Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine

Santorelli, director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, offers a collection of inspirational essays and the meditations he uses in his eight-week course at the clinic for both healing professionals and patients. The key to improving the relationship between the two, he believes, is mindful awareness, a spiritual concept borrowed from Eastern mysticism. To achieve mindfulness, he recommends a series of breathing exercises. Santorelli suggests that within every health care practitioner is a Wounded One, in every patient an Inner Healer. Patient and doctor are bound together, and may embrace ""an indelible opportunity to drink from the deep well of [their lives]."" Interspersed throughout the essays are a series of eight chapters describing the weekly sessions of one of Santorelli's courses, with anecdotes relating to the students' gradual awakening to the possibilities of better healing relationships as ""they share the essence of life with one another."" Class activities include yoga exercise, silent meditation and an all-day retreat. Santorelli's approach to the relationship between caregivers and patients will surely provide food for thought for anyone interested in exploring the personal dynamics of health care. (Mar.)