Minding the Body: Clinical Uses of Somatic Awareness - Hardcover

'This excellent book offers a sophisticated, clinically oriented look at the mind-body relationship. Bakal succeeds in usefully defining somatic awareness, and convincingly demonstrates the importance of the topic. This book could have a significant effect on psychological and medical practice.' - Charles Swencionis, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine 'At long last, a scholarly book about somatic awareness has been written by a distinguished clinician and researcher. Minding the Body is comprehensive, spanning conventional psychology to energy cardiology. It should be required reading for students in clinical and health psychology, medicine, and nursing, and for all professionals using techniques that involve somatic awarenes.' - Gary E.R. Schwartz, PhD, University of Arizona 'Throughout the text, Bakal weaves the scientific evidence for a gamut of mind-body conditions and constructs it into a tapestry of facts illustrating the importance of somatic awareness on health.' - Canadian Psychology

There is growing scientific evidence that somatic awareness - the ability to perceive, interpret, and act upon the basis of one's own internal bodily sensations--can be a powerful tool in maintaining health and facilitating recovery from illness. This book examines the nature of somatic awareness and evaluates its clinical utility across a wide range of medical conditions, including migraine, unexplained dizziness and shortness of breath, and immune system illnesses such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. Integrating holistic and traditional health care considerations, chapters describe how mental health and medical practitioners can help patients harness the placebo effect and other inner resources for healing.