On Wednesday, June 23, 2010 from 8:00 -9:00 PM Pacific Time, Dr. John Deri, a Psychiatrist in Mill Valley, CA will share his Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body with Brant Secunda and Mark Allen.

Mark Allen, a six-time Ironman World Champion and Brant Secunda, a Shaman and healer published a book “Fit Soul, Fit Body”.  During the Radio show they will discuss how we can become truly fit from the inside out and experience joy, happiness, and fulfillment like never before.

Mark and Brant know how to get people into the best shape of their lives- both mentally and physically. They have been motivating and inspiring people for decades. Brant and Mark continue to work together at events and retreats teaching a unique roadmap for fostering optimal health, happiness, and wellbeing.  Many people around the world learn from them how to live a healthy life filled with lasting joy, happiness, and contentment.

During the show they will discuss:

➢    Fitness is not just for elite athletes, or even for people who regularly work out. It starts with emotional and spiritual wellbeing, which provide the foundation for attaining a fit body.

➢    How you can improve your diet, fitness, and strength, and find a renewed connection with the environment and the natural world.

➢    When you learn to manage stress successfully, to replace negative qualities with positive ones, and to make a spiritual connection to both your inner and outer environment, you begin to trust in life.

➢    How anything is possible when you discover the power to heal.

Brant Secunda is a shaman, healer and ceremonial leader in the Huichol Indian tradition of Mexico. He completed a twelve-year apprenticeship with Don José Matsuwa, the renowned Huichol Shaman who lived to be 110 years old and who adopted Brant as his grandson. Alongside other dignitaries including President Jimmy Carter, Brant cofounded the Peace University in Berlin, and is a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild.

Mark Allen is a six-time Ironman World Champion. He has been called “The World’s Fittest Man” by Outside magazine and “The Greatest Triathlete of All Time” by Triathlete magazine. He attributes his success to his ongoing studies with Brant Secunda, who showed him how to find fitness not only in physical strength but in the power of personal spirit and balanced living.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri
Psychiatrist, Mill Valley, CA

http://www.JohnDeriMd.com

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic of the episode will be: Marriage as a Path to Enlightenment

In this week’s episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss marriage as a pathway to individuation.

He will utilize “Marriage: Dead or Alive,” by Jungian analyst Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig, as a springboard for this discussion.

Dr. Deri will then delineate correspondences between this Jungian view of marriage and Miranda Shaw’s “Passionate Enlightenment,” a consideration of intimacy as a path to Enlightenment, from a Tantric Buddhist perspective.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Thus wrote Claude Levi-Strauss, the French anthropologist.  Levi-Strauss, like Carl Jung, was intrigued by pairs of opposites.

I have been reflecting on this particular pair of opposites, listening and speaking, in the context of psychotherapy.  I have come to think of listening and speaking as representing the yin and the yang of the healing process.

The Yin and the Yang of Healing

From a Taoist perspective, yin energy is associated symbolically with the feminine, yang with the masculine.  These energies are not, however, linked with gender.  We all embody the potential for both yin and yang poles of energy.

Yin energy in therapy is manifested through phenomena including listening, empathy and nurturance, as well as through a metaphoric “holding space” for the other.

Yang energy may be expressed through speaking, interpretation, emphatic engagement or confrontation.

Both patient and therapist must develop a full range of these capacities.  The process of healing is catalyzed by a creative dance between these polar energies.  Both therapist and patient need to cultivate their respective abilities to speak freely and to listen fully.  Each must be able to listen to herself as well as to the other.

The Role of Early Life Trauma

The reason why listening and speaking are healing can be understood against the backdrop of early life trauma.  The traumatized child goes unheard.  Neither parent has the wherewithal or the willingness to listen to the child.  As a consequence, the child comes to feel alone, uncared for, disconnected and afraid.  Moreover, such a child is liable to grow up as an adult who is wary of closeness to others.  Such an individual is prone to seek social isolation.

Wilfred Bion, a British psychoanalyst, in his paper “Attacks on Linking,” put forth the premise that such a child is deprived of a primary experience of emotional bonding or “linkage,” with either parent.  This absence breeds in the child an experience of sadness, a sense of futility and ultimately of rage.  The child’s rage has the potential to generalize into an unconscious hatred of all “linkages”: between the child and another human being, between thought and feeling, between the child and himself, and ultimately between the child and reality.  Such broken or unconsummated linkages are the substrate for unspeakable suffering.

