12 Stages of Healing or Warning

12 Stages of Healing: A Network Approach to Wholeness

Author: Donald M Epstein

The Twelve Stages of Healing offers us fascinating insights into the complex relationship between mind, emotions, and body, and shows us how we can use these insights to promote greater health in our bodies and harmony in our relationships.

After observing thousands of people in both private practice and public seminars, Dr. Epstein discovered twelve basic rhythms, or stages of consiciousness, shared by all humanity. Each stage of healing has a distinct "rite of passage" -- a chaotic experience or healing crisis-- that healps us to reunite with aspects of ourselves that are traumatized, alienated, forgotten, abused, shamed, or unforgiven. Each stage also has a charcteristic pattern of breath, movement, and touch that can help us to reconnect with the natural, internal rhythms of our body and experience a greater sense of joy and well-being.

The Twelve Stages of Healing takes us beyond traditional books on healing as it gently guides us through the lessons of each stage on a journey toward greater wholeness, spiritual awareness, and true healing in all areas of our life.

Library Journal

Epstein, a chiropractor for over 20 years who combines traditional chiropractic services with new mind/body principles, here describes how to progress successfully through 12 stages of consciousness. The healing practices he describes include suffering through ascent, concluding with spiritual knowing, and a sense of integration with oneself and the general community. Each chapter concludes with a special breathing exercise and affirmation for that stage of healing. Of course, Epstein allows for the "backsliders" and sadly reports that most people remain in stages 1 or 2 throughout their lives. (Part of the process, Epstein acknowledges, is seeking professional help along the healing path when necessary.) With the flourishing of authors like Bernie Siegel, Dean Ornish, and Deepak Chopra, this title will do well in public libraries with a demand for popular medical information.-Lisa Wise, Univ. of Southern Colorado, Pueblo

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Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health

Author: William Glasser

How psychopharmacology has usurped the role of psychotherapy in our society, to the great detriment of the patients involved.

William Glasser describes in Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health the sea change that has taken place in the treatment of mental health in the last few years. Millions of patients are now routinely being given prescriptions for a wide range of drugs including Ritalin, Prosac, Zoloft and related drugs which can be harmful to the brain. A previous generation of patients would have had a course of psychotherapy without brain–damaging chemicals. Glasser explains the wide implications of this radical change in treatment and what can be done to counter it.

Publishers Weekly

Swimming against what he sees as the tide of prescriptions written for antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac, psychiatrist Glasser (Choice Theory) argues that these drugs can do more harm than good. He asserts that there has been some scientifically sound psychiatric research that suggests the drugs can damage mental health and even the brain itself. Through selective case studies and extrapolation of evidence, the author urges readers to think twice before accepting "brain drugs"; he states that the effectiveness of certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors has been exaggerated by the drug companies. To his credit, Glasser does offer several practical alternatives for patients. But he seems to cherish his outsider status and questions the way psychiatry is practiced today. Group therapy transcripts and case studies constitute the bulk of his case, and chapters like "Luck, Intimacy, and Our Quality World" and "We Have Learned to Destroy Our Own Happiness" are designed to help the reader understand symptoms. Some of the anecdotes are compelling, and individuals seeking alternatives to drug treatments may benefit. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Psychiatrist Glasser (Reality Therapy; Choice Theory) condemns psychiatry as a profession dominated by pharmaceutical money and managed-care values. He considers mental illness to be a fiction (after Thomas Szasz), attributing conditions from depression to schizophrenia to unhappiness and the choices people make. Drugs mostly do harm and should be avoided. Psychiatrists often lock people up and medicate them by force if they resist. This is a cuckoo's nest treatment of issues much better handled in other recent books, notably Out of Its Mind by J.A. Hobson and J. Leonard. Glasser's self-assurance and self-promotion are of a piece: this reads like a long commercial for his Choice Theory Focus Sessions. Some of it is commonsensical and even creative, but it reads like a watered-down version of Otto Rank's will therapy. Libraries meeting demands for popular self-help books will need a copy, though.-E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
1	Who Am I, Who Are You, and What Is Mental Health?	1
2	The Difference between Physical Health and Mental Health	12
3	Unhappiness Is the Cause of Your Symptoms	38
4	The First Choice Theory Focus Group Session: Choosing Your Symptoms	45
5	We Have Learned to Destroy Our Own Happiness	62
6	Introducing External Control Psychology and Choice Theory	72
7	The Third Choice Theory Focus Group Session - Joan, Barry, and Roger	87
8	The Role of Our Genes in Our Mental Health	94
9	How Can You Say That We Choose Our Symptoms?	105
10	The Fourth Choice Theory Focus Group Session	128
11	Luck, Intimacy, and Our Quality World	145
12	The Fifth Choice Theory Focus Group Session	163
13	Important Material from Al Siebert, Ph.D., and Anthony Black	178
14	You Have Finished the Book, Now What?	215
	Appendix	229
	Index	239