Monthly Archives: June 2011
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Posted: June 27, 2011Read more »
Because recent systematic reviews of “psychological” therapies for fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) did not include hypnosis/guided imagery (H/GI), the authors performed a meta-analysis of the efficacy of H/GI in FMS.
Looking at outcomes for pain, sleep, fatigue, depressed mood and health-related quality of life, six clinical trials with a total of 239 subjects were analyzed. (The median # of Hypnosis/Guided Imagery sessions was nine, and the median number of patients in the groups was 20. Three studies performed follow-ups). -
Posted: June 27, 2011Read more »
We love hearing from deployed soldiers and we’re finally getting some steady email from them. We welcome any and all feedback, as we continue to tweak some of our programs to better suit our military. By the way, take a look at what this soldier says about sleep meds at the end of his note.
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Posted: June 27, 2011Categories: Ask BelleruthRead more »
Question:
Belleruth,
I am very interested in finding out I can become an active practitioner of GI. For years, I used this technique in my classroom to lessen test anxiety in students. I currently conduct "rest and restore" sessions at the local Y using GI type techniques but I would like increase what I do and how I do it. Where and how can I get more training?Paula
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Posted: June 24, 2011Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
Hello again.
I’ve been looking at the research and pondering how far we’ve come from those early days when we were first learning about guided imagery as a possible, bona fide addition to the cancer treatment toolkit.
Back in the 80’s when guided imagery was first getting promoted by Bernie Siegel, Stephanie & Carl Simonton, Jeanne Achterberg and Frank Lawlis, there was a lot of excitement about its potential. Early pilot studies showed a lot of promise (early studies often do – perhaps because of the excitement the investigators feel about their intervention), and there was a lot of talk about how ‘visualization’ could wipe out cancer cells. People were encouraged to imagine Pac-Men, a popular video game at the time, eating up cancer cells, before, during and after chemotherapy. -
Posted: June 20, 2011Read more »
I love this story - it was excerpted from “I’m Still Learning to Forgive” by Corrie ten Boom, and posted on the internet where it was reprinted by permission from Guideposts Magazine.
I love the part where she says, “…forgiveness is not an emotion… Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” The idea that you don’t wait for the feeling, but start with the right action and hope the feeling will follow makes sense on so many levels. But I’ll stop editorializing and let you read the whole story:
“It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. -
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Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna in Italy performed a meta-analysis to see if Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy or MBCT – a meditation program based on integrating cognitive behavioral therapy with mindfulness-based stress reduction - had a positive impact on psychiatric conditions.
A literature search was undertaken using five electronic databases and references of retrieved articles. Main findings included the following: -
Posted: June 20, 2011Read more »
Question:
I'd like to know the best CDs to address: minimizing or eliminating the side effects of chemo and putting a positive spin on it shrinking and eliminating any cancer cells, boosting the immune system, increasing one's will to heal and access inner strength and positivity, Thank you for your help.
S.P. -
Posted: June 20, 2011Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
We’re gearing up to go back to Ft Sill this summer (probably in August) and test out the resiliency-supporting capacity of our guided imagery audios on soldiers from a recently returned truck company in Iraq and a battalion that will return from Afghanistan at the end of the month.
This time we’ve got a terrific research team helping us - Drs. Edgardo Padin-Rivera and Kevin Young, both volunteering their time outside of their work at the Cleveland V.A. –to design, implement and analyze the study.
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Posted: June 13, 2011Categories: Ask BelleruthRead more »
Question:
Belleruth,
I attended a workshop that you did in Portland, OR some years ago. During that workshop you outlined a protocol for changing/halting recurring nightmares in PTSD clients. I used it successfully several times.
Unfortunately, I have misplaced the protocol. And I know it’s in Invisible Heroes, but I lent my copy out to a colleague. Is there any way you could send it to me, please?
Thanks in advance.
Dr. C.D.
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Posted: June 13, 2011Read more »
We found this inspiring story at Beliefnet. Over the past year, seven remarkably generous employees – all women - from Loyola University Medical Center donated a kidney as part of the Center’s Pay-It-Forward Kidney Transplant Program. It works like this: a living donor steps forward and offers to donate a kidney to a stranger, and by doing so, creates a chain. The donor’s kidney is then given to a compatible transplant candidate who has an incompatible donor, who in turn agrees to give a kidney to a third person with an incompatible donor. The chain can progress infinitely.
