Healing Brain Seminar: November 1990

HEALTHY PLEASURES: THE NEW SCIENCE OF MOOD MEDICINE

Imagine a medical treatment that relieves anxiety and depression, lowers blood pressure, decreases heart disease and cancer risk, boosts immune function, and blocks pain – a treatment that’s safe, inexpensive, readily available, and whose main side effect is that it makes you feel good.

It’s not a miracle drug. These and other benefits appear to come from pleasure itself.

And this pleasure prescription is filled in the internal pharmacy of the brain.

Join a distinguished faculty of researchers and clinicians for an exciting day exploring the new science of mood medicine. Special emphasis will be given to how you can apply the new therapies in your own life and in clinical practice.

Who Should Attend
The conference is specifically designed for psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses, social workers, marriage and family counselors, health educators and others interested in the healing or helping services.

Conference Objectives

At the conclusion of this conference, participants should be better able to:

• Describe how pleasure and positive mood are critical to psychological and physical health
• Improve mood and health by enhancing sensory stimulation and enjoyment
• Understand the effects of psychological and emotional states on immune function
• Enhance immune function by teaching relaxation, training cognitive and coping skills, and strengthening social support
• Understand the evidence linking social connectedness, altruism, and health
• Encourage people to adopt selfless attitudes and altruistic behaviors to promote health

PROGRAM

9:00-10:30

Healthy Pleasures:
The Virtues of Sensuality
David S. Sobel, M.D.
Evolution has equipped us with an innate guide to health. By following pleasurable sensations we can be rewarded twice: immediate enjoyment and better health. The healthiest people seem to be pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, pleasure-creating individuals. Yet, many people today are not getting their minimum daily requirements of sensual pleasure. Our senses not only alert us to danger, they can pleasurably guide us to better health. Health promotion need not be a dull regimen of self-denial. Learn about the therapeutic benefits of touch, looking at nature, sweet scents, saunas, tasty foods, good music, good sex and other sensual pleasures.

David S. Sobel, M.D., M.P.H., is Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California and Chief of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose. He is co-author of several books including The Healing Brain and Healthy Pleasures.

11:00-12:30

The Pursuit of Happiness:
Using Mood Medicine
Robert Ornstein, Ph.D.
Research studies on happiness and well-being are puzzling: People aren’t usually happy doing what they believe will make them happy and people who obtain great wealth and power don’t necessarily become happier. By understanding the real determinants of happiness, people can learn to control their moods and increase personal happiness. Learn about the tricks of the mind: Why for most people money doesn’t increase happiness, but small daily pleasures do. Why having an unhappy past can be used to improve mood in the present. How telling yourself a good story can improve well-being. Why confession may be good for the body as well as the soul. How current research in psychology can be used to improve mood, well-being and health.

Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., is the President of The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge and a writer, lecturer, and researcher in the brain and human sciences. His books include The Amazing Brain, The Psychology of Consciousness, The Healing Brain, and Healthy Pleasures.

2:00-3:30

Mind-Made Immunity:
Psychological Influences on Immune Function
Margaret Kemeny, Ph.D.
Experiencing major traumas and even the minor stresses of daily living can affect certain immune processes. Investigations in the emerging science of psychoneuroimmunology now suggest that positive experiences, intimate relationships, relaxation, psychological interventions, and certain emotional states can enhance immune function. Expressing feelings, optimism, and coping through active engagement appear to be better for immune function than inhibiting feelings, pessimism, and passive submission. Learn how the mind and the immune system talk to one another, and ways in which a healthy dialogue can be supported.

Margaret E. Kemeny, PhD., is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine. She applies her training in health psychology and immunology to research on how emotional stress, major traumas, and coping skills affect immune function.

3:45-5:00

Healthy Altruism:
The Health Benefits of Selfless Pleasures
Robert Ornstein, Ph.D.
Sometimes the best way to improve yourself is to forget yourself. By caring for and about something outside yourself-whether it be pets, plants, people, politics, or the planet—one may do much more to improve health than many self—centered health promotion regimens. Human beings are social animals. Connecting with and helping others, being part of the larger human organism or social body is vital to health. Learn about the possible benefits of altruism on mood, health and immunity and why it is therapeutic to help people strengthen their social connectedness

USING THE NEW SCIENCE OF MOOD MEDICINE

The brain minds the body, and states of health and disease are profoundly influenced by states of mind. Recent advances in the brain and behavioral sciences confirm that the body is not a mindless machine. While stress may undermine health, certain positive states of mind may build immunity. Understanding the intimate dialog of mind and body opens the way to a variety of practical therapies that can mobilize the healing potential of the brain.

