Course Syllabus
PHE 466/566: Mindbody
Health: Disease Prevention
(a.k.a. Integrative Health
& Systems Thinking)
4 credits - 10:15 to 11:20
p.m. Monday, Wednesday, & Friday
The mind is that enlivening energy that, throughout
the brain and body, allows the cells to talk to each other and the inside to
talk to the outside. -- Candace Pert
We tend to focus on herbs and chiropractic and
acupuncture and Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, but if you look at the evidence you
find that our ability to focus consciousness or human attention on the
inextricable mind-body interaction actually has the most profound effect on
disease states and health states, at least in the scientific literature, than
all of these other areas. --
Kenneth Pelletier
Every act in the process of becoming whole or healthy has one basic obligation: It must seek to create patterns of health and wholeness around itself at all levels. -- Elizabeth Roberts
* * *
1. Course Description:
As the preceding quotes indicate, this course explores the intricate web of relationships that exists among mind, body, and environment. Starting with a basic overview of the role of mind in immunity and the science of mind-body healing, we’ll move on to cover stress and its contributions to chronic disease. We’ll take a look at mindbody research that has been conducted within particular disease categories such as heart disease, cancer, and G.I. tract disorders. Through reading, discussion, and personal practice we’ll explore mind-body approaches that are familiar (e.g., exercise, diet, and relaxation) and those that are less so (e.g., guided imagery, meditation, and shamanic journeying). We’ll also go beyond mindbody interventions to examine healing modalities found within the larger field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Although our point-of-entry for the course is at the level of the individual, the course embraces an ecological/systems perspective and considers the impact of social, cultural, economic, and environmental factors on health. Ultimately, we’ll be attempting to understand how our individual and collective belief systems, our world views, strengthen or weaken the patterns of relationships that result in healing and health at individual, societal, and environmental levels.
2. Learning Objectives:
If
this course is successful, by the term's end we will have:
3. Instructor Information:
Leslie
McBride, PhD, Associate Professor
725-5102
(phone); 725-5100 (fax); mcbridel@pdx.edu[1]
450K
Urban Center Building
Office
Hours: 11:30a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Mondays
and Wednesdays[2] and 3:30 –
4:30 on Tuesdays
4. Required Texts:
5. Methods
of Evaluation:
Due
dates are listed on the course schedule.
A. Participate in reading
discussion groups. To enhance
our understanding of the reading assignments, we will spend 15 to 20 minutes at
the beginning of class each Monday in groups of five or six students—including
one graduate student per group serving as facilitator. In these groups, we will share reactions to
and interpretations of what we’ve read, clarify material that might be
confusing, and identify significant insights and/or questions that can be
shared with the entire class.
To prepare for each
discussion group, bring a one-page written reflection over the readings
assigned during the week (Wednesday through Monday of the discussion group).
You might reflect over aspects of the readings such as: The ideas most
important to furthering your learning/understanding; the topic(s) you found
most interesting; the ideas you agreed/disagreed with; or insights that
occurred to you after reading this assignment. Refer to your written reflections during your
discussion groups and, at the conclusion of your discussion, write an additional
paragraph in which you record new insights, perspectives, and/or ways in which
the discussion furthered your understanding of the material. I’ll take up these
papers and return them the following session. I won’t be grading your papers, per se, but will be keeping a record
of the papers you turn in and writing comments on them from time to time. I
consider them an important element of your group participation.
The goal of the group discussions is to provide the
time and opportunity to compare your ideas and reactions with others. You’ll
learn a lot more about mindbody health and CAM this way. (30% of grade)
B. Reflection paper: At term end, write a paper
of approximately eight pages, pulling together the material in your reading
assignments and one-page reflections. This is intended to be a final reflection
over the material we’ve covered throughout the term that extends your learning
further through your attempt to synthesize your ideas. Thoughtful, reflective
consideration of the material is important. Other criteria to consider include:
evidence of new/creative extensions of your thinking; application of a concept
or idea to your personal life; taking ownership of your beliefs; a central
theme or focus around which the paper is organized; and clarity of the concepts
you use. (30% of grade)
C. Relaxation and Stress Reduction Project. This assignment uses The
Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook to work with basic mindbody
techniques. Read the section titled “How to Get the Most Out of this Workbook”
and Chapter 1. Complete the exercises they contain and use the resulting
information to develop a stress reduction plan for yourself that draws on
various chapters in the text. Select at least four chapters that contain
techniques you would like to explore and work with these regularly for five
weeks. Then assess your progress. What has worked for you? What hasn’t? Why?
Revise your project, dropping, adding, or focusing on certain techniques to
better suit your needs and stay with your project for three more weeks. Then
conduct a final review of what worked, what didn’t, and why. The point of this
project is to understand, through personal experience, the many factors that
influence compliance, adherence, and motivation for attempting and maintaining
change. Pay attention to the records you kept (or didn’t and why), the goals
that you developed, how they helped or hindered your success, and the rewards
you experienced. Understanding this process from the inside-out not only helps
you understand how you can best initiate and maintain change in your life, but
it also helps you understand the difficulties involved in any behavior change
process. Write a five to six-page summary of your experiences. Note the Fridays
on our class schedule that are devoted to discussion of this project. Graduate papers should include a
literature review. The lit review may include research, application, and or
review articles on relevant aspects of stress management programs or it may
include research on specific techniques (e.g., meditation, exercise,
visualization). You may be as general or as specific in shaping the content of
your lit review as you wish, reviewing literature of interest to you. (40%
of grade)
6. Tentative Course Schedule and Reading Assignments--
[Key: HM = The Healing Mind; VIM
= Voices of Integrative Medicine; CR = Collected readings (grads
only)]
Week
One
M
9/29 Course Orientation and Introduction
W
10/1 Basics of Mindbody
Medicine: Part I
Reading for today’s class: HM Chapters 1 & 2; VIM
pgs. vii – 7
F
10/3 Getting stated on our
Relaxation and Stress Reduction Projects
Reading and assignment for today’s class: “How to Get the Most Out
of this Workbook” and Chapter 1—complete the exercises and bring them with you;
Grad students read CR articles in Section 1 by Pelletier and by Levin. We’ll
discuss these during the last half hour of class
Week
Two
M
10/6 Basics of Mindbody
Medicine: Part II
NOTE: This will be the first day that we meet in
our reading discussion groups. Bring your one-page reflection papers to class.
These papers should consider readings assigned for W 10/1 and M 10/6.
Reading for today’s class: HM Chapter 3; VIM Chapter 5
W
10/8 Mind and Immunity: Psychoneuroimmunology
Video: Healing and the
Mind - The Mind Body Connection
Reading assignment: HM Chapter 4; VIM Chapter 3
F
10/10 Mindbody Health through
the Systems Looking Glass
No class for students enrolled in 466—this time
can be allocated to Relaxation and Stress Reduction Projects. Please note that HM Chapters 5 &
7 cover stress and work related stress. As these topics are already familiar to
many of you, won’t be covering them in class. However, I think scanning both
chapters, taking more time with content that’s unfamiliar, will give you
helpful background for your Relaxation and Stress Reduction Projects.
Grad student
reading assignment: CR articles in Section 2 by F. Capra & by E.
Roberts