The Alchemy of Healing

Through reciprocal speaking and listening within the therapeutic relationship, emotionally meaningful linkages are formed.  The patient’s capacity to achieve emotional connection with the self and with the other is enhanced.  Dissociation between thoughts and feelings, between feelings and images, is transformed into integration.

Through integration of split off parts of the self, healing occurs.  Through relatedness with self and others, the full potential of the patient blossoms and flourishes.

These transformational processes are always reciprocal, between patient and therapist.  Witnessing and participating in this alchemy of healing is deeply moving.  Such participation is the central calling of my life.

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM PDT.

The topic will be:  How to Stay Calm in an Age of Anxiety. It will be a rerun of a recorded episode.

We are currently living in the midst of an age of anxiety. Economic uncertainty is high. Change and dislocation are rampant. Anxiety is a natural human response to these conditions.

During the show Dr. Deri will share:

• Why “healthy anxiety” can help you to move forward in your life
• How to identify when anxiety overwhelms and paralyzes us
• The long term mental and physical consequences of anxiety and stress
• Five steps to implement that will help you to reduce anxiety and reach peace and calmness. Spiritual dimensions of overcoming anxiety will be highlighted.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

The topic will be:  The Shadow Side of Human Nature. It will be a rerun of a recorded episode.

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” (Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, p.131). All too often, we turn a blind eye to the shadow side of human nature. It is only with an enormous effort that we can acknowledge this side of ourselves. In the context of trauma, we invariably have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. If such a person wants to be cured, it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together.

During the show Dr. John Deri will share with us:

➢    Why we turn a blind eye to our shadow side

➢    How we become aware of our shadow side

➢    How to integrate our shadow side.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

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Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 from 8-8:30 PM PDT.

The topic of the episode will be:  How Does Psychotherapy Heal?

Psychotherapy is a wellspring for new beginnings. At the beginning of a lifetime, the infant forms its first relationship with its mother. The quality of this first human bond will profoundly influence the nature of the child’s subsequent relationships.  This assertion is a central tenet of the school of psychology known as attachment theory.

During the Blog Talk Radio Show Dr. Deri will discuss:

(1) The four distinct patterns of attachment:  secure, anxious, avoidant and disorganized.

(2) The effect of an infant’s mode of attachment to its mother on the quality of that individual’s subsequent relationships.

(3) How trauma and neglect lead to disturbances in attachment.

(4) How the mother’s own early life attachment history serves as a medium for the transgenerational transmission of trauma.

(5) How does psychotherapy heal?  

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

At the beginning of a lifetime, the infant forms its first relationship with its mother.  The quality of this initial human bond will profoundly influence the nature of the child’s subsequent relationships.

This assertion is a central tenet of the school of psychology known as attachment theory.  This theory was formulated by John Bowlby, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Subsequent observational research on infants and mothers established four distinct patterns of attachment:  secure, anxious, avoidant and disorganized.  Long term follow up study of these infants validated the predictive value of their mode of attachment to their mothers, with regard to the quality of their relationships in later life.

Trauma and neglect are the two most powerful forces leading to disturbances in attachment.  Another significant determinant of the infant’s mode of attachment is the mother’s own early life attachment history.  This influence undoubtedly accounts for a great deal of transgenerational transmission of trauma.

Environmental influences, however important, are never the whole story, where human development is concerned.  Genetic factors may render an infant more or less vulnerable to the effects of early parenting.

Most people seek psychotherapy due to suffering caused by their relationships with others, and/or with themselves.  The most important healing influence in psychotherapy is the experience of a healthy, trusting relationship.  This environment provides the patient with a “secure base”.  This safe haven offers the freedom and engenders the courage for a person to explore and to expand the realms of relationships with others and with the self.  The medium of this secure base is the emotional bond between patient and therapist.  In therapy as in life, people don’t care what you know unless they first know that you care.

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 from 8-8:30 PM PDT.

The topic of the episode will be:  Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal affective disorder (also called S.A.D or Winter Depression) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year.  Some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change.  If you are like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months. It affects many of us during the short winter days and long winter nights.

Nearly everyone gets the winter blues at some time or another, but for some, they are actually a serious medical disorder.  Seasonal affective disorder can lead to sadness, lack of interest, withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities, lack of energy and overall depression. With the right treatment options you can combat these symptoms.

