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The use of meditation techniques in psychotherapy, counselling and psychological training
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Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9–123
OP-163 Improvements of well-being after one single rhythmical massage intervention in stressed adults–a prospective, randomised, three-armed study Kanitz Jenny Lena 1 , Reif Marcus 2 , Rihs Carolina 1 , Krause Ingrid 1 , Seeger Karl 1 , Seifert Georg 1,2 1 Charité 2 Institute
- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin for Clinical Research, Berlin, Germany
Background: Rhythmical massage (RM) has evolved from the classical manual massage according to the principles of anthroposophic medicine. Aim: The goal of this randomised, single-blinded study was to assess the efficacy of a single RM intervention with either aromatic oil (RA) or neutral oil (RM) compared to a sham massage (SM) on a subject’s well-being. Methods: A total of 118 healthy adults (mean age: 25.2 years SD: 4.7) were randomised to one of the three groups (RM, RA or SM). After baseline measurements, all subjects were exposed to an experimental strained situation, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), before receiving a single massage intervention of about 60 min including 20 min of rest. Well-being was assessed by standardised questionnaires (Mehrdimensionalen Befindlichkeitsfragebogen or dimensions of mood and alertness (MDBF), BF-S and B-L) and visual analogue scales (VASs) prior to the beginning of the study and afterwards. In addition, salivary cortisol was measured. Results: After a single intervention, the RM and the RA groups showed statistically significant improvements compared to the SM group in the dimensions of mood and alertness (MDBF) and in the VAS ‘emotional state’, ‘relaxation’ and ‘relaxation of neck and shoulder’. No difference was found between the RM and RA groups. Salivary cortisol, BF-S and B-L scales did not have any statistically significant difference between the three groups over time. Conclusions: One single RM intervention leads to a better mood, alertness and relaxation. No improvement was found in the SM group. Aromatic oil did not have any additional measurable effect. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.658 OP-164 Disposition: Ground = Constitution: Genetics. The integral equation Brandi Gemma Azienda Sanitaria Firenze, Florence, Italy For any disease we will never define the portion imputable to the constitution or to the disposition. This is true for either mainly physical or mainly psychic disturbance, because a person is the result of an integration between genome, environment, between genotype and phenotype and between constitution and the disposition to fall ill. Psychodynamic knowledge makes it possible to draw the disposition in psychology. Any type of psy-
chic pain is the result of a conflict between the most developed, conservative Ego capable of reaching the consciousness and the sexual drive strictly linked to the final goal of maintaining the species. Fixing the libido during child development, due to the inability of a driving instinct to take the pace of the normal expected evolution and the following removal of the lost drive, leads to the vulnerability called disposition, that the revival of the removed instinct makes manifest throughout the symptoms. The genetic studies recently so popular aim to limit the risks derived from constitutional deficits or from the environmental epigenetic changes. This is the advanced edge of the Western method of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, that is so effective in acute conditions, representing a sharp knife capable of entering in a selective and profound fashion, without caring what happens beyond the penetrating point. Something more should become possible on disposition, as the concept introduces the big theme of the ground and with this the possibility of a wide and long-term intervention, so different from the engineered acute constitutional selective intervention. It is in this context that the Western cure, including the psychoanalytic methodology, meets with intervention strategies that until recently were running in parallel. Certainly, concepts such as instinct, libido, fixation and resistance remind us of concepts such as energy and its potential stops, psychic or biological effects. Altogether, these concepts prompt us towards the need to integrate their separate knowledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.659 OP-165 The use of meditation techniques in psychotherapy, counselling and psychological training Cheli Enrico Università degli studi di Siena, Arezzo, Italy Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in the potential use of meditative practices in psychotherapy, in counselling, in psychological training. This stimulated a fertile dialogue regarding the confluences and divergences between Western psychotherapy and Eastern contemplative traditions and many questions have been raised about this unorthodox collaboration. Are these two methods of human awareness and growth compatible? Can their integrated use produce an improvement of effectiveness? How significant are meditation’s physiological, emotional and cognitive effects? Is meditation out of place in the clinical setting or can it be used successfully and in a riskless manner? Research and clinical experiences focussing on these questions have produced interesting and mainly positive responses, showing that meditation is more than just a relaxation technique and that its appropriate use may have positive effects on emotional management, relationship towards oneself and others, conflict resolution, access to unconscious material and experiencing personal identity from various perspectives, etc. In the author’s intervention, he would like to reveal the results of a 10-year-long holistic programme of psychological and professional training–on relational counselling, stress manage-
Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9–123
ment and interpersonal conflict resolution–in which meditation techniques and psychological and sociological tools have been successfully integrated. The programme began in 2002 at the University of Siena and included several post-graduate official courses (three PhDs, five master’s and 10 annual certificates) and many other shorter courses for professionals (medical doctors, paramedicals, teachers, company managers, etc.). It is well known that the word ‘meditation’ has many different meanings, that dozens of different meditation techniques exist and that even their purposes are different in different traditions. In our programme, we used and tested several meditation techniques, coming from different traditions were tested, and their use was directed to develop self-awareness and the awareness of the others, intending the former as the skill of recognising one’s own emotions, beliefs, thought patterns, character traits, communication patterns, etc., and the latter as the skill of recognising the others’ emotions, beliefs, thought patterns, character traits, communication patterns, etc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.660 OP-166 The pulse diagnosis according to anthroposophical medicine in the treatment of anxious–depressive pathologies Di Paolo Giovanni SIMA, Rome, Italy Ayurvedic medicine is a preventive treatment of the corporal disorders, its fundamental objective is to keep the physiological homeostasis and the re-establishment of the normal organic functions. To obtain a correct Ayurvedic treatment, we have to identify the specific constitutions of the human body: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Ayurvedic Nadi Vigyan (Ayurvedic pulse reading) finds its principal basis in the recognition of the dosha, sub-dosha and dhatu points. With the Ayurvedic pulse reading, we can measure the harmony between the ‘accomplished’, the physique, and the ‘unfinished’, the consciousness, the self of the patient. Nadi Vigyan is the easier, natural and precise method to find and check the derangement of three doshas, responsible for the state of health. The ancient discipline of Nadi Vigyan forms the core of Ayurvedic teaching and develops the correlation between consciousness and physiology. The pulse is consciousness-beating value in the body. The Vedic science with Ayurveda evolved in the Occident with Hippocratic medicine, then alchemy and finally with anthroposophy, which postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development. In its investigations of the spiritual world, anthroposophy aims to attain the precision and clarity attained by the natural sciences in their investigations of the physical world. Comparing with Ayurvedic pulse reading, we can find many analogies with anthroposophical pulse investigation and we also find in it the constitutions in the quadripartite and the tripartite body. With this study, we intend to explain the comparison and the relationship between these two investigational medical methods of the reality of the human being. In this
81
way, the anxious–depressive pathologies can be diagnosed with anthroposophical pulse reading and to provide a good anthroposophical treatment after the identification of the right organ. The organ is detected in its completeness, by its physique, ‘etheric’ and ‘astral’ consistencies and by deep, medium and superficial pulses, respectively. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.661 OP-167 Post-traumatic stress disorder: an integrative East–West psychosomatic approach Maric-Oehler Walburg Deutsche Ärztegesellschaft für Akupunktur (DÄGfA), Bad Homburg, Germany As long as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a separate pattern in psychotherapeutic medicine, it is diagnosed increasingly often in medical, psychotherapeutic practice. Research in neuroscience is focussed more and more on this subject. Neuroscience suggests that the effect of acupuncture is based on various mechanisms and processes in the central nervous system. Combining the two facts, there must be a connection between the Western and the Oriental medical theory and practice of PTSD. The Chinese medical understanding of (psychic) shock, injury and traumatic experience is psychosomatic in the unique way of this medical system. PTSD will be explained by concepts of Chinese medicine, for example, Five Phases, Zang Fu, the concept of Qi, the concept of Hun Po and the meridian theory. The knowledge and experience of Chinese medicine will be connected with Western understanding, ideas and concepts in medicine, psychosomatics and psychotherapy. It may be helpful to combine Western psychotherapeutic diagnostic procedures with the diagnostics of Oriental medical systems. This makes it possible to combine treatment procedures of both systems, not just in parallel but in a specific way, different forms of psychotherapy with different forms of acupuncture and other methods of Chinese/Oriental medicine. In this way, patients with PTSD can be treated with an extended integrative trauma therapy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.662 OP-168 Ancient Chinese medicine in mental illness Brotzu Rosa FISA-Centro Studi Xin Shu, Rome, Italy The Gui points have been described for the first time by Sun Si Miao, great Taoist physician (590–682 BC), the author of Qian jin yao fang, which proposes the treatment of mental illnesses, Dian Kuang, caused by 100 pathogens. The physician, and he who practices the medical arts as I do, frequently finds himself confronted with strange symptoms and pathologies that have to deal with psychic disturbances such as anxiety, depres-
Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9–123
OP-163 Improvements of well-being after one single rhythmical massage intervention in stressed adults–a prospective, randomised, three-armed study Kanitz Jenny Lena 1 , Reif Marcus 2 , Rihs Carolina 1 , Krause Ingrid 1 , Seeger Karl 1 , Seifert Georg 1,2 1 Charité 2 Institute
- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin for Clinical Research, Berlin, Germany
Background: Rhythmical massage (RM) has evolved from the classical manual massage according to the principles of anthroposophic medicine. Aim: The goal of this randomised, single-blinded study was to assess the efficacy of a single RM intervention with either aromatic oil (RA) or neutral oil (RM) compared to a sham massage (SM) on a subject’s well-being. Methods: A total of 118 healthy adults (mean age: 25.2 years SD: 4.7) were randomised to one of the three groups (RM, RA or SM). After baseline measurements, all subjects were exposed to an experimental strained situation, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), before receiving a single massage intervention of about 60 min including 20 min of rest. Well-being was assessed by standardised questionnaires (Mehrdimensionalen Befindlichkeitsfragebogen or dimensions of mood and alertness (MDBF), BF-S and B-L) and visual analogue scales (VASs) prior to the beginning of the study and afterwards. In addition, salivary cortisol was measured. Results: After a single intervention, the RM and the RA groups showed statistically significant improvements compared to the SM group in the dimensions of mood and alertness (MDBF) and in the VAS ‘emotional state’, ‘relaxation’ and ‘relaxation of neck and shoulder’. No difference was found between the RM and RA groups. Salivary cortisol, BF-S and B-L scales did not have any statistically significant difference between the three groups over time. Conclusions: One single RM intervention leads to a better mood, alertness and relaxation. No improvement was found in the SM group. Aromatic oil did not have any additional measurable effect. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.658 OP-164 Disposition: Ground = Constitution: Genetics. The integral equation Brandi Gemma Azienda Sanitaria Firenze, Florence, Italy For any disease we will never define the portion imputable to the constitution or to the disposition. This is true for either mainly physical or mainly psychic disturbance, because a person is the result of an integration between genome, environment, between genotype and phenotype and between constitution and the disposition to fall ill. Psychodynamic knowledge makes it possible to draw the disposition in psychology. Any type of psy-
chic pain is the result of a conflict between the most developed, conservative Ego capable of reaching the consciousness and the sexual drive strictly linked to the final goal of maintaining the species. Fixing the libido during child development, due to the inability of a driving instinct to take the pace of the normal expected evolution and the following removal of the lost drive, leads to the vulnerability called disposition, that the revival of the removed instinct makes manifest throughout the symptoms. The genetic studies recently so popular aim to limit the risks derived from constitutional deficits or from the environmental epigenetic changes. This is the advanced edge of the Western method of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, that is so effective in acute conditions, representing a sharp knife capable of entering in a selective and profound fashion, without caring what happens beyond the penetrating point. Something more should become possible on disposition, as the concept introduces the big theme of the ground and with this the possibility of a wide and long-term intervention, so different from the engineered acute constitutional selective intervention. It is in this context that the Western cure, including the psychoanalytic methodology, meets with intervention strategies that until recently were running in parallel. Certainly, concepts such as instinct, libido, fixation and resistance remind us of concepts such as energy and its potential stops, psychic or biological effects. Altogether, these concepts prompt us towards the need to integrate their separate knowledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.659 OP-165 The use of meditation techniques in psychotherapy, counselling and psychological training Cheli Enrico Università degli studi di Siena, Arezzo, Italy Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in the potential use of meditative practices in psychotherapy, in counselling, in psychological training. This stimulated a fertile dialogue regarding the confluences and divergences between Western psychotherapy and Eastern contemplative traditions and many questions have been raised about this unorthodox collaboration. Are these two methods of human awareness and growth compatible? Can their integrated use produce an improvement of effectiveness? How significant are meditation’s physiological, emotional and cognitive effects? Is meditation out of place in the clinical setting or can it be used successfully and in a riskless manner? Research and clinical experiences focussing on these questions have produced interesting and mainly positive responses, showing that meditation is more than just a relaxation technique and that its appropriate use may have positive effects on emotional management, relationship towards oneself and others, conflict resolution, access to unconscious material and experiencing personal identity from various perspectives, etc. In the author’s intervention, he would like to reveal the results of a 10-year-long holistic programme of psychological and professional training–on relational counselling, stress manage-
Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9–123
ment and interpersonal conflict resolution–in which meditation techniques and psychological and sociological tools have been successfully integrated. The programme began in 2002 at the University of Siena and included several post-graduate official courses (three PhDs, five master’s and 10 annual certificates) and many other shorter courses for professionals (medical doctors, paramedicals, teachers, company managers, etc.). It is well known that the word ‘meditation’ has many different meanings, that dozens of different meditation techniques exist and that even their purposes are different in different traditions. In our programme, we used and tested several meditation techniques, coming from different traditions were tested, and their use was directed to develop self-awareness and the awareness of the others, intending the former as the skill of recognising one’s own emotions, beliefs, thought patterns, character traits, communication patterns, etc., and the latter as the skill of recognising the others’ emotions, beliefs, thought patterns, character traits, communication patterns, etc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.660 OP-166 The pulse diagnosis according to anthroposophical medicine in the treatment of anxious–depressive pathologies Di Paolo Giovanni SIMA, Rome, Italy Ayurvedic medicine is a preventive treatment of the corporal disorders, its fundamental objective is to keep the physiological homeostasis and the re-establishment of the normal organic functions. To obtain a correct Ayurvedic treatment, we have to identify the specific constitutions of the human body: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Ayurvedic Nadi Vigyan (Ayurvedic pulse reading) finds its principal basis in the recognition of the dosha, sub-dosha and dhatu points. With the Ayurvedic pulse reading, we can measure the harmony between the ‘accomplished’, the physique, and the ‘unfinished’, the consciousness, the self of the patient. Nadi Vigyan is the easier, natural and precise method to find and check the derangement of three doshas, responsible for the state of health. The ancient discipline of Nadi Vigyan forms the core of Ayurvedic teaching and develops the correlation between consciousness and physiology. The pulse is consciousness-beating value in the body. The Vedic science with Ayurveda evolved in the Occident with Hippocratic medicine, then alchemy and finally with anthroposophy, which postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development. In its investigations of the spiritual world, anthroposophy aims to attain the precision and clarity attained by the natural sciences in their investigations of the physical world. Comparing with Ayurvedic pulse reading, we can find many analogies with anthroposophical pulse investigation and we also find in it the constitutions in the quadripartite and the tripartite body. With this study, we intend to explain the comparison and the relationship between these two investigational medical methods of the reality of the human being. In this
81
way, the anxious–depressive pathologies can be diagnosed with anthroposophical pulse reading and to provide a good anthroposophical treatment after the identification of the right organ. The organ is detected in its completeness, by its physique, ‘etheric’ and ‘astral’ consistencies and by deep, medium and superficial pulses, respectively. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.661 OP-167 Post-traumatic stress disorder: an integrative East–West psychosomatic approach Maric-Oehler Walburg Deutsche Ärztegesellschaft für Akupunktur (DÄGfA), Bad Homburg, Germany As long as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a separate pattern in psychotherapeutic medicine, it is diagnosed increasingly often in medical, psychotherapeutic practice. Research in neuroscience is focussed more and more on this subject. Neuroscience suggests that the effect of acupuncture is based on various mechanisms and processes in the central nervous system. Combining the two facts, there must be a connection between the Western and the Oriental medical theory and practice of PTSD. The Chinese medical understanding of (psychic) shock, injury and traumatic experience is psychosomatic in the unique way of this medical system. PTSD will be explained by concepts of Chinese medicine, for example, Five Phases, Zang Fu, the concept of Qi, the concept of Hun Po and the meridian theory. The knowledge and experience of Chinese medicine will be connected with Western understanding, ideas and concepts in medicine, psychosomatics and psychotherapy. It may be helpful to combine Western psychotherapeutic diagnostic procedures with the diagnostics of Oriental medical systems. This makes it possible to combine treatment procedures of both systems, not just in parallel but in a specific way, different forms of psychotherapy with different forms of acupuncture and other methods of Chinese/Oriental medicine. In this way, patients with PTSD can be treated with an extended integrative trauma therapy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.662 OP-168 Ancient Chinese medicine in mental illness Brotzu Rosa FISA-Centro Studi Xin Shu, Rome, Italy The Gui points have been described for the first time by Sun Si Miao, great Taoist physician (590–682 BC), the author of Qian jin yao fang, which proposes the treatment of mental illnesses, Dian Kuang, caused by 100 pathogens. The physician, and he who practices the medical arts as I do, frequently finds himself confronted with strange symptoms and pathologies that have to deal with psychic disturbances such as anxiety, depres-