Kendra Gaines, PhD
Editor in Chief
Dr. Kendra Gaines received her doctorate in English Literature from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. She taught at Northwestern, as well as University of Michigan, before moving to Tucson. At the University of Arizona, she served for 16 years as Senior Tutor and Instructional Specialist in, first, the Department of English, and then at the UA’s Writing Skills Improvement Program. During the summers, she served as the Lead of the Graduate Writing Institute offered through the Writing Skills Program.
In addition, Dr. Gaines has taught at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for over 25 years, teaching for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Chapman University, Park University, and Pima College, all located on Base. She is beginning her seventeenth year teaching both English and Philosophy courses for Colorado Technical University. She has also been teaching online for Park University, work which has included several blended (both online and in person) courses.
Loren L. Toussaint, PhD
Research Editor
Dr. Toussaint is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa where he teaches courses on statistics, methodology, stress and coping, health psychology, and forgiveness. Previously he taught graduate and undergraduate courses on statistics and measurement at Idaho State University. He is a former Research Fellow in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His research focuses mainly on the role of forgiveness in health and happiness, and also on how other psychological and social factors such as stress and coping and religiousness and spirituality impact health, health behaviors, and adjustment. He has authored or co-authored 25 scientific papers and over 70 scientific presentations. He provides editorial and ad-hoc review for several scientific journals. His current work focuses on:
- epidemiological studies of forgiveness and unforgiveness and their connections with mental and physical health,
- cultural aspects of forgiveness in America, Chile, Lithuania, and Spain, and
- peace promotion through forgiveness in Africa.
563-387-1647
touslo01@luther.edu
Kenneth S. Cohen
QiGong Master, Native American Healer
Kenneth S. Cohen (“Bear Hawk”), M.A., M.S.Th. has trained with indigenous healers from North America, China, and Africa for more than thirty years. He is a member of the Red Cedar Circle (Si.Si.Wiss tradition), the Seneca Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge, the Good Medicine Society of the Cherokee, and other medicine societies. His adopted Cree family is from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Canada. Ken is the author of The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing, Healthy Breathing, “Native American Medicine” in Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and more than 150 journal articles on complementary medicine. He is Executive Director of the Qigong Research and Practice Center and an Adjunct Professor at Union Institute Graduate School.
Kenneth S. Cohen, MA, MSTh
Qigong Research & Practice Center
P.O. Box 1727
Nederland, CO 80466
Ph/Fx: 303-258-0971
Melinda H. Connor, PhD
received her training as a research scientist at the University of Arizona under Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Iris Bell. She is the former director of the Optimal Healing Research Program at the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health at the University of Arizona, directed by Dr. Gary E. Schwartz. Currently a member of the teaching staff for the three year Integrative Energy Healing certificate program at Langara College in Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Connor also has a private healing practice in Arizona and continues to present her research work at conferences around the world. Dr. Connor has been a healer in professional practice since 1987. A born clairvoyant, her initial training in the energies came from within her family. Ordained as a Buddhist Priest, Dr. Connor has trained as a clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, drama therapist, massage therapist and in over twenty different styles of energy healing.
Melinda_Connor@mindspring.com
Philip Friedman, PhD
Philip Friedman, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist, coach, psychotherapist, researcher, writer and workshop leader in private practice in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. and the director of the Foundation for Well-Being. He is the author of the “The Forgiveness Solution: the Whole Body Rx for Finding True Happiness, Abundant Love and Inner Peace” as well as “Creating Well-Being: the Healing Path to Love, Peace, Self-Esteem and Happiness” as well as the Integrative Healing Manual. He has also created the Forgiveness Solution and Creating Well-Being audio series. In addition he is the developer of the Friedman Assessment Scales on Well-Being, Affect, Beliefs, Quality of Life, Forgiveness and Personal/Spiritual Growth. Dr. Friedman is also a Certified Law of Attraction Facilitator, Coach and Trainer and the founder of the Positive Pressure Point Techniques. He also created a series of Positive Pressure Point videos. He is a diplomate in Comprehensive Energy Psychology (DCEP) and one of the founders of “Integrative Therapy” He was on the faculty of both Jefferson and Hahnemann University and Medical Schools in Philadelphia and Director of Training in Marital and Family Therapy for many years. Now he is an adjunct assistant Professor at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, Ca. where he supervises graduate students on their dissertations. His major interests are in the fields of Integrative Psychotherapy and Healing including Spiritual, Energy, Positive, Cognitive, Emotional, Relational, Systems and Behaviorial psychology plus ongoing tracking and assessment of change in psychotherapy. He has published many professional articles on a wide variety of topics (most recently forgiveness, gratitude and well-being) Dr. Friedman frequently presents at national and international conferences (most recently on resilience, flourishing, spirituality and self-compassion as it relates to forgiveness, gratitude and well-being.) He is frequently quoted in the media and on the internet. He can be found on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
Philip Friedman, PhD
www.philipfriedman.com
www.forgivenesssolution.com
Eric Leskowitz, MD
Eric Leskowitz, MD, a Board Certified Psychiatrist, has appointments with the Departments of Psychiatry at Harvard and Tufts Medical Schools. He has a long-standing interest in holistic medicine, in particular the role of energy-based therapies as part of a comprehensive approach to treatment. He has practiced meditation for 25 years, and energy healing for 12 years. He lectures widely, and has edited two books: Transpersonal Hypnosis (CRC Press, 1999); and Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Rehabilitation (Harcourt Health Sciences, 2002).
