mind, healing, spirituality, psychosomatic, conference

Mind as Healer, Mind as Destroyer: Psychosomatic Influences on Health

27 August 2010 - 29 August 2010

Venue: Latimer Place, Chesham HP5 1UG (just north west of the M25)

This is the second residential conference in the Body and Beyond series. The conference is focusing on the power of the mind and unconscious to influence health, for better or for worse.

Prof. David Spiegel is coming from the US and will discuss how hypnosis can facilitate cognitive restructuring of problems. Prof. Kavita Vedhara will explain psychoneuroimmunology in the light of her recent research into the diverse ways in which psychological factors influence health and disease outcomes. Prof. Paul Gilbert will share the benefits of developing compassion for oneself and others as a way of calming down our inherent threat system, thus enhancing our sense of well-being. Dr. David Beales will review the evidence for the continuous interconnection between mind and body and the way sustained struggle states in humans create dis-ease. And Dr. Michel Odent will review research on placebo and nocebo responses, showing how expectations and beliefs can on occasion override pharmacological effects.

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THE VENUE: Latimer Place, Chesham, Buckinghamshire

http://www.devere.co.uk/our-locations/latimer-place/gallery.html


Conference Programme

Friday 27th   August

 The evening will begin with a wine reception, followed by dinner. Afterwards David Lorimer will introduce the conference and the speakers.

Saturday 28th August

Prof. David Spiegel, MD - Tranceformations: Hypnosis and Health

Dr. David Spiegel is the Jack, Lulu & Sam Willson Professor in the School of Medicine, Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he has been a member of the academic faculty since 1975.  He is Past President of the American College of Psychiatrists, and is Past President of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.  He has published ten books, 346 scientific journal articles, and 148 book chapters on hypnosis, psychosocial oncology, stress physiology, trauma, and psychotherapy.   His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging, and the Fetzer Institute, among others.  He is winner of 22 awards, including the 2004 Judd Marmor Award from the American Psychiatric Association for biopsychosocial research and the Hilgard Award from the International Society of Hypnosis.  His research on cancer patients was featured in Bill Moyers' Emmy award-winning PBS series, Healing and the Mind.

Hypnosis has been both oversold and underappreciated as a means of enhancing psychological control over somatic processes.  Hypnosis differs from ordinary consciousness in that it is a state of highly focused attention with a reduction in peripheral awareness, usually associated with physical relaxation.  We usually respond to images and manipulate words, while in hypnosis we often respond to words and manipulate images.  This image processing ability allows us to modulate perception, as studies using event-related potentials, MRI and PET illustrate.  The hypnotic ability to modulate perception has clear clinical application in pain control, and can influence other kinds of somatic performance as well, ranging from helping patients through invasive medical procedures to control of irritable bowel symptoms.  Hypnosis can also facilitate cognitive restructuring of problems ranging from habit problems such as smoking to mastering traumatic stressors. 

Prof. Kavita Vedhara - Psychoneuroimmunology: What has Stress Got to Do with It?

Prof. Kavita Vedhara is Professor of Health Psychology at the Institute of Work, Health & Organisations at the University of Nottingham. She did her first degree and PhD in the Department of Psychology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her PhD research was concerned with the role of psychological stress in the progression of HIV infection. In 1998 she was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bristol. In 1999 she joined the MRC’s Health Services Research Collaboration (HSRC) as a Career Track Scientist and was later promoted to a Senior Scientist. During her time with the HSRC she led a behavioural medicine research group which conducted experimental and applied research into the diverse ways psychological factors influence health and disease outcomes and the development of psychological interventions to improve these outcomes.

This presentation will examine evidence relating psychological factors, and psychological distress in particular, to a range of outcomes relevant to our understanding of health and disease. This will include a consideration of whether psychological stress increases the likelihood of contracting a disease and whether psychological factors influence the progression of chronic conditions. In addition, the presentation will consider whether adverse experiences early in life can alter our vulnerability to chronic conditions in adulthood (the so called foetal programming hypothesis). Finally, the presentation will consider whether psychological interventions can be used to promote health and disease outcomes.

Michel Odent, MD - 

The Two-Edged Mind: Placebo and Nocebo Responses

Dr. Michel Odent was in charge of the surgical unit and the maternity unit at the Pithiviers state hospital (1962-1985) and is the founder of the Primal Health Research Centre (London). He introduced in the 1970s the concepts of home-like birthing rooms and birthing pools in maternity hospitals. He is the author of the first article in the medical literature about the use of birthing pools (Lancet 1983), of the first article about the initiation of lactation during the hour following birth, and of the first article applying the ‘Gate Control Theory of Pain’ to obstetrics. He created the Primal Health Research database (www.primalhealthresearch.com) and the website www.wombecology.com.   He is the author of 12 books published in 22 languages.

