Complementary Therapies & Emotional Healing

Pathways Health Crisis Resource Center

University of Minnesota8th Annual Survivorship Conference

Saturday, April 6th, 2013

A health crisis resource center, in Uptown:

-Provide complementary therapies, services and resources to people in life-threatening or severe chronic health crisis, and their families and caregivers.

-Offer services for free.

Who is Pathways

Complementary healing practices are offered as adjuncts to standard medical treatments

Creative Therapy Practices• Art, music, or dance

Body-Based Practices• Massage, Reflexology, Therapeutic touch

Transformation through Grief, Loss, or Change• Sandtray, Grief Support for Caregivers

Mind-Body-Spirit, Energy Healing Practices• Meditation, Yoga , Guided Imagery, Tai Chi, Reiki, Qi Gong

Who We Serve• Participants with:

– Life Threatening Illness

– Severe Chronic Illness or Pain

• 7667 Pathways Participants in 2012:– 2387 Individual sessions

– 5280 Participants in Group sessions

– Plus workshops and special events

Who Provides Pathways Services?

• Over 160 Volunteer Providers• Licensed, certified in respective fields

• Provided at no cost • Service Above Self.

Emotional Enrichment & Healing• Reconnecting-Strengthening

Relationships

• Reflective Listening

• Learning to Listen to Your Heart

• Tools for Living Consciously with Dying

How Can

Complementary Therapies

Help Illnesses like…..

(Lymphedema?)(A few examples..)

Yoga •Uses stretching, postures and breathing to help balance the body, mind and spirit.

•These exercises help promote ease of movement and lymphatic drainage following breast cancer treatment

(Laughter) Yoga can:

•Flush the lungs and fully oxygenates the blood and major organs

•Destroy cancer cells in the presence of extra oxygen.

•Trigger the release of endorphins into the bloodstream, providing immediate pain relief.

•Move lymph fluid around the body simply by the spasms during laughter- stress switches off the lymphatic system, laughter can switch it on.

Cranio-Sacral/ Lymph Drainage

•Light touch helps release physical tension, encourage psycho-emotional balance, relieve stress.

•Helpful in addressing: impingement of cranial nerves, left-right imbalances, head injuries, feelings of compression or pressure, anxiety, depression, circulatory disorders

•Craniosacral has no contraindications for those affected by primary breast cancer.

•Manual manipulation of the lymphatic ducts consists of gentle, rhythmic massaging of the skin to stimulate the flow of lymph and its return to the blood circulation system.

http://www.spineuniverse.com/treatments/craniosacral-therapy

One Perspective

Current Medical Practice-

evolving to >>>>>Integrative Practice

Health is most often considered to be the absence of disease >>>>>

Health is seen as a vital state of physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing, which enables a person to be engaged in life

The physician tends to act as the authority figure >>>>>

The physician acts as a partner in the patient’s care

The patient is encouraged to follow the physician’s directions >>>>>

The empowered and informed patient is an integral part of the decision-making process

The interventions are often directed only towards the treatment of a specific disease or trauma >>>>>

Intervention designed to treat the illness as well as the whole person, addressing physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual factors that influence health & disease.

Pause

&

Breathe

Evaluative Research Measure ‘Before & After’ Shifts in Participant

Health Outcomes

Pathways Participants Self Assessment: Shifting From Crisis to Well-being

Ritenbaugh et al, BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 Dec 29;11:135. Thompson et al, BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 Dec 29;11(1):136

Within each set of indicators, participants showed significant shifts in improved well being and emotional health.

Ritenbaugh et al, BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 Dec 29;11:135. Thompson et al, BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 Dec 29;11(1):136

Pathways: From Crisis to Well-being

OVERWHELMED EMPOWERED26 64

+146%

ANXIOUS CALM33 66

+100%

EXHAUSTED ENERGIZED26 57

+119%

HOPELESS HOPEFUL39 69

+77%

Renewing LifePartnering with Mind/Body/SpiritNourishing RelationshipsRestoring SpiritExpressing FeelingsMaking MeaningCreating Healing SpacesLoving LifeCelebrating a Renewed Life

Opportunities for You

I. Renewing Life Program 8 weeks, 2 ½ hours/week 3 Day Weekend Retreat

II. Become a Renewing Life Facilitator Training program and co-facilitator field training

Pathways Renewing Life Program Outcomes

Pathways ParticipantPathways Participant

“I often compare getting a serious diagnosis to landing in a foreign country needing to learn the language and learn it well because your life may depend on it.

Pathways is the map - the dictionary - the guidebook to the language – whatever your new language may be.

It’s the place where you’re accepted - comforted - touched - listened to. It is peaceful. It is caring. It is hope.”

Pathways ParticipantPathways Participant

Staff -Please enjoy this plant as an appreciation -a huge token of thanks for all that I’ve experienced here. I found the name of the plant fitting: “Watch It Grow”.

Thanks for helping put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Tim@pathwaysmpls.org

www.pathwaysminneapolis.org