Hopes for the future: I am working for a future in which the multidimensional nature of man is recognized by all participants in the health care field. A full spectrum of approaches will be available to all, from the prescription of concrete biomedical substances, to subtle energy interventions and psychospiritual techniques. I hope that research, clinical results, educational events, and direct personal experiences can all be brought together to help to create this future.
Rick Leskowitz, MD
Pain Management Program
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
125 Nashua St.
Boston MA 02114
www.energymedicine101.com
Jerry E. Wesch, PhD
Jerry E. Wesch, PhD is virtually a life-long advocate of the merger of science and spirit. He began having encounters with mystery as a 10 year old Nebraska farm boy. Trained as a health psychologist at the University of Tennessee, he has used biofeedback, imagery, hypnosis, energy psychology and other mind / body techniques clinically since 1968. He has also been at the front of the holistic health movement since the mid 1970’s. Energy healing is his passion, working with many different healers since 1977, trying to come to a working theory for this fascinating, effective and elusive phenomenon. He is a Reiki III initiate, has studied bioenergy therapy, and has tried every healing and prayer technique he has ever encountered. He has an extensive catalogue of healing stories and some interesting but unpublished research data. All three of his daughters have manifested intuitive and healing gifts.
Dr. Wesch has been President and on the Executive Board of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine. He has directed a multidisciplinary pain clinics in the Mid-West, helped start a Unity Energy Healing Circle, was on the staff of a hospital-based integrative medicine center called Strong Spirit and currently directs an integrative medicine PTSD clinic at an Army base in Texas. His wife, Sharon (Wendt) Wesch, PhD, healer & therapist, is an author of 3 books on spiritual healing of grief. She started a pioneer holistic center in Indiana in 1984.
Views on Healing: We still do not have a working theory of energy healing and its mechanisms because we do not yet include (or understand how to include) Consciousness in the equations that describe all the levels of Reality. So far we have consistent phenomenology of the subjective experience and pretty good effectiveness data but no model that really handles the data. When we finally understand healing, we will know more about the Universe and Consciousness than we have discovered in the last 500 years. It will be a revolution! In any case, energy healing is the best general purpose health care system. Works on everything, at least some of the time and it never hurts to try.
Jerry E. Wesch, PhD
509 Lobo Trail
Harker Heights, TX 76548
773-875-5483
jerrywesch@sbcglobal.net
Nathan Anderson, MAcOM, LAc , Clinic Director, Arizona School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Rev Christine Bair, RN, ThD., Professor, Akamai University
Mary Jo Bulbrook, RN, PhD., President, Akamai University
Dame Effie Chow, RN, PhD, MAcOM, Founder, East West School of Healing Arts
Caitlin A. Connor, DAOM, PgDip, EHP-C, Assistant Professor, CAM, Akamai University
John Freedom, CEHP
John Freedom, CEHP, is a counselor, educator and trainer in private practice in Tucson, Arizona. The author of Heal Yourself with Emotional Freedom Technique, he serves as research coordinator for ACEP, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology; and project coordinator for FREA, Facilitating Recovery and Empowerment from Abuse. He holds certifications in EFT, NLP, EMDR and auricular acupuncture, and specializes in helping clients experience greater success, happiness and high-level wellness in all areas of their lives. A former radio talk-show host and magazine editor, he leads trainings and seminars throughout the US and in Europe.
There is a current debate re: the demands that the practice of medicine and psychology be ‘evidence based,’ vs. clinical practices based in relationship, intuition and experience. Methods that are supposedly ‘evidence based’ are not always the best medicine, and effective clinical practices are not always well-researched. As someone who is sensitive to both these arguments, I hope to further the dialog between clinicians and researchers, and to be able to listen to and learn from the wisdom inherent in both Hygeia and Saturnian Science.
