An Introduction to Integral Health
The Path to Human Flourishing
$25.00 Friday
$85.00 Saturday Only (lunch)
$95 Friday & Saturday (Saturday lunch included)
Place: Institute for Religion and Health
8100 Greenbriar #220, Houston, Texas
Registration Required: 713-797-0600
Elliott S. Dacher, M.D.
Friday June, 22, 2007 3 pm – 6 pm
All humans aspire to the highest possible level of health, happiness, and wholeness. This enduring aspiration is the driving force in the long evolutionary ascent of health care from bare survival, to treatment systems, preventive strategies, health promotion, and pluralistic integrated approaches.
Driven by an expansion of consciousness and vision we are now ready to evolve the next step in this ongoing evolutionary process – an integral approach to health and healing. This comprehensive and far-reaching perspective and methodology brings together the full resources of our outer and inner healing capacities to assist individuals in personally realizing their innate human potential for a sustained and perfected health, happiness, and wholeness. This is the authentic flourishing of body, mind, and spirit that is the final aim of all great philosophies and healing traditions. In his afternoon talk Dr. Dacher will introduce the vision, foundational research, principles, and practices of the emerging field of integral health.
The Formation of the Integral Practitioner
An Experiential Workshop for Health Care Practitioners
Elliott S. Dacher, M.D.
Saturday, June 23, 2007 - 9 AM – 5 PM
Our professional identity and specific approach to health and healing are shaped by the vision and content of our medical education. In modern times medical education and subsequent clinical practice -- conventional and alternative – are most often reduced to biology and technique. In contrast, the crucial ingredient in integral medical practice is the identity, character, consciousness, and inner development of the healer. As a result the educational focus of the integral approach shifts from the medical tool kit to the practitioner who holds the tool kit.
The formation of an integral healer is primarily concerned with the cultivation of the deeper and broader identity of the healer – the cultivation of a vast and profound wisdom and compassion. As a result of a progressive process of study, reflection, and practice the practitioner will personally and directly experience the qualities, potential, and methods employed in attaining a far-reaching well being of body, mind, and spirit. An integral clinical practice will organically unfold as the natural expression of this integral level of consciousness and its associated qualities and skills.
In the morning session, using the integral vision and map as a foundation, we will explore the relationship of inner development to the skills of unconditioned listening, focused attention, and healing presence. We will examine how these capacities help define the unique characteristics of the integral practitioner-patient relationship.
In the afternoon we will explore the three fundamental causes of suffering and their relationship to health and disease, the qualities of human flourishing as expressed in the great philosophies and healing traditions, and the nature of compassionate service. We will conclude by exploring the resources and practices that will assist the practitioner in fully engaging and integrating the integral perspective into his or her personal and professional life.
Elliott Dacher, M.D. is a teacher, author and pioneer in the emerging field of integral health. He began his internal medicine practice in 1970 and left active medical practice in 1996 to begin an in-depth study of consciousness and health. This research led to the publication of his most recent book, Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing (Basic Health, 2006.) Dr. Dacher is also the author of Whole Healing (Dutton/Plume,1996) and Intentional Healing (Marlowe, 1996.) He is a former fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. He currently studies, practices, and teaches the principles and practices of integral health and healing.
For more information his website is: www.elliottdacher.org
