News from Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
March 2010

Click a topic link below to jump directly to any section of this newsletter:
In This Issue
* Teleseminar & Workshop Calendar
* News From the Mindbody Health Frontier










Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
2768 Darnby Dr.
Oakland, CA 94611
USA
510-655-3843
Greetings!

I hope that spring is finding you wherever you live in the world. Here in Northern California, we are bathed in many forms of pollen; my tulip magnolia trees are blooming and bulbs are proudly springing up! This newsletter continues to update you about our monthly teleseminars and other training events. News From the Mindbody Health Frontier (scroll down to find this section) features "The Most Effective Elements of Mindfulness Practice."
 
To your continued good health,

Maggie Phillips
Teleseminar & Workshop Calendar

website image There's still time to register for Qigong and Bodymind Healing: An Integrated Approach for Stress and Pain with Dr. Michael Mayer next Wednesday, March 17, from 9 am - 10:30 am Pacific time. As with all of our teleseminars, e-courses, and e-workshops, if you have a schedule conflict and cannot attend live, your registration fee of $50 allows you anytime, unlimited audio replay of the entire 90 minute event through April 17. Please go now to www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_teleseminars_mm.html. We would appreciate receiving your questions and topics in advance so please submit them at www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_interactive_mm.html.
 
I am really excited about this seminar. You may not be aware of the unique and outstanding credentials Michael Mayer has as a presenter. Michael pioneered the integration of Qigong into western types of therapy and healthcare. He co-founded and is a member of a multidisciplinary medical clinic offering integrative healthcare. He received an award from the World Institute for Self-Healing for his contributions to the advancement of mindbody medicine. He has also authored ten publications on mindbody healing and on applications of Chinese medicine approaches with specific health problems including cancer, hypertension, chronic pain, and anxiety. You'll also want to know that Michael has a wonderful way of making the complex simple and easy.
 
Here is an excerpt from Michael's article on "An Integrated Approach to Chronic Pain." If you like what you read, please join us for the teleseminar to learn the Yin-Yang Balancing Method and other techniques. When you register, you'll receive a pdf of Michael's entire article on chronic pain as a bonus in addition to his free report on how Qigong can successfully treat hypertension.

YIN-YANG BALANCING METHOD
 
One other method I taught Terry to ease her pain is the yin yang balancing method. I derived it from a hypnotherapeutic technique called "pain transferal" which involves a person imagining the transfer of their pain to another part of the body. By adding to this the idea of yin and yang in Taoist theory, we have the benefit of adding a many thousand year-old understanding of the pathways of energy in the body, thereby allowing the person to transfer the energy by coming into alignment with a ready made stream. Whether we want to believe that this stream is "real," when we visualize it, or imagine that it is real, our mind activates our healing powers.
 
In the yin yang balancing method, a person imagines more energy flowing through the yin (cold, weakened, etc.) part of the body and less energy going through the yang (hot, strong, acutely injured) part of the body. Terry learned to imagine and experience her breath turning into warm water flowing through her uninjured left leg, and cooling gentle waters flowing through her injured leg.
 
Terry learned to play with the sensations, and to control and trick her body. For example, in one session, she imagined "a hula hoop" extending through the points on both ankles. At first the hula hoop was blocked where her injury was; but gradually, as she imagined the compassionate light of the sun melting the ice block there, the water flowed throughout the hoop evenly. While she was playing with her mind/body connection she forgot which leg was the one in the accident.
 
Don't miss this seminar! You will learn some very creative tools for working efficiently and effectively with pain and stress that are derived from the principles of Chinese medicine. Please register now, while you're thinking about it, at www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_teleseminars_mm.html. Your $50 teleseminar package includes handouts, photos and diagrams to help you follow the steps of the qigong, tai chi, and standing meditation poses and principles included in the 90 minute seminar.
 
If you haven't sampled many of our teleseminars/webinars, you might want to read some recent comments from satisfied participants about the e-workshop with Fred Gallo:
 
"I want to take a moment to thank you for the great workshop with Fred Gallo....Keep up the good work!"
 
"I downloaded the seminar on the Identity Method which I enjoyed and look forward to using...I just recommended the teleseminar to a colleague..."
 