Although the placebo effect has been widely explored and discussed for more than half a century, there is still no agreement regarding its actual efficacy. While some emphasise the healing power of trust associated with medical treatments, others think that the prescription of a treatment considered neutral simply makes the ‘patient’ more ‘patient’ during the natural progression of the healing process (point of view already expressed by Voltaire: ‘The role of the doctor is to distract the patient while Nature is curing the disease’). In order to enlarge the debate we’ll look at the ‘nocebo effect’ as the opposite of the placebo effect. An accumulation of recent data suggests that human health is to a great extent shaped in the womb and that the emotional state of a pregnant woman is a factor influencing foetal growth and  development. This is why we’ll focus on the possible nocebo effect of prenatal care... an important topic in the age of medicalised pregnancies.

 


Sunday 29th August

Prof. Paul Gilbert - 

Expressing the Compassionate Mind: Peace, Kindness and our Threat-Response System

 

Prof. Paul Gilbert is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and Consultant Psychologist at Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust. He has a visiting Professorship at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Coimbria (Portugal).  He has authored over 100 academic papers and book chapters’ and authored/edited 16 books. He has researched and written extensively in the areas of mood disorder, social anxiety and psychosis. His Overcoming Depression self-help book is now a book on prescription scheme in General Practice. 20 years ago he began to explore the value of developing compassion, especially self compassion, for people from troubled backgrounds, who have high shame and self-criticism. With his patients, and from a variety of influences from standard psychotherapies, Buddhism and other compassion focused practices he has developed an approach to therapy called Compassion Focused Therapy. To help advance compassionate approaches to psychological and other human problems he established a charity call the compassionate mind foundation. www.compassionatemind.co.uk. His most recent book is The Compassionate Mind.

Compassion and particularly compassion towards oneself can have a significant impact on our wellbeing and mental health. Developing our sense of compassion can affect many areas of our lives, in particular our relationships with other people. Professor Paul Gilbert will explore how our minds have developed to survive in dangerous and threatening environments by becoming sensitive and quick to react to perceived threats. This can sometimes lead to problems in how we respond to life’s challenges and scientific evidence has demonstrated that compassion and kindness towards oneself and others can lead to an increased sense of happiness and wellbeing - particularly valuable when we are feeling stressed.

Dr. David Beales - 

Body-mind as Healer or Destroyer of Spiritual Ease, Well-being and Health

 

Dr. David Beales FRCP, MRCGP is a practising physician and previous full time general practitioner within the NHS. He specialises mind-body medicine as clinician, educator, and researcher.  His focus is on promoting the benefits of behavioural physiology in health care. In Cirencester he established a preventative programme for older people, using trained volunteers, called Stay Well 75 plus: www.staywell75.    He became Chief Medical Officer to the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in 2000. He is passionate about mind-body medicine and works with people to restore self-regulation using mindfulness, capnography and heart rate variability.  He has taught in the mind-body series at the Tavistock Clinic and the whole person medicine course to medical students at Bristol and the University of Westminster. His joint authored book with Helen Whitten Emotional Healing is published in December 2009.  He enjoys walking, playing tennis, making pots, laughter and an enjoyable life.

David Beales will review the evidence for the continuous interconnection between mind and body and the way sustained struggle states in humans create dis-ease. Evidence will be presented that emotions  held in body-mind when not resolved and/or expressed in words remain trapped within the limbic system. The result is the subsequent dys-regulation of breath  which becomes over breathing, autonomic nervous system dys-function with an inequality between drive and relaxation. Body and mind protest and measurable changes in physiology with dis-ease and sometimes disease result. Using research evidence and illustrative case histories David will present explanations for the rise in medically unexplained and functional dis-ease as well as the increasing co-morbidities that accompany serious disease such as coronary artery disease and cancer. If we learn to respond to adversity  mindfully then, paraphrasing the words of Yogananda ‘ Man by his thoughts and actions  becomes the arbiter of his destiny.’ Mind can be healer or destroyer of our spiritual peace, wellbeing and health.

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Chairs:

David Lorimer

David Lorimer  is Programme  Director of  the Scientific and Medical Network and Vice-President of Wrekin Trust. He is editor of The Spirit of Science, Thinking Beyond the Brain and Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality. His book on the Prince of Wales’s philosophy and work – Radical Prince -  has been translated into French, Spanish and Dutch.

Peter Fenwick

Peter was educated at Trinity College Cambridge where he obtained an Honours Degree in Natural Science. His clinical medical training was carried out at St Thomas's Hospital in London. After obtaining experience in neurosurgery he specialised in psychiatry. He is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Consultant Neurophysiologist at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, and Honorary Consultant in Neurophysiology to Broadmoor Special Hospital. He has published numerous scientific papers on brain function and also several papers on meditation and altered states of consciousness.

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