Holiday shoppers, take note! If, in your infinite wisdom, you decide to order a holiday children’s gift bag of yoga and guided imagery treats for your favorite kiddo (on sale at dazzling discount) and you want to send it by ground, you’ll need to order it by December 17th.. Hey,
Last-minute holiday shoppers, take note! If, in your infinite wisdom, you decide to order a holiday children’s gift bag of yoga and guided imagery treats for your favorite kiddo (on sale at dazzling discount at http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.asp?id=223 ) or a fabulous, multi-sensory rejuvenation gift box for your favorite grown-up (deeply slashed at http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.asp?id=226 ) and you want to send it by ground, you’ll need to order it by December 17th at 1 PM. If, on the other hand, you’re willing to spring for 2-day air, you can procrastinate until 1 PM on December 22. And if you are addicted to your own adrenaline and therefore want to put it off as long as possible, we can send your gift next day air up until 1 PM on December 23rd.

Well, I just got back from the annual NICABM conference at Hilton Head on the Psychology of Health, Immunity and Disease, and I have to say it lived up to its reputation, as it seems to do every year. The week was chock full of extraordinarily rich, exciting, powerful and useful information, fabulous practitioners and awesome speakers. It was something.

I find it interesting that, even though it was not a conference specifically with a posttraumatic stress theme, just about half the speakers - Bob Scaer, Marion Woodman, Trisha Meilli, Fred Gallo, John Diepold, Nancy Napier, Peter Levine, Dan Amen, Bill O’Hanlon, to name a few- and myself as well - focused on PTSD. I’m certain this is because this is where so much of the cutting edge "action" is these days. A tremendous amount of progress in how we see illness and health is at the crossroads of where brain scanning technology, biochemistry, neurophysiology and psychotherapy all meet and have something to say to each other - all configuring around the condition of traumatic stress. These are exciting times in the field, and posttraumatic stress is right at the heart of it. I recommend you get some of the audiotapes of the sessions at https://www.nicabm.com/cgi-bin/webmarket or by calling 800.743.2226.

And before I forget, there’s still space for the March 12-29 Isla Mujeres Women’s Retreat, facilitated by those psychotherapist-goddesses of expressivity, insight and care, Ceci McDonnell and Karen Rosenberg. Storytelling, yoga, movement, water play, guided imagery, and journaling serve as forms for accessing the psyche''s depths, and your discoveries can be shared however much the spirit moves you, with an intimate group of fellow travellers and adventurers. Click on http://www.islawomensretreat.com/description.htm for more info and a registration form.

And for Cleveland area folk heading (hurtling??) toward a certain age, there’s a wonderful course available at the Ursuline Sophia Center, called From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older, based on the work of Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and Ronald S. Miller. Co-taught and facilitated by Ester Leutenberg IMFT and Fran Zamore LISW, this series covers powerful topics such as valuing our wisdom, healing our relationships and enhancing the role of elders in the community. For more information or to register, call (440)-442-4160 on weekdays between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm EST or email [email protected]

OK, take care and be well!

All best wishes,