? Emotions, moods, and more, may turn out to be trainable skills. This really does prove the idea, that anything is possible.