What is Mind-Body Medicine?

5/22/2008

It may sound woo-woo, but mind-body medicine is actually a staple of pediatrics. Your child’s doctor uses mind-body medicine in its simplest form whenever he or she offers reassurance or distracts your child with a toy or a breathing exercise before a painful procedure. You use it too, whenever you hand your child the “blankie” that helps them sleep, or assure them that they’ll feel better tomorrow. Positive reinforcement is just one of the many ways you can help a child change unhealthy habits or support the healing potential of his body.

Mind/body medicine draws upon the very powerful healing potential of our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. It acknowledges the constant and often unconscious communication between brain and body and puts it to use. Mind-body medicine can be used to:

• Relieve or reduce pain
• Speed healing
• Change unhealthy habits, like bedwetting
• Relieve anxiety
• Ease symptoms of asthma, headache, stomachache, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), warts, and other conditions.

Among the forms of mind-body medicine commonly used with children are:

• Attitude adjustment (through positive reinforcement or through  work with a cognitive-behavioral therapist)
• Distraction
• Breathwork
• Relaxation
• Exercise
• Self-hypnosis
• Biofeedback
• Meditation or Prayer
• Art or music therapy

In the upcoming months we’ll be adding information on these therapies to this website. Some are tools any child can be taught to use himself, some require help from a parent or health professional. All have been proven to be safe and effective.