Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Review

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(More customer reviews)As a psychotherapist for 30 years and a mindfulness practitioner for nearly 10 years, I have read a lot of good books and articles on both subjects. "Mindfulness and Psychotherapy" is as clear and helpful in both disiplines as any I have encounted. The editors have done a 'mindful' job in selecting from an array of perspectives. Mindfulness is defined and contextualized for our western psychotherapeutic practice, while also placed in an historical and cultural framwork that informs and enlightens our understanding. Indeed the more philosophical essays are perhaps the strongest pieces in this marvelous compendium. We are reminded that the Buddah saw himself as a physician who sought to diagnose and find a cure for human suffering. Out of his own intimate encounter with suffering, he devised and revised a program that we in western psychological science are just now testing and finding curative-both for our clients and for ourselves.
There is much here to be considered by all schools of psychotherapy. Paul Fulton presents an intriguing chapter on Mindfulness as Clinical Training. There are concise chapters on teaching mindfulness skills to clients (even children)with varying disorders, including panic,anxiety, depression, and psychophysiological problems. There is a comprehensive while managable 'Resources for the Clinician" appendix.
Andrew Olendzki deserves special mention for his piece on "The Roots of Mindfulness." I had to stop highlighting as each page was yellowed with brightness.
If you are a psychotherapist, a meditator, or thinking of practicing either, you will do well to read this wonderful book.

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Responding to growing interest among psychotherapists of all theoretical orientations, this practical book provides a comprehensive introduction to mindfulness and its clinical applications. The authors, who have been practicing both mindfulness and psychotherapy for decades, present a range of clear-cut procedures for implementing mindfulness techniques and teaching them to patients experiencing depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and other problems. Also addressed are ways that mindfulness practices can increase acceptance and empathy in the therapeutic relationship. The book reviews the philosophical underpinnings of mindfulness and presents compelling empirical findings. User-friendly features include illustrative case examples, practice exercises, and resource listings.

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Attentional Processing: The Brain's Art of Mindfulness (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book combines neurology, congnitive psychology, and cognitive science, with a bit of philosophy, to efectively explain how the brain attends. LaBerge starts with conceptual issues, and describes experiments on attention that reveal the structure of preparatory and selective attention. Attention, LaBerge notes, can be implemented by various algorithms. A stimulus can be enhanced, its surround (and therefore distractors) can be inhibited, or bothe can take place at the same time. He also makes the useful distinction between preparation and expectation. Expectation involves working memory while preparation involves actual activity in cortical sites that will code for a expected stimulus. After this is done, he presents evidence of modulation by attention in cortical activity. Finally, he shows how two subcortical structures, more importantly the thalamus, implements tha algorithms for attention. The thalamus then acts as a filter, enhancing the processing of a target, so that it can be attended to. This, is an oversimplification, however. LaBerge considers various cortical areas and their relevance for attention, and concludes that attention emerges form distribuited activity in the brain, and cannot be centered to one mechanism only.
The theory does of conurse require some polishing. Also, the main evidence in favour of his attentional mode in the book, comes from a modeling study. More positive evidence would be required, but I'm certain the relevant work has been done science the book was published. Imaging studies, as well as recording studies give good reason to accept the model.

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In the past two decades, the familiar experience of attention--the emphasis on a particular mental activity so that it "fills the mind"--has been subjected to much scientific inquiry. David LaBerge now provides a systematic view of the attention process as it occurs in everyday perception, thinking, and action. Drawing from a variety of research methods and findings from cognitive psychology, neurobiology, and computer science, he presents a masterful synthesis of what is understood about attentional processing.

LaBerge explores how we are able to restrict the input of extraneous and confusing information, or prepare to process a future stimulus, in order to take effective action. As well as describing the pathways in the cortex presumed to be involved in attentional processing, he examines the hypothesis that two subcortical structures, the superior colliculus and the thalamus, contain circuit mechanisms that embody an algorithm of attention. In addition, he takes us through various ways of posing the problem, from an information-processing description of how attention works to a consideration of some of the cognitive and behavioral consequences of the brain's computations, such as desiring, judging, imaging, and remembering.

Attentional Processing is a highly sophisticated integration of contributions from several fields of neuroscience. It brings together the latest efforts to solve the puzzle of attention: how it works, how it is modulated, what its benefits are, and how it is expressed in the brain.

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Chan Mi Gong: Chinese Meditation for Health Review

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(More customer reviews)This little 73 page book packs quite a qigong punch. A unique standing form, emphasizng flexing the verterbrae of the spine through swaying, twisting and moving front to back. Coupled with some mind work it produces a lot of chi and and a profound sense of relaxation.Once the Chi is created, the author has you do "wisdom work". moving the chi out into the universe and back, a very intriguing spiritual component to the form.

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An illustrated manual for learning qigong, a popular form of standing meditation in mainland China which helps regulate body metabolism, promote health, prevent illness and bring forth latent abilities.

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Qi Gong Therapy: The Chinese Art of Healing With Energy Review

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(More customer reviews)Master Tzu Kuo Shih has put together a very good book for anyone who is new to qi gong. The book does not demonstrate any physical techniques, rather it lays the foundation for why qi gong works the way it does. This book is a must for any one who is interested in the origins of qigong in regards to traditional chinese medicine. Book is more TCM based than martial art based.

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Written for therapists and healers as well as the lay enthusiast, this practical guide explicitly presents essential qi gong methods and styles of practice, and provides an informed overview of the energetic principles on which this therapy is based. Photographs; drawings; notes.

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