We are being called to stretch beyond the rigid categories and narrow paradigms of the past, to develop wholistic medical practices that embrace both mind and heart, and that satisfy the roles of intuition and clinical experience as well as the demands of scientific rigor. It is time to stretch and inform and expand our scientific models, to include and explore a variety of evidence, narrative and systematic, qualitative as well as quantitative.
John Freedom, CEHP
PO Box 36532
Tucson, AZ 85740
www.JohnFreedom.com
freejjii@gmail.com
Stanley Krippner, PhD
Stanley Krippner, PhD, is professor of psychology at Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, California. He is the co-author of The Realms of Healing, Healing States, and Extraordinary Dreams. He is co-editor of Healing Tales, Healing Stories, and Varieties of Anomalous Experience. He has written widely on systematic models of healing from cross-cultural perspectives and is co-editor of a German yearbook on healing from a transcultural perspective.
Western biomedicine is “privileged” due to a series of historical developments, resulting in the “marginalizing” of alternative and complimentary healing systems that, nevertheless, often provide effective relief to many people around the world. My vision is to increase the “discourse” among healing systems worldwide, while subjecting each of them to rigorous investigation, using a variety of research methods. I expect that this healing process will add psychological, social, spiritual, and informational dimensions to existing healing systems.
Peta Stapleton, PhD
Peta Stapleton, PhD is a registered Clinical and Health Psychologist in Australia with 20 years’ experience. She has been awarded many honours including the Australian Psychological Society Elaine Dignan Award for research into women’s issues. Peta has had 14 years as an academic at Griffith University and is now full-time at Bond University. Her current research interests include: Eating disorders, body image, obesity, lap-band (bariatric) surgery – assessment and treatment; Food cravings; The link between physical illness and psychological factors; and Complementary and alternative medicine/integrative medicine (e.g., energy psychology). In the health field, Peta has recently led a world first randomised clinical trial investigating the impact of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) in the treatment of food cravings in overweight and obese adults (Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology Seed Grant 2007). She is currently comparing EFT against Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for food cravings (Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology Seed Grant, 2012); EFT versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the Treatment of Unhealthy Food Choices and Consumption for Overweight Children aged 12-18 years; and Group versus Individual Intervention Using EFT for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Depression in University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Recent publications in this area have included 6- and 12-month follow-up of food craving treatment and the impact of psychological traits on emotional eating. Publications in the health field related to teaching health professions include: Promoting and Providing Expert Guidance in Work-intensive Clinical Settings; An intervention study to create supportive clinical learning environments for nursing students; and Boosting Morale and Improving Performance in the Nursing Setting.
Peta Stapleton, PhD
Clinical Psychologist MAPS, MCCP, MHCP
Assistant Professor – Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Bond University
Gold Coast, Queensland, 4229
Australia
Tel. +61 7 55952 515
Fax +61 7 55952 540
http://works.bepress.com/peta_stapleton/
Sara L. Warber, MD
Sara L. Warber, MD,Dr. Warber retired as a professor at the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine in 2016. She remains with the Department as an active emeritus professor. She is the former co-director of the U-M Integrative Medicine program and was a practicing physician at the Integrative Medicine Clinic located with in Briarwood Family MedicineHolistic Family Physician, Co-director of (NIH funded) Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center, U. Michigan, Ann Arbor
Vision for the Devlopment of Integrative Care: I dream the creation of healing environments where all who enter – staff, patients and families – are bettered by the experience. I work for the time when all health care professionals see themselves as healers – for each other, as well as for their clients/patients. I advocate for the awareness of the complex interaction of our societal decision making and our people’s health. I support the preservation of the earth’s ecosystem because our health, indeed our life and the lives of our unborn generations depends upon bringing our human society into balance with nature. I believe that each one of us has a purpose and a gift in sickness and in health. Our work here is to discover these aspects in ourselves and our patients; and then dedicate ourselves to their highest expression. I practice holistic family medicine, which means that I focus on healing not just the body, but also the mind, the heart and the spirit. I know that evidence for effective therapies comes in many shapes, from case studies to randomized controlled trials to meta-analyses. I work for the furthering of our knowledge base about how the universe works, how the human heals, and for the place of complementary and alternative medicine paradigms and techniques in comprehensive health care.
University of Michigan Complementary and Alternative Research Center
Ann Arbor, MIwww.med.umich.edu/camrcswarber@med.umich.edu