It’s been a blast here at the ASCH meeting in a sort of sleep-deprived way. Yesterday after Pierre Rainville’s keynote, I spent 2 hours with him (and David Spiegel of Stanford) in my room doing Dr. Rainville’s video interview and talking about his perspective that hypnosis is the humanistic connection between neuroscience and the study of subjective experience, something that the Cognitive Behavioral perspective misses. Dr. Rainville (University of Montreal) filmed a short “hello” to the Saybrook Hypnosis, Biofeedback, and Cognitive Neuroscience students, responding to the question, “Why should a student in Mind-Body Medicine study __________?” Dr. Rainville is a great guy, who researches everything from brain mechanisms in hypnosis to pain perception in Zen meditators.
The ASCH Board of Governor’s meeting started at 7:00pm last night, but lasted until 11:30pm. Therapy in the lounge afterward ran over and I got to bed about 3:00 AM.
Today I had a series of meetings with Akari Otani (Johns Hopkins University), Joel Marcus (private practice, Nevada), and George Glaser (private practice, Austin, Texas) related to getting the “Approved” Status for the Saybrook Hypnosis Courses. All were impressed with the program and think that after a few hours of paperwork I should have no trouble getting the courses approved. Several members have resigned from the ASCH education committee and Julie Linden (private practice, Philadelphia) is now Director of Education so no one is quite sure who is doing what! I took the 10 hour class with Julie, and met with all the others so I think we’re OK.
Tonight I hung out with the good Dr. Olafur Palsson (UNC-Chapel Hill, specializes in applying hypnosis to IBS and related disorders) at the President’s Reception, and he agreed to Skype into our next Saybrook hypnosis course to say “hello.” Then it was off to dinner with Assen Alladin (University of Calgary) and his wife, along with Bruce Eimer (Hundington Valley, Pennsylvania) and Linda Thomson (private practice, Ludlow, Vermont, author of Harry the Hypnopotamus). Another therapy session in the lounge and it’s back to my room to write this and start to pack. I did get a good photo tonight where I’m standing with David Patterson (University of Washington), Bruce Eimer, and Assen Alladin. That’s over 120 years of clinical work in pain and depression and we’re all still smiling! Tonight I’ll be in bed before 2:00 AM, then it’s ASCH courses until 4:00 PM tomorrow (today) and fly out about 6:30 PM. Hopefully it won’t take 10 hours, as the trip here did. I got to the airport in GR at 8:00 AM last Friday and arrived here 20 minutes before my 7:00 PM presentation to a full room. The only thing this meeting was missing was Don Moss and the wives.
From an altered State,
Eric Willmarth, College of MBM