Breath Therapy | HealMind Body Medicine, MindyBody Medicine Center

Ronald Peters, MD, MPH
Integrative Medicine

Nancy Brem, L.AC.
Acupuncture

Tammy Leiner
Thermography

Colleen Dugie, LMT
Integrative Massage

Vensa Cupara-Peters
Macrobiotics

Mind And Body > Relaxation Therapy

What's New

Harmonic Medicine and Acupuncture create profound state of healing relaxation

MindBody Medicine Center is pleased to announce the addition of Sunanda Harrell-Stokes to the staff. Sunanda is a licensed acupuncturist with training in Harmonic Medicine from Kairos Institute of Sound Healing in New Mexico and Keilchiro Kita in Tokyo, Japan. She is one of only three practitioners in the USA certified in Kita Peace Creating Sound Healing.

Her unique treatments combine the ancient science of acupuncture with advanced harmonic therapies to create a profound healing state with mind and body. Healing depends on activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which is usually decreased by the stress of modern living. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to help us escape “danger”. For most of us the “dangers” are mostly imaginary but the body believes your thoughts and prepares yo for “fight or flight”. Healing for any disease depends on increasing PNS and decreasing SNS. Sunanada’s treatments will give you an experience of the powerful healing state in mind and body.

Progressive Relaxation is common approach in relaxation training. In this technique the body itself is used as the focus of attention. The technique involves progressing through the body one muscle group at a time, beginning with the feet, moving up the legs, and so on, spending approximately a minute in each area. For each muscle group, you hold or clench the muscles in the area for a count of ten and then release for a count of ten before moving on to the adjacent area.
This is by far the most widely studied subject in this tradition with hundreds of studies documenting its benefits. A few examples:

Patients with ischemic heart disease who practiced the relaxation response daily for four weeks achieved significant reduction in the frequency of preventricular contractions.
Patients with hypertension who took an eight-week (once a week) training program achieved significantly lower blood pressure and the benefits were maintained three years later.
Patients receiving several kinds of elective surgery who were trained in relaxation had less surgical anxiety both before and after surgery. The intensity of their pain and their use of pain medication were both reduced.
Also, a study of patients receiving angioplasty procedures showed significantly less anxiety, pain, and need for medication. In patients receiving heart surgery, those who received the training had significantly lower incidence of postoperative supraventricular tachycardia.
A controlled study of women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) using the relaxation response twice daily for three months found a 58-percent reduction in the severity of their symptoms.
Two studies found increased NK cell activity as a result of practicing the relaxation response. One, involving geriatric residents in nursing homes, also found indications of lower activity of herpes viruses. In addition, there were significant reductions in symptoms of emotional distress.

Finally, in a study of exam stress in medical students, the more they practiced the relaxation response, the higher the percentage of T-helper cells circulating in their blood.

Healing is found naturally within the wisdom of your body and the power of your mind.