Save the dates:  On Wednesday, April 28, from 9 am - 10:30 am Pacific time, I will be co-leading a teleseminar with Dr. Ron Siegel from Harvard Medical School on Pathways to Mindfulness. Ron is a leader in the field of mindfulness and teaches nationally on mindfulness and mind/body treatment. His personal recovery from disabling back pain led him to develop the Back Sense program, a step-by-step mind/body approach to treating chronic back pain which integrates Western psychological and medical interventions with mindfulness practice. He is coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, and coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain. He is a regular contributor to other professional publications, and is co-director of the annual Harvard Medical School Conference on Meditation and Psychotherapy. Ron is known as a warm and engaging speaker. His February online course in Mindfulness (sponsored by the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine -- NICABM) was sold out! Several of you have written me to request a teleseminar on mindfulness. Registration for this teleseminar will open soon; please don't miss this opportunity.
 
May and June bring teaching opportunities for me in Energy Psychology and Somatic Experiencing�. On May 3rd, my online course, Advances in Energy Psychology, will begin for 8 weeks, sponsored by NICABM (for more information and registration, go to www.nicabm.com/?course=ene. I have received consistently excellent feedback on this course. If you want an in-depth distance learning class that will focus you on practicing energy psychology methods with yourself and others in order to strengthen your skills and confidence, please consider signing up! The class is not offered in "real time" -- that is, you can log on and listen to lectures and participate in message board discussions whenever you like so time zone differences are not a problem.
 
I will be offering several live workshops in Canada, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. I present Healing Emotional and Physical Pain in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Friday, April 30, and Saturday, May 1st. For information, contact [email protected]. On Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, I will present Learning What the Body Knows in Zurich. For information and registration, email Silvia Zanotta at [email protected]. And finally, I will be teaching a workshop on Ego-State Therapy in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday 15 May and Sunday, 16 May. Please contact Maarit Virta at [email protected].
 
From June 3-6, I will be participating in the Energy Psychology conference in San Diego, California: Evolving Tools for Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit. If you register before March 31st, you will save money. And if you sign up for my pre-conference workshop Maximizing Resiliency through Energy Psychology: Solving Health Adversity scheduled on Thursday, June 3rd, you will receive several sign-up bonuses. For more information and registration, visit  https://m360.energypsych.org/event.aspx?eventID=10991
 
Our May and June teleseminar training events will focus on Somatic Experiencing� as we present seminars with Peter Levine, creator of SE, and Kathy Kain, Director of SE Training. Please watch for specific details, including the exact dates and topics, in our April newsletter.
News From the Mindbody Health Frontier

There's great interest in using mindfulness to resolve pain and stress these days. From my point of view, mindfulness is a basic skill that can be combined with any method to provide more effective treatment of common symptoms of stress, pain, and anxiety.
 
Mindfulness can be defined as having 3 basic components: 1) Awareness 2) of present experience 3) with acceptance. These elements ensure that you can learn to focus on the present moment. Unfortunately, we often become lost in memories of the past and fantasies of the future, or we engage in struggles to escape the present moment, especially if we are experiencing pain.
 
If you take a moment now to explore a positive experience that you really value, aside from the content of what was happening at that time, the salient quality involves presence -- that is, it's likely that you were fully present, noticing and connecting with all that was happening at that particular moment.
 
Mindfulness, which is a powerful antidote to pain, anxiety, and stress, involves regular practice. What separates mindfulness meditation practice from other forms of meditation?
  • Not having a blank mind; instead it's important to focus on the fullness of the mind at any given moment;

  • Not getting rid of emotion; instead we become more aware of feelings and feel them more completely. This is an important step since "you cannot heal what you do not feel;"

  • Not withdrawing from life; instead of retreating to an environment secluded from the rest of the world, mindfulness helps us experience our daily lives with moment-to-moment attention;

  • Not seeking bliss: although we may have pleasant states of mind during mindfulness, we learn to arise and pass so that we do not cling to blissful states nor unpleasant ones;

  • Not escaping pain; instead, we expand our capacity to cope with pain. We begin to see that the sensations of pain are distinctly different from suffering, which arises when we resist or try to avoid pain rather than developing moment to moment acceptance.
There are many ways of practicing mindfulness successfully. Please join Ron Siegel and me on Wednesday, April 28 to explore pathways to everyday mindfulness as well as those that can prepare you for success with more formal mindfulness meditation practice.
 
My best wishes,
Maggie
It is my hope that you are interested in hearing from me periodically with news; however, if at any time, you wish to stop receiving emails from me, just send an email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject to [email protected] or use the options at the bottom of this email to instantly unsubscribe.