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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Heroes, Joseph Campbell, and Jordan Peterson
The hero's journey begins with the call to adventure. Jordan Peterson writes that life exists within explored and unexplored territory both inside and outside of the mind. A narrative crisis occurs when our story (map of meaning) is inadequate to explain an anomaly. Heroism sets the hero apart from the group. Identification with the hero serves to decrease the unbearable motivational valence of the unknown. 1  |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: The difficulty of practicing narrative medicine
I look at the stories that people hold about their lives that sometimes work against them. I tell the story of a driven man whom I warned 25 years earlier that he might drop dead if he didn't take a break, and discover that he did, in his fifties. I discuss the problems we face in medicine, how to help people change their stories that are leading them toward illness. This is one of the hallmarks of narrative medicine. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Finding Magic in a Muggle World
What is magic in a muggle world? We recently conducted a workshop to explore that question. First, what arose was the idea our thoughts could influence the future to which we are headed. What if our visualizations could change the direction in which we are headed. What is really magic is the power we have to influence others. We have power to uplift. We have power to give hope when there is none. This is real magic. 3 |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Defining Coyote Psychotherapy
In the recent meetings of the Institute for Psychiatric Services in San Francisco, Barbara Mainguy and I presented material on how we work with psychosis. We are exploring what it is that we do, and we know that it is inspired by indigenous elders, that it is centered on the body, which registers our traumas and stresses, that we are wedded to the idea of story occurring in a social context so that we are embedded with others. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Bringing Magic Back to a Muggle World
We need to bring magic back into our modern, materialistic world. While ultimately magic will have a scientific description, it will probably take place at the quantum level, which few of us can understand. Therefore, we are left to marvel at the way energy moves matter, at how our participation in each others electrical fields of our hearts creates coherence and even health and well-being. We are left to wonder and awe. 1 |
 Vijayaraghavan Padmanabhan: Becoming Aware of Mind-Body-Spirit Medicine The development from Era 1 to Era 2 medicine emphasizes that we are not the body alone; we are mind-body entities. Era 3 medicine indicates that we are not confined to our mind-body; we are mind-body-spirit entities. As is the belief, so is the practice. If the physician believed that he was a mind-body-spirit entity, he would suggest the attitude of 'prayerfulness' by those concerned with the patient. 1 |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 7 of Australia 2013: Hearing Voices and Mind Mapping
Day 7 found us working with the Prahran Mission's Hearing Voices Victoria about indigenous and narrative approaches to voices. We demonstrated the use of what I call mind mapping with the various voices we hear inside our minds. This technique works for everyone, voice hearers or not, for we all hear talk inside our heads, the question being where we think it's coming from. In mind mapping we identify the talk and talkers. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 5 of Australia 2013: Indigenous Energy Healing 3
This third day of our presentations on North American energy medicine was all about energy. We practiced how to move energy through hands on the body, hands above the body, feather fanning, sucking, blowing smoke, drumming, rattling, placing rocks and crystals, and more. We had lunch and then we began our healing free for all. Rocky taught everyone a chant that we sang for three hours. All 49 people got doctored. 2 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 4 of Australia 2013: Indigenous Energy Medicine 2
During the fourth day of our Australian cross-cultural journey we continued to present our form of indigenous (Cherokee) bodywork/osteopathy and energy medicine ("doctoring"). The second day focused on how anyone can feel energy differences in other people and within those areas of energy differences, can find points that need rubbing or holding. We showed how these intuitively discoverable points are the same as TCM. 1 |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 3 of Australia 2013: Indigenous Energy Medicine
On day 3 of our cross-cultural journey in Australia we are at a camp where we are sharing Native North American concepts of energy medicine, particularly Cherokee bodywork/osteopathy and energy medicine and psychology (aka "doctoring"). We discover again how similar these concepts and practices are to those of indigenous Australia and New Zealand and how all people heal through touching the body and its energy. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 2 of Australia 2013: Story is Healing
Today we considered how story can save people's lives. When people are filled with negative stories about being inferior and worthy of humiliation and contempt, they respond accordingly often with substance misuse and violence. The traditional cultural stories of all of our peoples are antidotes to this negativity. By immersing ourselves in our cultural stories, we can turn victimization into recovery and transformation. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 1 of Australia 2013: The Autobiographical Narrative
Each year we make a cross-cultural tour to Australia, though one of our Coyote colleagues comes twice a year to make an impact on incorporating culture in health care for aboriginal people. This year we began with a lecture in a writing conference on the topic of the autobiography in which I describe my experience of writing Coyote Medicine. I finish with a description of what has been accomplished in five years of coming. 1 |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: The High Cost of Medically Unexplained Symptoms
I write about how the search for the diagnosis for medically unexplained symptoms is an important aspect of what is bankrupting our health care system. We have to solve this problem for manage costs no matter what health care system we have. I acknowledge that some diseases are missed and that some diseases are yet to be found, but suggest that we are much better at findings serious and life threatening illnesses than before. |
 Deena Metzger: Imagining a ReVisioned Medicine in 2012 ReVisioning Medicine brings medical doctors and health practitioners together with healers and medicine people as peers to create a new medicine that does no harm to patients, the community or the earth. ReVisioning Medicine is based in relationships and so is an antidote to our alienated culture always at war. Based on the best of medical knowledge in alliance with the wisdom and healing traditions of indigenous people... |
