“See, each person is the bridge that you are talking about. The approach is there. All the different tools are there. We are saying to people, ‘Here are all the tools. Let’s see which ones work best for you.’ It is not up to me as the leader of the group or the therapist and a psychiatrist in my practice to say, ‘This is the one you have to do.’ My job is to help you see which ones are most helpful to you and to help you to use them in a way that gives you the most benefit—to individualize it within this model.”
– Dr. James Gordon

In today’s times, healing trauma seems to be in all our minds and hearts. While holistic approaches, including mind-body healing approaches, have been used for millennia to foster whole-person health, we’re just becoming more aware scientifically on how these approaches, including meditation, yoga, tai-chi, qigong and energy healing work to foster physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health.

As we dig into the data as well as learn from seasoned clinicians in mental health, we might wonder: are there specific healing approaches for example, that are better for depression, anxiety, or trauma? For those of us who are in healthcare, how do we know what to recommend to our clients?

In this article, The Potential of Mind-Body Self Care to Free the World From the Effects of Trauma, Dr. James Gordon, sheds light on why and how we have tremendous power to free ourselves from the reverberations of trauma, and what we can do when helping others who are suffering from trauma.

 Join Us at the Free Live Webinar with Dr. Gordon

Transforming Trauma:
The Path to Hope and Healing
Friday July 2 at 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

Join us to learn LIVE from Dr. Gordon Friday on July 2nd at 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT on Transforming Trauma. The event is free and afterward, is accessible in perpetuity for CHI Contributors. There will be time to ask Dr. Gordon questions at the end – so please do join us!

Learn More About the Scientist

James S. Gordon, MD, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, is internationally recognized for using self-awareness, self-care, and group support to heal population-wide psychological trauma. He is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., a clinical professor at Georgetown Medical School, and was chairman (under Presidents Clinton and GW Bush) of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

Dr. Gordon’s latest book, Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing, helps us understand that trauma will come sooner or later to all of us. Trauma, he explains, is a human experience, not a pathological anomaly. In The Transformation, he guides us step by step in a comprehensive evidence-based program to reverse the psychological and biological damage that trauma causes. He shows us, drawing on the latest scientific research, 50 years of clinical experience, timeless wisdom, and inspiring life stories, how we can, as we meet the challenges that trauma brings, discover the ordinary joys as well as the meaning and purpose of our lives. We come to know that our broken hearts can open with greater compassion and love.