Join us in either San Francisco or Los Angeles for an exciting day-long conference on the healing brain. A distinguished faculty of leading clinicians and researchers will explore emerging trends in the new science of mood medicine. Special emphasis will be given to how you can apply the new therapies in your own life and in clinical practice.

Who Should Attend
The conference is specifically designed for psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses, social workers, marriage and family counselors, health educators and others interested in the healing or helping services.

Conference Objectives

At the conclusion of this conference, participants should be better able to:

• Describe the physiological and health-related effects of positive beliefs and expectations
• Use strategies to improve health by increasing optimism, confidence and self-efficacy
• Understand how hardiness beliefs and coping strategies can maintain health
• Understand hardiness assessment and training
• Identify the aspects of Type A behavior that are actually damaging to the heart
• Apply practical strategies to counter the harmful effects of hostility and anger
• Understand the evidence linking social connectedness, altruism, and health
• Encourage people to adopt selfless attitudes and altruistic behaviors to promote health.

PROGRAM

9:00-10:30

The Optimism Antidote:
When Belief Becomes Biology
David S. Sobel, M.D.
Our beliefs, expectations, and ways of seeing the world can have profound effects on our mental and physical well-being. A growing body of scientific studies demonstrate that there is a biology of self-confidence and hope, that positive beliefs and expectations can influence physiology. Optimistic people tend to lead longer, healthier lives and recover more rapidly from stressful experiences. Learn practical techniques and strategies to increase optimism, confidence and self-efficacy.

David S. Sobel, M.D., M.P.H., is Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California and Chief of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose. He is co-author of several books including The Healing Brain and Healthy Pleasures.

11:00-12:30

Hardiness: Fostering Stress-Resistance
Salvatore Maddi, Ph.D.
Not everyone confronted with stressors becomes sick. What makes some people more stress-resistant? The hardiness model of stress mastery can help us understand the interaction of various risk and resistance factors that determine health under stress. Hardy beliefs and coping strategies can turn some stresses into advantages helping people to become more successful, satisfied, and healthy. Learn how hardiness is assessed and trained.

Salvatore R. Maddi, Ph.D., is Professor in the Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine and President of the Hardiness Institute. He is known for his contributions to theory, research and practice in the hardiness approach to personality, stress management and existential psychology. He is a 1990 Master Lecturer for the American Psychological Association and author of numerous scientific papers and the books Personality Theories and The Hardy Executive: Health Under Stress.

2:00-3:30

The Trusting Heart: Countering the Harmful Effects of Hostility
Redford Williams, M.D.
Not all aspects of Type A behavior are equally bad for the heart. New research points to hostility—and its components of cynicism, anger, and aggression—as the only aspects of Type A that are toxic to the heart as well as the rest of the body. This harm appears to stem both from an excessive “flight-or-flight” response when hostile people are angered and deficient calming responses. Learn how high levels of trust are conducive to a longer, healthier life, and about strategies you and your clients can use to develop a more “trusting heart.”

Redford Williams, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University Medical Center. His research has provided new insights into the mechanisms of coronary-prone behavior. He is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as the popular book The Trusting Heart: Great News About Type A Behavior.

3:45-5:00

Healthy Altruism:
Why Social Connectedness is Therapeutic
Robert Ornstein, Ph.D.
Sometimes the best way to improve yourself is to forget yourself. By caring for and about something outside yourself—whether it be pets, plants, people, politics, or the planet—one may do much more to improve health than many self-centered health promotion regimens. Human beings are social animals and the most striking ingredient in human life is cooperation. We seemed primed, biologically, to help other people and those who help others seem to be protected themselves. Connecting with and helping others, being part of the larger human organism or social body is vital to health. Learn about the possible benefits of altruism on mood, health and immunity and why it is therapeutic to help people strengthen their social connectedness.

Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., is the President of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge and a writer, lecturer, and re-searcher in the brain and human sciences. His books include The Amazing Brain, The Psychology of Consciousness, The Healing Brain, and Healthy Pleasures.