Mark Seem

In the West, our current medical models often treat the body and the psyche as separate entities having little or no relation to one another. Increasingly, health practitioners and their patients are recognizing the limitations of this approach and exploring the mysterious link between body, psyche, and spirit.An acupuncture therapist grounded in Western philosophy and psychology, Mark Seem views the bodymind as a complex energy field, connected in turn to the energies of earth and cosmos. Drawing on ancient principles of acupuncture energetics from the East, and the modern tradition of psychosomatics in the West, he explains how, by acknowledging ourselves as whole, integrated beings, we set in motion a process that heals the body/mind split and leads to genuine well-being.In this new orientation, known as bodymind energetics, events and emotional states affecting the psyche are accompanied by, and mirrored in, bodily changes. Thus, a person who carries "the weight of the world" on his back may actually show the physical characteristic of slumped shoulders. Observing our physical patterns, as well as the more subtle energetic systems, we can more readily identify psychological disturbances that may be contributing to an imbalance. Conversely, an understanding of the psychological elements of an illness can shed light on both cause and treatment of physical conditions.Seem encourages Western health practitioners to develop new forms of therapy appropriate to our own culture, emphasizing the early detection and treatment of energetic imbalances of both psyche and body. Practitioners of every persuasion and clinical orientation, he believes, will come to understand that their work resides in a human domain, where the dynamic meeting between the spirits of therapist and client energizes both and results in an unlimited capacity for healing the bodymind.… (meer)