This is the first book about the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, the innovative body-centered psychotherapy developed in the 1960s by Ilana Rubenfeld. Forty vivid and often moving personal stories, written by Rubenfeld Synergy practitioners and clients, give readers the sense of being present during the healing process. Individual stories deal with anxiety, depression, chronic pain; self-esteem, abuse, guilt, and a variety of sexual, marital, and other interpersonal issues. Readers (health care professionals and adults who are seeking relief themselves or simply curious about the mind-body connection) learn how gentle touch and talk tap into the wisdom of the body and support its innate potential for healing. The book includes story synopses, author biographies, brief history, resources, bibliography, glossary, index.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
health/psychology Praise for Healing Journeys
"Healing Journeys is one of the most accessible books on a body-centered therapy model I have ever read. With grace and wit, Mechner allows real people's stories to convey the power and effectiveness of Rubenfeld Synergy. I expected to be moved, and I was. I didn't expect to come away with an intimate knowledge of this work, yet I did." -Christine Caldwell, Ph.D., L.P.C., A.D.T.R., author of Getting Our Bodies Back and Getting In Touch
"This inspiring mosaic of splendidly diverse stories teaches much about the roles of humor, trust, courage, mutuality, and imagination in the healing process. In these times of complex challenges, read and be reminded that we have everything we need to heal ourselves and the world." -Gail Straub, author; Executive Director, Empowerment Training Programs
"The stories in Healing Journeys illustrate Ilana Rubenfeld's unique and characteristic form of body psychotherapy. They are full of the vitality, contradictions, compassion, and humour of life, and become intriguing windows into people's lives and the dynamics of their healing." -Courtenay Young, Resident Psychotherapist, Findhorn Foundation, Scotland; Secretary General of European Association of Body Psychotherapy
"In this era of increasingly regimented, dehumanized and counterfeit therapies, the real life stories in this volume give proof that caring sensitivity toward the whole person can still be found. Vicki Mechner has done a real service in lucidly presenting a body of experience that fairly breathes with living immediacy and truth." -Kathleen Riordan Speeth, Ph.D., author of The Gurdjieff Work
Vicki Mechner conceived the idea for this collection of personal stories, solicited contributions from her colleagues, and worked with the writers to shape their stories. Most of the writers are, like Mechner, Certified Rubenfeld Synergists. All are experienced in other fields of health care, academia, the arts, or business.
These stories illustrate how gentle touch and talk can help you tap into your body's wisdom and innate potential for healing, and why Rubenfeld Synergy has received such wide and enthusiastic acclaim.
About the Author
The contributing authors, who live and practice in seventeen of the United States, three Canadian provinces, and the United Kingdom, were trained in Rubenfeld Synergy after careers in psychotherapy, psychology, counseling, nursing, massage, kinesiology, chiropractic, yoga, martial arts, music, art, dance, and theater. Each graduating class of the Rubenfeld Synergy training (now a four-year program) is represented, going back to the first class in 1977.
Vicki Mechner currently maintains a private Rubenfeld Synergy practice in Manhattan and Chappaqua, New York. Her previous careers were in educational design, editing, and marketing. She and her psychologist husband have four grown children. She is the editor of Healing Journeys.
Ilana Rubenfeld graduated from the Juilliard School of Music and enjoyed a career in conducting until a debilitating back spasm redirected her life journey toward healing and teaching. Since her development of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method in the 1960s, Ilana has been a frequent presenter at conferences around the world. She is in demand as a keynote speaker and workshop leader-not only for the wisdom she imparts, but also because of her talents as a humorist and ice-breaker. She has trained hundreds of professionals in her method.
Ilana is a faculty member of the Omega and Esalen Institutes and the New York Open Center. In 1994 she received the Association of Humanistic Psychology's Pathfinder Award for outstanding and innovative contributions to the field of humanistic psychology. She is currently writing The Listening Hand for Bantam Books. She has written the foreword to Healing Journeys.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring Stories of Healing,
By Katherine C. Cates (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Healing Journeys : The Power of Rubenfeld Synergy (Paperback)
I really enjoyed reading this fascinating book! The forty-plus short stories all deal with healing from physical or psychological wounds through a therapy that combines bodywork with talk therapy. Each author writes in a different style and voice. I especially liked "Dancing the Two-Step," which is a series of letters written by a couple coping with marital problems, and "Remembering Eddie" by a woman with liver disease who links her pain to the memory of events surrounding her brother's death after a car accident.I appreciated not having to read anything technical or theoretical; I enjoyed getting to understand Rubenfeld Synergy by reading many people's personal experiences. And what a variety of experiences! Childhood traumas, performance anxiety, devastating injuries, sexual problems, the suicide of a child, depression, and Alzheimer's are only some of the troubles the protagonists were facing when they first tried Rubenfeld Synergy. Instead of viewing themselves as victims, the people in these stories learn to take responsibility for healing themselves. "Healing Journeys" reminded me a lot of Naomi Rachel Remen's "Kitchen Table Wisdom," in that people find the source of healing within themselves. I could personally relate to these stories. I came away feeling that "Healing Journeys" includes stories for everyone, not just for people already interested in the body-mind connection. Now I have a good idea of how I might benefit from trying Rubenfeld Synergy or other body-mind approaches to healing.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Many Fascinating Voices,
By Katherine C. Cates (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Healing Journeys : The Power of Rubenfeld Synergy (Paperback)
I really enjoyed reading this fascinating book! The forty-plus short stories all deal with healing from physical or psychological wounds through a therapy that combines bodywork with talk therapy. Each author writes in a different style and voice. I especially liked "Dancing the Two-Step," which is a series of letters written by a couple coping with marital problems, and "Remembering Eddie" by a woman who links her physical pain to the memory of events surrounding her brother's death after a car accident.I appreciated not having to read anything technical or theoretical; I enjoyed getting to understand Rubenfeld Synergy by reading many people's personal experiences. And what a variety of experiences! Childhood traumas, performance anxiety, devastating injuries, sexual problems, the suicide of a child, depression, and Alzheimer's are only some of the troubles the protagonists were facing when they first tried Rubenfeld Synergy. Instead of viewing themselves as victims, the people in these stories learn to take responsibility for healing themselves. "Healing Journeys" reminded me a lot of Naomi Rachel Remen's "Kitchen Table Wisdom," in that people find the source of healing within themselves. I could personally relate to these stories. I came away feeling that "Healing Journeys" includes stories for everyone, not just for people already interested in the body-mind connection. Now I have a good idea of how I might benefit from trying Rubenfeld Synergy or other body-mind approaches to healing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Teaching and Healing Stories,
By Jeanne T. Reock (Kendall Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Healing Journeys : The Power of Rubenfeld Synergy (Paperback)
Reading actual stories of people's experiences with Rubenfeld Synergy® is a powerful way to understand how this hands-on, body-centered psychotherapy can help people heal. So often we read accounts of healing methods that are all theory, and interesting as such, but leave us wondering how the work is done and how it really impacts people. These stories show in some detail just how a Rubenfeld Synergist helps clients become aware of how their present feelings, beliefs, and behavoir is shaped by earlier experiences that have lodged in their unconscious. As Ms. Mechner points out, awareness makes choice and change possible. My own experiences with Rubenfeld Synergy have shown me how transformative this work can be. The process involves gentle touch,imagery and movement as well as intense listening on the part of the Synergist with no judgment, just acceptance. What a gift! "Healing Journeys" presents a wide variety of issues and kinds of clients. There is something here for everyone to identify with and learn from. With 40 different authors, the writing is uneven, but, for the most part, highly readable.
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