Most women understand that there is a connection between the mind and the body, but most of us don’t know how to apply this understanding to ourselves. It’s hard to know whether to take a non-traditional health product, talk to a therapist, or visit your physician, massage therapist, or chiropractor when you encounter a problem.

The choice has just become easier. A wonderful book and tape series by Christiane Northrup, M.D., gives us clear information about tuning into and interpreting the signals our bodies and minds continuously send to us. Dr. Northrup is one of the very few women physicians who combines non-traditional healing practices with training as a gynecologist and obstetrician.

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (752 pages) is the finest, most balanced book I have ever encountered on women’s health. The first few chapters show the problems caused by the way our social conditioning disconnects us from our inner intelligence. She writes “All emotions…have physical effects. Unexpressed emotions…are illnesses in incubation.” (p. 19). Later chapters discuss specific information about how different physical systems function and a variety of approaches to attending to physical and emotional problems.

The audio version of Creating Health is also available. Topics covered are Creating Health (a general orientation), PMS, Nutrition, and Menopause. I loved listening to them, because Chris Northrup’s warmth and humanity, as well as her clarity, made it easy to absorb the information. I was very impressed when I met Chris several years ago at an American Holistic Medical Association meeting. I am thrilled that her wisdom is now so easily available to help us all become partners in our own health care.
Is this you? “I don’t need therapy, but I could use some advice about…”

[tags]Self Help, Personal Growth, Health, Women’s Health[/tags]