Customer Reviews

Medicine, Mind and Meaning: A Psychiatrist's Guide to Treating the Body, Mind and Spirit (Foundation of the in One Series)

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I heard Dr. Wood on the radio and went and bought her book, thinking it might help me deal with my depression and anxiety. While she sounded warm and caring on the radio, I was really touched by the clear message of support and hope that rings through this book. I learned alot in reading it--alot about myself, my problems, what I can do myself for myself, how to steer my therapy, how to bring spirituality into the mix. The stories of her patients--and the stories that her patients wrote themselves--are so powerful, so moving, so inspiring. If these folks can get better from their problems, so can I! This is a "must-read" book for anyone who feels lost, alone or disheartened in dealing with their emotional problems. I gave my copy to my wife to read--next I'm giving it to my therapist!

If you are looking for your own path of healing or find yourself in the role of facilitator of other people's healing journeys, this book is a truly compassionate guide. Dr. Eve A. Wood emphasizes her belief that "where there is a will, there is always a way" for an individual to get better, no matter how hurt, damaged or broken that person's psyche, may be. Using clear and focused language, Dr. Wood illuminates a path along which she has guided many of her own patients, a journey toward healing of the mind, heart and soul. With a grounding in the most respected medical models, Dr. Wood's model incorporates a broad holistic approach, acknowledging the often overlooked importance of the whole person, biological, intellectual, emotional and spiritual, in attaining true emotional and psychological health. It will be helpful for individuals looking to heal their psycholgical selves, for their loved ones seeking to support them, and for practitoners seeking a better practice model.

Wow. At last, Medicine with a heart and soul! This book was written by a sensitive physician who really understands what it is like to struggle with life, loss, health and emotional problems. You read the stories in this book--real stories of real people like you and me--and you realize that there is hope for even the most distraught, most impaired people. Hope is the active word. Dr. Wood tells her patients' stories with a loving and compassionate voice, and draws from their stories lessons about healing and coping that really resonnated for me. This book really helped me to understand myself and what I am dealing with--my issues with my family, my son's illness, my depression--better than any doctor, therapist, minister or friend ever has. I couldn't put it down. And I ended up not just understanding it all better, but knowing what I need to do to take charge of my emotional life. It all makes so much sense--its about time somebody talked about what is really most important. I am grateful I found this book. I have passed it to my family and friends, and every single one has been moved by it. Everyone who suffers, or is close to someone who suffers (and isn't that everyone of us?) should read this book.

This is one of the most inspiring books for self-empowered healing from mental illness I have read. In her childhood, Dr. Eve Wood learned that, "If a person saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world." By this criterion, Dr. Wood is saving the galaxy.

The central theme in her patients' recoveries seems to be Dr. Wood's ability to help them create a safe container of self-acceptance without judgment and her considerable genius in inspiring hope. But she doesn't stop with just the storytelling. This is an interactive book in which she challenges the reader to explore how the patient's story might be relevant to "you," the reader. Concluding each section are "lessons," "take home points," and questions that help the reader to assess her own imbalances.

Throughout Medicine, Mind and Meaning, Dr. Wood offers exercises to help the reader fully integrate the "lessons" of the stories she tells. This book is, in itself, a prescription for self-healing.

"Medicine, Mind, and Meaning," a new book by noted psychiatrist, professor and speaker, Dr. Eve A. Wood, is a step-by-step guide that combines traditional psychiatric approaches and spiritual principles. For Wood, former faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and presently Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine, development of one's spirituality is a necessary component in healing. Accordingly, the book provides resources and exercises for the use of belief to further the healing process. Among these resources are numerous appendices that engage common psychiatric illnesses, detailing their cause, evaluation, and treatment. These appendices can also be found online at www.MedicineMindandMeaning.com.

C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., former U.S. Surgeon General and McInerny Professor of Surgery, Dartmouth Medical School, writes the foreward to "Medicine, Mind, and Meaning." Not typically given to publicly endorsing work that is not his own, Dr. Koop's exception in this case marks the importance and urgency he attaches to this text. Writes Koop, "I have seldom been so moved by a book. This is the only healing model that makes sense."

This is an excellent text, one that bridges the large divides between psychiatric medicine, talk therapies, and spiritual traditions of healing. By bringing all these separate but equally important truths under one roof, Wood presents a model that comprehensively addresses the complexity of human illness and treatment. Rich in information and passionate in character, "Medicine, Mind, and Meaning" is an important answer to Koop's question in the Foreward: "If we are each body, mind, and spirit, how can we be healed if we don't treat all three together?"

Medicine, Mind And Meaning: A Psychiatrist's Guide To Treating The Body, Mind, And Spirit by medical and mental health expert Dr. Eve Wood compares human well-being to a three-legged stool, which rests upon the pillars of body, mind, and spirit. A step-by-step guide showing the reader how to involve body (genetics, inborn characteristics and vulnerabilities), mind (backgrounds, beliefs, behaviors) and spirit (faith and the search for higher meaning) in a healing journey toward total wellness, Medicine, Mind And Meaning is a testimony of inspiration, blessing, and the profound healing power of positive will. A forward by C. Everett Koop, M.D., SCD rounds out this transformative work of insight grounded in years of practical and medical experience.

Ever since I had the first of my two psychotic episodes I have been floundering in psychotherapy or in the beginning when that was not the "norm" (just meds)I have felt at a loss. I found Dr. Wood's book and am extremely pleased that a new avenue or "path" I think she might appropriately call it is presented to me. I gave my psychiatrist, psychologist/minister, and physician a copy of this book and mine I plan to keep and read and reread over and over again. I especially liked the references to a spiritual aspect of therapy and how it definitely relates to ones' healing self. I feel like I now have "hope" of success at arriving at a goal for myself and if I try hard enough with my therapists I might indeed find the "feeling" words I am in need of to succeed at life. Thank you, Dr. Wood for the "gift of this book!" God bless you! Maybe a miracle can happen in my life as in those other patients in your book whom you describe so well. (Or those with whom you asked them to write themselves their own story to put into your book! YES! Why don't people ask patients and the mentally ill OUR OWN STORIES!!!)

Written by a psychiatrist who cares deeply for her clients, this book explores ways in which understanding the meanings that guide our lives can help us to sort out various disorders that cause physical and emotional problems.

I agree with the observation about this book by C. Everett Koop, former US Surgeon General, in the foreword: "It is written by a physician who loves her patients and has come to see that life depends not on the hand you are dealt, but on how you choose to live it." (p. 4)

Many books offer a spectrum of cases, briefly described. Wood chooses to focus much of her sharings about how she works through a detailed description of the treatment of a severely disturbed woman who was suicidal. This woman had such low self-esteem that she would repeatedly cut herself when she was upset. It took many years of therapy to help her accept herself and settle into much more self-accepting and satisfying ways of being and relating in a world that she had earlier found hostile and unaccepting.

Many books offer the views and understandings of the author as the primary window into appreciating the author's approaches. Wood chooses to give many pages to the words of her clients, who report how they felt and what it was like to have Wood help them through their difficulties.