Retired surgeon and mind-body pioneer
Topics treated: The Wisdom of the Body (Understanding Cancer Patients through Their Drawings); There is HOPE (Cancer program)
Bernie Siegel is a retired surgeon, a mind-body pioneer and is the author of several best selling books, including Love, Medicine and Miracles, Prescriptions for Living, and 101 Exercises for the Soul.
Dr. Siegel is also a world-renowned health educator, a dedicated patient advocate, and the founder of the nonprofit organization ECap, which stands for Exceptional Cancer Patients.
Excerpts from Love, Medicine and Miracles:
Patients who expressed their anger, depression and who were considered difficult outlasted the ones who didn’t.
Unexpressed feelings depress your immune response.
People heal doing something they believe in.
The so called “problem patient” is also the rapid healer. The long-term survivors love, forgive and accept.
The four faiths necessary for recovery:
Faith in one’s self, one’s doctor, one’s treatment, and one’s God.
Unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system.
Aggressive “bad” patients tend to have more killer T cells than docile good patients.
Becoming your own person develops your own creativity.
It is my fervent belief, that showing how the mind and spirit can heal the body can make life worthwhile.
If you teach people how to live, they don’t have trouble dying…literally. Disease and The mind:
The extent to which we love ourselves determines whether we eat right, get enough sleep, smoke, wear seat belts, exercise and so on. Each of these choices is a statement about how much we love living . These decisions control about 90 percent of the factors that determine our state of health.
The trouble is that most people’s motivation to attend to these basics is deflected by attitudes hidden from every day awareness. As a result, many of us have mixed intentions.
We don’t yet understand all the ways how brain chemicals are related to our emotions and thoughts. The salient point is that our state of mind has an immediate and direct effect on our state of body. We can change the body by dealing with how we feel.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY of BERNARD S. SIEGEL, MD
Dr. Siegel, who prefers to be called Bernie, not Dr. Siegel, was born in Brooklyn, NY. He attended Colgate University and Cornell University Medical College. He holds membership in two scholastic honor societies, Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha and graduated with honors. His surgical training took place at Yale New Haven Hospital, West Haven Veteran’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He retired from practice as an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Yale of general and pediatric surgery in 1989 to speak to patients and their caregivers.
In 1978 he originated Exceptional Cancer Patients, a specific form of individual and group therapy utilizing patients’ drawings, dreams, images and feelings. ECaP is based on “carefrontation,” a safe, loving therapeutic confrontation, which facilitates personal lifestyle changes, personal empowerment and healing of the individual’s life. The physical, spiritual and psychological benefits which followed led to his desire to make everyone aware of his or her healing potential. He realized exceptional behavior is what we are all capable of.
Bernie, and his wife and coworker Bobbie, live in a suburb of New Haven , Connecticut. They have five children and eight grandchildren. Bernie and Bobbie have co-authored their children, books and articles. Their home with its many children, pets and interests resembled a cross between a family art gallery, museum, zoo and automobile repair shop. It still resembles these things, although the children are trying to improve its appearance in order to avoid embarrassment.
In 1986 his first book, Love. Medicine & Miracles was published. This event redirected his life. In 1989 Peace, Love & Healing and in 1993 How To Live Between Office Visits followed. He is currently working on other books with the goal of humanizing medical education and medical care, as well as, empowering patients and teaching survival behavior to enhance immune system competency. Bernie’s realization that we all need help dealing with the difficulties of life, not just the physical ones, led to Bernie writing his fourth book in 1998 Prescriptions for Living. It helps people to become aware of the eternal truths and wisdom of the sages through Bernie’s stories and insights rather than wait a personal disaster. He wants to help people fix their lives before they are broken, and thus not have to become strong at the broken places. Published in 2003 are Help Me To Heal to empower patients and their caregivers and 365 PrescriptionsForThe Soul, in 2004 a children’s book about how difficulties can become blessings, SmudgeBunny, in 2005 101 Exercises For The Soul and out in the Fall of 2006 a prescriptions for parenting book Love, Magic & Mud Pies.
Woody Allen once said, “If I had one wish it would be to be somebody else.” Bernie’s wish was to be a few inches taller. His work has been such a growth experience that he is now a few inches taller. His prediction is that in the next decade the role of consciousness, spirituality, non-local healing, body memory and heart energy will all be explored as scientific subjects. For many, Bernie needs no introduction. He has touched many lives all over our planet. In 1978 he began talking about patient empowerment and the choice to live fully and die in peace. As a physician, who has cared for and counseled innumerable people who’s mortality has been threatened by an illness, Bernie embraces a philosophy of living and dying that stands at the forefront of the medical ethics and spiritual issues our society grapples with today. He continues to assist in the breaking of new ground in the field of healing and personally struggling to live the message of kindness and love. Bernie and Bobbie travel extensively to share his experience and techniques. BRIEF
BIOGRAPHY OF BARBARA H. SIEGEL
Bobbie graduated from Oswego State Teachers College with a BS in Early Childhood Education. As she says, it prepared her to educate and train Bernie. Even he admits her guidance has helped him become the person he is today. Bobbie and Bernie married in 1954.
After raising five children and teaching kindergarten she began to help Bernie with his ECaP groups and workshops. She has worked with many participants to help with their drawing interpretations and make the workshop groups aware of the importance of humor in healing. She often contributes one-liners to presentations to allow people to experience humor and see how laughter affects them physically. This leads to her getting more grateful comments then Bernie. She and Bernie both enjoy a home still filled with their children’s things, pets and love.
You may visit with Bernie at: www.BernieSiegelMD.com
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