Saturday March 24, 2007
Belleruth Naparstek
Drs. Bill & Susan Buchholz
Dr. Mimi Guarneri

Sunday March 25, 2007
Carol Ritberger
Eric Pearl
Alberto Villoldo

Necessary Details

Program

Registration

Volunteers

Insight Directory Website

Event Notification Signup

Click for Video of Belleruth Naparstek

Belleruth Naparstek, LISW -
Psychotherapist, author and guided imagery innovator Belleruth Naparstek is the creator of the popular, Time Warner Health Journeys guided imagery audio series. Her first book, Staying Well with Guided Imagery, is a widely used wellness primer. Her second, Your Sixth Sense, has been translated into 8 languages and called one of the most thoughtful and sophisticated looks at intuition in print. Her new book on imagery and posttraumatic stress, Invisible Heroes: Trauma Survivors and How They Heal (Bantam Dell), won the Spirituality & Health Top 50 Books Award and came out in paperback January of 2006.

As Prevention Magazine recently noted, she has been quietly creating an underground revolution among mainstream health and mental health bureaucracies, by persuading institutions like Aetna U.S. Healthcare, the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, The American Red Cross, Kaiser Permanente, GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho Biotech, Blue Shield of California, Roche, Abbott, Amgen, Medical Mutual of Ohio, and nearly 2000 hospitals, mental health centers, social service agencies, health spas and recovery centers to distribute her guided imagery recordings, in several instances free of charge to clients.

In addition, her audio programs have been involved in over two dozen clinical trials, with nearly a dozen studies completed to date. Efficacy has been established for several psychological and medical challenges.

Her website, www.healthjourneys.com is a heavily trafficked mind-body-spirit resource and information center, providing searchable data bases of cutting edge CAM research, programs, practitioners and training, while distributing experiential tapes, CDs, videos, streamed segments and software programs around the U.S. and the English-speaking world (800.800.8661).

Naparstek received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, obtaining her master’s degree in clinical social work in 1967. She maintained her psychotherapy practice for over 30 years and for several years taught graduate students at The Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Earlier in her career, she supervised psychiatry residents at Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School and was Chief of Consultation & Education at the Woodburn Center for Community Mental Health in Fairfax County, VA. She also did a brief stint as a musical comedy actress at Second City and The Tip Top Tap of the Allerton Hotel, and, if pressed, could still locate her Actors Equity card.

March 23rd, Belleruth will present Gifts of the Imagination: Surviving & Thriving beyond Cancer in San Francisco for cancer survivors, their families and friends, and their health care providers. For more information, call Jan Adrian at 1-800-423-9882, click on http://www.healingjourneys.org or email jan@healingjourneys.org

Website: www.healthjourneys.com

3 Principles of Guided Imagery by Belleruth Naparstek

Learn about how guided imagery works because of 3 very simple, common-sense principles at The Heart of Healing Conference, March 24 & 25 in Sacramento, CA.

First Principle: The Mind-Body Connection
First of all, to the body, images created in the mind can be almost as real as actual, external events. The mind doesn't quite get the difference. That's why, when we read a recipe, we start to salivate. The mind is constructing images of the food -- how it looks, tastes and smells; it might even be evoking the sounds of the food cooking or the feel of its texture as it's being chewed. And all the while, the body is thinking "dinner is served", and is responding by generating saliva and appetite.

The mind cues the body especially well if the images evoke sensory memory and fantasy – sights, sounds, smells, feel and taste – and when there is a strong emotional element involved. So, for instance, a strongly evocative image might be remembering the sound and timbre of Daddy's smiling voice, telling you he's proud of you; or the internal bristling of energy all through your body as you realize that you are about to triumph at something… that you are home free… golden.

These sensory images are the true language of the body, the only language it understands, immediately and without question.

Second Principle: The Altered State
Secondly, in the altered state, we're capable of more rapid and intense healing, growth, learning and performance. We are even more intuitive and creative. In this ordinary but profound mind-state, our brainwave activity and our biochemistry shift. Our moods and cognition change. We can do things we couldn't in a normal, waking state – lift a tree that has fallen on a child; write an extraordinarily delicious poem; replace our terror of a surgical procedure with a calming sense of safety and optimism; abate a life-threatening histamine response to a bee sting.

We wander in and out of altered states all through the day, as a matter of course. Sometimes it's not a conscious choice, and we drive past our exit on the highway. At best, the altered state is a state of relaxed focus, a kind of calm but energized alertness, a highly functional form of focused reverie. Attention is concentrated on one thing or on a very narrow band of things.
As this happens, we find we have a heightened sensitivity to the object of our attention, and a decreased awareness of other things going on around us, things we would ordinarily notice. We are so engrossed, we lose track of time or don't hear people talking to us. Or we are so focused on our tennis, we don't realized we were playing on a broken ankle, and the pain isn't perceived until the game is over.

The altered state is the power cell of guided imagery. When we consciously apply it, we have an awesome ally, a prodigious source of internal strength and skill.

Third Principle: Locus of Control
The third principle is often referred to in the medical literature as the "locus of control" factor. When we have a sense of being in control, that, in and of itself, can help us to feel better and do better.

Feeling in control is associated with higher optimism, self esteem, and ability to tolerate pain, ambiguity and stress. Decades of research in ego psychology informs us that we feel better about ourselves and perform better when we have a sense of mastery over the environment. Conversely, a sense of helplessness lowers self-esteem, our ability to cope and our optimism about the future.

Because guided imagery is an entirely internally driven activity, and the user can decide when, where, how and if it is applied, it has the salutary effect of helping us feel we have some control.

So, when you put all this together, you have a technique that generates an altered state, in which the mind is directed toward multi-sensory images that the body perceives as real. This is done exactly when, where and how the user wishes. And that's why it's so effective.

Belleruth’s website has this and more for you to investigate! http://www.healthjourneys.com. Or, you can join Belleruth along with Bill Buchholz, MD, Susan Buchholz, Ph.D., Mimi Guarneri, MD, Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., Carol Ritberger, Ph.D., and Eric Pearl, DC as they clarify: “HOW THEN DO I HEAL?” This 2-day conference includes interactive panel discussions with the master teachers.

© Naparstek 2000?© Staying Well with Guided Imagery, 1994