Vijayaraghavan Padmanabhan: Improving the Quality of Health Care from Within Faith is essential for healing to take place regardless of the kind of treatment that is actually given. Where there is faith, the feeling is positive and this helps the body's built-in mechanisms of healing. The quality of health care would eventually depend on how well the various aspects of health care are synchronized to supplement and support the central nature of faith and the hidden reality of mind-body-spirit medicine. |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 11 of the Australian Journey 2012
Today is Day 11 of the Australian cultural exchange adventure for 2012. We interacted with Mission Australia in Sydney and were deeply impressed with their services for young people and for homeless adults. They have managed to integrate shelter with education and skills training so that homeless people become able to transition into the work force. One person told us, "I came here a prostitute, and I left an artist." |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 10 of the Australian Journey 2012
Today was Day 10 of the journey and was a day for reflection and preparation for the Sydney portion of our trip. We reflected upon what culture camp had meant for people and confirmed that we would come again next year. Then we flew to Sydney and ate a marvelous fish dinner. |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 8 of the Australian Journey 2012
This is Day 8 of the Australian cross cultural adventure. Today we went to the heart of the community where the elders from the Northern Territories demonstrated some of their ceremonies and procedures to the community. That included the burning ceremony for healing pain, the smoking ceremony for purification, and spear throwing. On the way back to the island, I interviewed a patient advocate from Western Australia. |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Day 2 of the Australian Journey 2012
Day 2 of the Australian Journey for 2012 finds me in Melbourne at the International Hearing Voices conference, attended by aboriginal and non-aboriginal people alike. I present the highlights of the conference including aspects of my keynote address. The conference is unique in that it is organized hy voice hearers and not professionals who treat voice hearers. It is also unique in being upbeat, positive, and full of hope. |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Medical Writing: the Healing Power of Narrative
This article represents the start of my annual trek to Australia to work with an aboriginal cooperative in Southeastern Australia. The goal is to help them to incorporate their culture into their health care and other human services through cultural exchange with aboriginal North Americans, aboriginal people from the North of Australia where culture is less disrupted, and others from the area. More to come of my 2 weeks! |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: On the Nature of Afflictions
In this article I wonder about what illness has to offer us. What is the nature of affliction. Is it a thing or is it a doorway, an invitation to make meaning. All illnesses offer us this opportunity. |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Reflections after a Hypnosis Workshop
I describe some reflections after co-teaching a hypnosis workshop. Particularly, we look at a person whose story is too large, as big even as the whole United States. How do we work with someone whose story is that large. I describe ways to extract smaller stories, short stories from the large novel, stories that can work within an hour time frame, the usual length of time for mental health or hypnosis encounters. |
 Tsara Shelton: MIRACLES ARE MADE: A Real Life Guide to Autism by Lynette Louise/My Review In this book,global autism expert, author and mom (mine!) Lynette Louise shares with surprising honesty and humor the many mistakes and learning's that came with guiding three of my four autistic brothers off the spectrum of autism. As an expert she now travels the globe teaching play therapy, family dynamics and neurofeedback to families struggling to understand autism. She writes with passion, understanding and honesty. 1 |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Excerpt from Coyote Wisdom Chapter 10
This excerpt tells the story of my work with Tiffany, a young woman with cancer who was from the Christian faith and how we used Meister Eckhart as a way to bridge my Native American philosophies with Christianity to create a healing dialogue throughout the course of her cancer. this seems like an important story to me because it shows how we can create healing (meaning and purpose) even when the patient dies. |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Reflections upon transitioning to private practice
Just over 2 months ago I left the public mental health sector in New York to transition into private practice in Vermont. This article reflects upon those two months of changes and wonders what we can learn from the type of care available in Vermont compared to New York and from New York's apparent discrimination against paying private practitioners in favor of community mental health centers. 1 |
Dr. Kathleen Albertson, L. Ac., PhD: "Sport Injuries: Effectively Treated with Acupuncture"
Acupuncture is clinically proven to accelerate the healing of sports injuries. Integrating Western and Eastern treatment makes the most sense and can fully restore chronic and acute injuries in many cases. You often heal quickly, fully, and with improved performance.
Acupuncture is commonly used for a wide variety of injuries. Read how it works and what it treats. |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Thoughts after Sundance 2011
I reflect upon Sundance 2011 and what I have learned. I realize that Sundance is about love and compassion and following this red road that leads to these directions. Sundance gives us an opportunity to rise to become spiritual warriors, to find all the benefits and none of the detriments of battle, to create a community of fellow warriors within which we can feel strong, and to transcend our natural limits to become more. 1 |
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Lewis Mehl-Madrona: The Power of Community: Day 12 of the Australian Journey
Day 12 of our Australian Journey for cross-cultural exchange in mental health was a low-key day of exchanges about healing in community. We explored the concept that healing cannot occur so easily without involvement of the entire community. Those people to whom we are accountable must agree to allow us to change, or we will not change. We must be invited by the important others in our life to perform a different story. |
Judith Acosta: Clingy Children: Signals for Verbal First Aid
Our ability to deal with fear as children is the foundation for the way we deal with fear as adults--both for ourselves and with our kids. Most of us were not raised with these ideas and some of them may feel awkward or even seem unnecessary, especially if we ourselves were dismissed when we were afraid or hurt. |
Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Implementing Narrative Practices: Day 9 in Australia
The highlight of Day 9 in our Australian cross-cultural mental health journey was a workshop for indigenous mental health and human service providers on how to make their services more indigenous friendly. This involves, of course, conscious decolonization of our clinical practices. We talked about the need to become more narrative, to listen longer and more deeply to the stories people tell us and to hear stories of others. |
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