Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine - Hardcover

Santorelli, Saki

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 060960385X ISBN 13: 9780609603857

Publisher: Harmony, 1999

Synopsis

"Perhaps our real work, whether offering or seeking care, is to recognize that the healing relationship--the field upon which patient and practitioner meet--is, to use the words of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, a 'self-mirroring mystery'--the embodiment of a singular human activity that raises essential questions about self, other, and what it means to heal thy self."        
--Saki Santorelli

Today we are experiencing extraordinary technological advances in the diagnosis and treatment of illness while at the same time learning to take more responsibility for our own health and well-being. In this book, Saki Santorelli, director of the nationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic, explores the ancient roots of medicine, and shows us how to introduce mindfulness into the crucible of the healing relationship, so that both patients and caregivers begin to acknowledge that we are all wounded and we are all whole. His approach revolutionizes the dynamics of the patient/practitioner relationship. In describing the classes at the clinic and the transformation that takes place in this alchemical process, he offers insights and effective methods for cultivating mindfulness in our everyday lives. As he reveals the inner landscape of his own life as a health care professional and we join him and those with whom he works on this journey of human suffering and courage, we become aware of and honor what is darkest and brightest within each one of us.

About this title

From the Publisher

Early one morning I received a call from Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and other wonderful books. He told me that Saki Santorelli, the director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, was just completing a manuscript and Jon had recommended that he send it to me.
        
When it arrived, I was electrified. Several friends came to visit that evening and I couldn't stop talking about how moved I was at the subject matter--introducing mindfulness into medicine--and how beautifully the author wrote. Over the next week I shared a hundred or so pages with several colleagues and was often in touch with the author (I told him I had fallen in love with his manuscript, which is something I rarely do or say) and he would send me faxes saying, "I am savoring these moments."
        
It turned out that in the years since Bill Moyers had featured the clinic in his series, "Healing and the Mind," the program at UMass Medical Center had gone from strength to strength. 1999 would be the twentyfifth anniversary of its founding and there were big plans for a year-long celebration of this triumph. In addition, there were now almost two-hundred-and-fifty affiliated clinics around the country and Saki's teaching schedule in Worcester and other venues encompassed classes for both patients and professionals.
        
Now that the book exists as a book which I can share with the whole world, I am encouraging everyone I know not only to read the book but give a copy to their physician. We're all troubled at what is happening (or not happening) in health care today. Heal Thy Self will go a long way toward healing the division between patients and health care professionals. It is a landmark book which I am proud to have brought to birth.

From the Back Cover

"In prose, poetry, and poignant case examples, Saki evokes for us the mutuality of the healing relationship and reclaims for medicine and all who work within it the wisdom and power of its lineage. Heal Thy Self is a clear mirror in which we can find that freedom which is at the heart of all authentic healing and through it reconsecrate ourselves to our work and to our lives."
--Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

"Saki Santorelli's words have the gentle strength of a bird's wings, beating softly as they gradually bear us aloft. Brave, beautiful, and disturbing, his book reminds us of the healing that conventional Western medicine has all but forgotten. I wish it had been available when I was in medical school."
--Mark Epstein, M. D., author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart

"Rarely does a book speak so eloquently to those of us who struggle with illness in our own lives, as well as to those who join with us in the project of healing. In sharing his involvement in the lives of patients and his own personal journey of mindfulness, Saki Santorelli gives us startling insights into what it means to heal and be healed. This book is a gift that will change your life."
--S. Kay Toombs, Ph.D., author of The Meaning of Illness, associate professor of philosophy, Baylor University

"A simply beautiful book. A full body/mind/heart contact between that which is healing within and that, a bit further in, which promotes that healing. A most necessary book for any medical student or healing library."
--Stephen Levine, author of A Year to Live

"Saki Santorelli shows the fruit of his dedicated effort in presenting mindfulness as not just the stuff of meditation retreats and stress reduction seminars. His accounts of everything from counseling a depressed woman to watching his six-year-old daughter encounter a homeless person bring the reader up against basic truths of our lives. It is honest, clear, and very helpful."
--Sharon Salzberg, author of A Heart as Wide as the World

"This is a remarkable, helpful book. Its genuine and warmhearted teaching gives us a real glimpse of the path of healing. Recommended to everyone, new or old, on the path of life."
--Charlotte Joko Beck, author of Everyday Zen

About this edition

• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 060960385X
• ISBN 13: 9780609603857
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252