Reduce Interpersonal Trauma Symptoms with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness meditation training improves your brain’s ability to help you manage stress, and these changes improve a broad range of stress-related health outcomes, such as your inflammatory health,” David Creswell Experiencing trauma is quite common. It has been estimated that […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “The very act of putting [words] down—getting them out of the beehive of the head and onto the objective reality of paper—is a form of clarification.” — Pico Iyer People have used writing as therapy for psychological issues spontaneously throughout history. They’ve used logs, journals, diaries, essays, […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “People with PTSD ruminate, and rumination is all about not being present. It’s all about focusing on something terrible that happened in the past or something frightening that will happen in the future, so these patients are stuck in a rut. My personal bias is that mindfulness-based therapy […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Mind-body exercise offers a low-cost approach that could be used as a complement to traditional psychotherapy or drug treatments. These self-directed practices give PTSD patients control over their own treatment and have few side effects.” – Sang H. Kim Experiencing trauma is quite common. It has been […]
“People with BPD are like people with third degree burns over 90% of their bodies. Lacking emotional skin, they feel agony at the slightest touch or movement.” ― Marsha M. Linehan Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a very serious mental illness that is estimated to affect 1.6% of the U.S. population. It involves unstable moods, […]
“Yoga’s ability to touch us on every level of our being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—makes it a powerful and effective means for trauma victims to reinhabit their bodies safely, calm their minds, experience emotions directly, and begin to feel a sense of strength and control.” – van der Kolk Trauma comes in many forms, from […]
Traumatic events produce indelible marks on the individual. Sometimes they’re physical injury. Sometimes they’re psychological injury. But always they alter the person forever. The damage can be so severe as to totally debilitate the individual or can be at a level that just torments the individual, taking the joy out of life. But individuals differ […]
Yoga is an Effective Adjunct Practice for Mental Illness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart […]
Mindfulness is Associated with Lower Stigma and Improved Social Engagement in Breast Cancer Survivors By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Cancer is a word, not a sentence.”- John Diamond Because of great advances in treatment, many patients today are surviving cancer. But cancer survivors frequently suffer from anxiety, depression, mood disturbance, post-traumatic […]
Reduce Distress with Diabetes with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “I fight a battle against my body every day. One that doesn’t end, with no breaks, and no finish line. I keep fighting even when I’m tired, weak, or when I feel I’ve had enough. I fight for my health in […]