During the  Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body, Dr. John Deri will discuss:

➢    The definition of seasonal affective disorder

➢    The symptoms of seasonal affective disorder

➢    The causes of seasonal affective disorder

➢    Seasonal affective disorder treatment options

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

“If you have zest and enthusiasm, you attract zest and enthusiasm.  Life does give back in kind.”

Our most characteristic moods are a residue of our early life experience.  People who experienced abuse, neglect or emotional deprivation tend to be sad and in low spirits.  This low energy vibration will tend to attract others who themselves are vibrating at the same low frequency.  As a result, our early life experience is perpetuated in present time.  We take these conditions to be “reality”.  The world seems to be populated by wounded, downbeat needy people.

Living in such a world is demoralizing.  Life becomes “stale, flat and unprofitable.”  Under such conditions suicide may become an increasingly compelling option.

It is vitally important to recognize that the outer world is nothing other than the projection of our own mind.  “Reality” is a highly subjective construction, “like a dream, like an illusion” (Milarepa 11th Century Tibetan Yogi).  Once we grasp this truth we can change our world by transforming our mind.

How to Transform Your Mind

1.    First, you must become aware of your current state of mind.  Keep a journal of your recurring thoughts and feelings.

2.    As you identify characteristic negative thoughts, train yourself to “stop!” every time you notice such a thought occurring in your mind stream.  Replace the negative thought with a positive thought, or affirmation (self statement).

3.    Look at yourself in a mirror.  Do you see a scowling face looking back at you?  Make a conscious effort to change your facial expressions.  Make it a practice to smile at people.  You will be amazed at how powerfully a smile evokes a responsive smile from others.

4.    Open your heart.  Make genuine positive emotional connections with as many people as possible.  Raise your emotional state from sullenness to love and compassion.  You will be responded to in kind.

5.    For those of you who are open to visualization, try the following experiment:

Visualize your crown chakra* (at the crown of your head) glowing at a bright, gold color.  This corresponds to the highest frequency of emotional vibration.   With practice, you can learn to transform yourself and your experience using this technique.

If life is “like a dream,” make it a happy one!  Learn how to liberate yourself from the nightmare of bitterness and sorrow.

Please feel free to let me know how you are doing.  If you need some help along the way, I would be delighted to assist you.

*Chakras are energy centers. They are considered to be the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. Seven major chakras or energy centers are generally believed to exist, located within the subtle body.

On Wednesday, December 2, 2009 from 8-9 PM PDT, Dr. John Deri, a Psychiatrist in Mill Valley, CA will share his Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body with Brant Secunda and Mark Allen.

Mark Allen, a six-time Ironman World Champion and Brant Secunda, a Shaman and healer published a book “Fit Soul, Fit Body”.  During the Radio show they will discuss how we can become truly fit from the inside out and experience joy, happiness, and fulfillment like never before.

Mark and Brant know how to get people into the best shape of their lives- both mentally and physically. They have been motivating and inspiring people for decades. Brant and Mark continue to work together at events and retreats teaching a unique roadmap for fostering optimal health, happiness, and wellbeing.  Many people around the world learn from them how to live a healthy life filled with lasting joy, happiness, and contentment.

During the show they will discuss:

➢    Fitness is not just for elite athletes, or even for people who regularly work out. It starts with emotional and spiritual wellbeing, which provide the foundation for attaining a fit body.

➢    How you can improve your diet, fitness, and strength, and find a renewed connection with the environment and the natural world.

➢    When you learn to manage stress successfully, to replace negative qualities with positive ones, and to make a spiritual connection to both your inner and outer environment, you begin to trust in life.

➢    How anything is possible when you discover the power to heal.

Brant Secunda is a shaman, healer and ceremonial leader in the Huichol Indian tradition of Mexico. He completed a twelve-year apprenticeship with Don José Matsuwa, the renowned Huichol Shaman who lived to be 110 years old and who adopted Brant as his grandson. Alongside other dignitaries including President Jimmy Carter, Brant cofounded the Peace University in Berlin, and is a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild.

Mark Allen is a six-time Ironman World Champion. He has been called “The World’s Fittest Man” by Outside magazine and “The Greatest Triathlete of All Time” by Triathlete magazine. He attributes his success to his ongoing studies with Brant Secunda, who showed him how to find fitness not only in physical strength but in the power of personal spirit and balanced living.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri
Psychiatrist, Mill Valley, CA

http://www.JohnDeriMd.com