Posts Tagged ‘meditation’

Perinatal Therapist Spotlight: Robin Muskal, Ph.D.

Dr. Robin Muskal

Please welcome my colleague from Morristown, New Jersey, Robin Muskal, Ph.D., with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and has trained as a  psychotherapist, body worker and energy practitioner for 20 years  to BirthTouch^®  as a guest expert today!  Robin works with the perinatal and postpartum population as an adjunct wellness practitioner. She is an advocate for whole person care and helps patients build a strong network of community supports. Utilizing a meaningful set of interventions and techniques, such as meditation, yoga, mindfulness and cognitive behavioral strategies Robin, will assist with transitions, balance of mood and empowerment towards self-integrity and healing. Robin is a Board Certified wellness coach, and a teacher of Iyengar yoga. She has a private practice in Morristown and Florham Park, NJ. 

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Evidence-based mindfulness practices help alleviate depression and anxiety (Istock/Zen)

A(nother) very large research team (umm how about calling them the Oceans Eleven of JH?)  led by Madhav Goyal, MD, MPH, at Johns Hopkins University published findings from a study they did about the effects of mindfulness practices on symptoms of anxiety and depression.

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Mindbody practices have so many benefits, you’d have to order online from outside the US to be able to afford them- Read the research!

With so much talk about the expense of healthcare, I wanted to put out a positive message about inexpensive mindbody self-care practices. Self- care doesn’t have to be expensive. Self-care is an important component of postpartum depression treatment. Low cost mindbody therapies are helpful on many levels. Research strongly indicates complementary therapies improve health on multiple levels and in concrete ways and are low cost.

For four rewarding years, I ran the MindBody Program at the Cancer Center at a hospital. The program provided relief for people with the burden of chronic illness on emotional and physical levels. Research indicates persons with chronic illness, co-morbidity, aging-related illness and persons with mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, are among the most likely to use complementary therapies (Cheung, Wyman, and Halcon, 2007), so it was a good fit. Research such as that conducted by Ben-Ayre, Frankel, Klein, Scharf (2008) indicates patients expect their physicians to refer to appropriate complementary care clinics as needed. The MindBody Program was a forerunner of the integrative medicine trend.

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