About this course

Learning Objectives

• Identify five cross-cultural traditions from which bodymind healing traditions in psychotherapy are drawn and describe how they can be applied to psychotherapy.
• Describe three ways that cross cultural traditions can be a useful adjunct to psychotherapeutic methods.
• Name three ethics issues related to the inclusion of Qigong methods in psychotherapy.

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Michael Mayer

  Michael Mayer, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and Qigong/Tai Chi teacher who specializes in giving his patients self-healing methods for health problems. Dr. Mayer presents his approach to bodymind healing at professional conferences, national/international workshops, universities, and hospitals; and he is a keynote speaker. He was a co-founding faculty member of John F. Kennedy University’s Transpersonal Psychology Program; and was a co-founder of, and a staff psychologist for ten years at The Health Medicine Center, a multi-disciplinary medical clinic practicing integrative health-care. Dr Mayer served as the first East Bay Focusing training coordinator for Dr Eugene Gendlin; and he was a clinical supervisor for the East Bay Mindfulness Center. He pioneered the integration of Qigong and psychotherapy, and was the first person in the United States to train doctoral psychology students in these methods. Dr Mayer was a fellow of the American Association for Integrative Medicine, and The American Tai Chi and Qigong Association has certified Michael as a Master Tai Chi Instructor. He is the author of over twenty publications on bodymind healing including six books and various articles. His peer reviewed article on Qigong and hypertension appeared in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine; it was updated in the book Healing, Intention and Energy Medicine, by Dr Wayne Jonas, past director of the National Institute of Health, Office of Alternative Medicine; and it was featured on the website Natural Standard: The Authority on Integrative Medicine. Dr. Mayer has served as a peer reviewer for The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, and Annals of Internal Medicine. His Bodymind Healing Qigong DVD has been used in training of trauma therapists by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Medical Director, The Trauma Center, Boston University School of Medicine. His book, Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy (2007), was released as a trade paperback called Energy Psychology by North Atlantic/Random House, 2009. They have both received endorsements from leaders in mind-body medicine, and from the journal PsycCritiques. His overview article on Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy was included in Holistic Treatment in Mental Health: A Handbook of Practitioners’ Perspectives. Michael's guiding image of "two streams becoming one" guides him as he joins East/West, mind/body, and ancient/modern in his work. www.bodymindhealing.com, www.bodymindhealing-taichiqigong.com

Disclosure

References

• Zhou, J., Wu, B., & Ma, X. (2024). The influence of tai chi on the death anxiety of elderly people living alone: the chain mediating effect of social support and psychological capital. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1303524.
• Dong, Y., Kuang, X., & Zhang, X. (2023). Exploring the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine exercise in alleviating anxiety and depression in older adults: a comprehensive study with randomized controlled trial and network meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1290471.
• Feinstein, D. (2021). Six empirically-supported premises about energy psychology: Mounting evidence for a controversial therapy. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 35(2), 17-32.
• So, W. W. Y., Cai, S., Yau, S. Y., & Tsang, H. W. H. (2019). The neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms of Qigong as a treatment for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 446776.
• Feinstein, D. (2019). Energy psychology: Efficacy, speed, mechanisms. Explore, 15(5), 340-351
• Gerritsen, R. J., & Band, G. P. (2018). Breath of life: the respiratory vagal stimulation model of contemplative activity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 393151.
• Abbott, R., & Lavretsky, H. (2013). Tai Chi and Qigong for the treatment and prevention of mental disorders. The psychiatric clinics of North America, 36(1), 109.
• Bonab, S. B., & Parvaneh, M. (2022, November). The effect of twelve weeks of tai chi exercises on sleep quality, pain perception, and death anxiety in elderly women. In Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique (Vol. 180, No. 9, pp. 905-911). Elsevier Masson.
• Irwin, M. R., Olmstead, R., Carrillo, C., Sadeghi, N., Breen, E. C., Witarama, T., ... & Nicassio, P. (2014). Cognitive behavioral therapy vs. Tai Chi for late life insomnia and inflammatory risk: a randomized controlled comparative efficacy trial. Sleep, 37(9), 1543-1552.
• Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York, 3.
• Reed Gach, M. (1990). Acupressure’s potent points.
• Gendlin, E. T. (1978). Focusing. Everest House Publishers. New York.