The MindBody Workbook

This Workbook offers the reader a thirty-day structured journal to identify and heal from psychological issues that may be causing back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headaches, TMJ, and other disorders. The author, Dr. David Schechter, a former student of Dr. John Sarno, has developed a Workbook that instructs and guides the reader through a process of insight and awareness to harness the mindbody connection. From the Author I've been fascinated by the mindbody connection since before medical school. The seminal event of my medical education in this regard was my own cure from chronic, unexplained knee pain with the guidance of John Sarno, MD from NYU's Rusk Institute. After this personal success, I performed a follow-up study of his patients, under his auspices and determined that this approach proved successful in a remarkably high 77% of chronic back sufferers. As my career has progressed, I've developed my own program of treatment that includes an office consultation and educational seminar on this subject for my patients. I've developed a series of materials including audiotapes, article, video, and now this Workbook. I feel this Workbook offers the best opportunity for people suffering from mindbody disorders that I may not personally be able to treat. With the help of a local physician to exclude more serious disease, they should be able to benefit greatly from the thirty-day structured journal approach, on their own, as my own patients do in my office. This Workbook has been used successfully with appropriately selected patients in the office and in published research studies. Many thousands have been helped by ordering and doing the home program.

WHY WRITING ABOUT YOUR PAIN CAN HELP I realized many years ago that the process that begins with a diagnosis in the office needed to continue and be reinforced at home to be even more effective. I advised patients to go home and keep a daily journal of feelings and emotions. Some did great with this advice. Others found it hard to sustain the effort of writing in a blank notebook after a few days or perhaps a week. So I wrote The MindBody Workbook which is a guided journal that offers the reader daily questions (typically four) and a space for their answers. Over the course of the 30 days of the workbook, people are asked questions that cover a variety of areas in their life (family, work, financial, childhood). The questions probe more deeply each week. I encourage people to keep writing, if not daily, at least two to three times per week, after the 30 day workbook is completed. The style of writing is a free flowing, open association of events with feelings and feelings with earlier experiences. You can begin this tonight if you are ready. Don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, or too much about neatness. Look at it as a private journal that you may re-read, but that no one else is supposed to read without your permission. I heard from a patient that some folks on the internet were referring to the MindBody Workbook as the ‘dreaded workbook’. I think the dread that some people feel as they approach journaling about their life and their pain is the fear of opening up. For others, it’s the discomfort at looking inside. Still others find the discipline of taking time out daily to write for 10-20 minutes to be difficult in their busy, chaotic lives. But overall, I am sort of honored that the workbook is not a “fluff” and that it requires some effort. I find that just about everything in life that is worthwhile requires some effort… and maybe a little dread at times. Daily journaling can help reinforce a psychological thinking style and help you to gain psychological insight. I find that learning to make this a regular part of one’s thinking process occurs with daily or regular journaling about feelings and fears. It's important to write down your answers or record them on your smartphone or if your ebook reader allows extensive annotation, that may work as well. While reading the introductory section and even the questions is helpful, best results are clearly obtained with the process of writing or speaking the answers and saving them in some recorded form.

David Schechter, MD is Board Certified in Sports Medicine and Family Medicine, with a credential in Pain Medicine. He is in private practice in Beverly Hills and Culver City, California and has served on the faculty of the USC School of Medicine since 1990. Dr. Schechter has published and presented widely on the topic of musculoskeletal pain. Voted Top Doctor by US News and World Report, Dr. Schechter is a leading physician in the field of psychophysiologic disorders. He was Dr. John Sarno's first "student" and has practiced mind-body medicine for over 25 years and cured thousands of patients with a mind-body approach to pain.