1.The Mind-Body Link
Why you can help someone heal by talking to them

2. ThE Greek Mistake
3. The head with no body
Antisthenes the Cynic, photo by Alun Salt
4. One continuous nervous system
Diagram by TheEmirr, via Wikipedia
5. 6. The hypothalamus: the bridge in the brain
From Anatomography, website maintained by Life Science Databases (LSDB).
7. 8. 9. 10. Mind-Body Integration
Control of:
Pain
Breathing (incl. asthma)
Immune system overreaction (allergy)
Heart rate & variability
Blood Pressure
Blood flow
11. Useful Techniques
Guided imagery
Control Panel
Direct suggestion
12. Placebo Effect
Approximately 1/3 of the effect of many medications can be replicated by giving people inactive medication and telling them it is active.
13. The Brain in your Gut
Food and Mood:
14. Trusting Your Gut
There are more neurons in the digestive system than in the spine
The gut produces more serotonin than the brain
15. Food for Mental Health
Brain chemistry is derived from what we eat
Populations which eat a moderate amount of fish reduce risk of bipolar disorder by 30%
16. Conclusions
Body and mind are a single system
The influence runs both ways
We can make deliberate use of this in our therapeutic practice
Encouraging people to take conscious control of their physical health is a personal development issue
17. Further Reading
Rossi, Ernest: The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing: New concepts of therapeutic hypnosis (Norton, 1993)
Pert, Candace: Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine (Simon & Schuster, 1999)