Transforming Clinical Practice Using the MindBody Approach

This book assumes that it is no longer tenable to work in healthcare without considering the person as a whole being constituted by a rich weaving of mind, body, culture, family, spirit and ecology. The MindBody approach embraces this 'whole.' But how does it transform clinical practice and training for the clinician and treatment for the patient/client? The book collects together the experiences from a diverse range of clinical practitioners (including psychotherapy, specialist medicine, general practice, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, , nursing, and complementary and alternative medicine practitioners) who have deliberately chosen to integrate a MindBody philosophy and skill set in their clinical practices. All reflect deeply on their unique journeys in transforming their clinical encounters. Most have been trained in the dominant Western framework and have inherited the classical dualistic approach which typically keeps mind and body apart. This dualistic clinical ethos values clinician expertise, labeling, diagnosis, measurement, and grouped phenomena. The MindBody approach retains the best of the classical model as well as valuing personal experience, patient/client story, the unique patterning of the individual's illness and disease, and the healing elements of the relationship between the clinician and the patient/client. The MindBody transformation of the clinician is a challenging journey, and each clinician experiences this uniquely. From these stories the reader can see vividly the ways in which conventional healthcare can break out of its current restrictive paradigm creating new satisfaction for the clinicians and much wider treatment outcomes for patients and clients.