June 10-12, 2005
Thanks to his Cherokee great-grandmother, Lewis Mehl-Madrona has been acquainted with Native American healing practices since he was a boy. He grew up among people who believe that God heals people. He saw miracles. Traditional cultures the world over have a tremendous healing lore and have much to teach modern medicine, because their methods work. Human concern and caring are the essence of primary care.
“In this workshop, we will explore the process of healing and how people create internal transformation. Perhaps a few changes will occur in all of us. My work has become progressively less guided by theory. I have come to understand that many experts don’t know what they are talking about. Healing is produced by people and their communities and that transformation requires revisions in how people see their world. This workshop will have a Native American flavor. My stories, ceremonies, and rituals are Native American, and my way of seeing the world comes from this culture and spirituality. My goal is to help participants restore a sense of beauty and harmony to their experience of life.”
What is healing? What is therapy? What is medicine? We will explore how those of us who have illnesses or problems have been conceiving our world. What are the stories we tell ourselves, and others, about that world? How do these stories maintain the condition that causes us to suffer? What was different during the time before the problem or illness began? What new stories could contain elements of healing? To answer these questions, we have to stop thinking. Our logic operates within the way of thinking that supports the problem, so we have to learn some new techniques. We’ll explore the methods of storytelling, visualization, imagery, energy healing, ceremony, and ritual to lead us to new images, new stories, and new outcomes. We’ll practice the art of no-thought, being in the present, and letting our stories emerge. The workshop is for all people; those who are well and those who are ill, doctors, nurses, and people interested in their own health and healing.
Lewis Mehl-Madrona is internationally renowned Native American physician and a leader in the field of complementary - or integrative – medicine. He combines the Western medicine he learned at Stanford Medical School with traditional medicines. He earned a Ph.D. in Pyschological Studies, wrote Coyote Medicine: Lessons for Healing from Native America and three other books, and specializes in family medicine, emergency room work, and psychiatry. He has taught at five different medical schools, incorporating many aspects of Native American healing into his work as he educates physicians on the value of blending the best of conventional medicine with the healing traditions of Native America and other indigenous cultures.
“Forty years from now medicine will be unrecognizable from what it is today, in a positive way. In an ideal setting, we’d start by treating minor symptoms with lifestyle adjustment and with psychotherapy, then graduate into herbal medicines or more aggressive natural therapies, then move into pharmaceuticals or surgical therapies. There’s a natural progression in which so-called alternative therapies are actually complementary and take their place as prevention, as early treatment, and as helpful treatments even in cases where someone has a severe illness and is on multiple medications.”
—Lewis Mehl-Medrona, M.D., Ph.D.
“Coyote Medicine is… medicine of the future that must be taught in medical schools, practiced in clinics, and brought to all those who seek true health.”
— Andrew Weil, M.D.