Mindbody Resources
Resources to help us gain freedom from mindbody syndromes, including chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and more
(maybe even artist’s block too)
Start Here
These are all wonderful starting places for mindbody healing. I’ve listed some of them in other sections of this page as well.
Book: Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno. I worked through this book in 2011 and successfully healed severe neck pain within a few days. In fact, most of the pain was gone in a matter of hours.
Book: The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain by Alan Gordon. As far as I know, this is the first widely-published book that offers scientific proof, through fMRI imagery, that the brain changes through mindbody healing methods. Plus, it’s an easy read and humorous too.
Book/Workbook: Unlearn Your Pain: A 28-Day Process to Reprogram Your Brain and Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression: A Self-Guided Process to Reprogram Your Brain by Dr. Harold Schubiner. Unlearn Your Pain was rather difficult for me to work through. I’ve not been able to complete it yet but have seen great reviews with other people’s success stories and am confident that it’s a good resource. I’ll be working through Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression in the near future.
Workbook: The Mindbody Workbook: A thirty day program of insight and understanding for people with back pain and other disorders by Dr. David Schtechter. A simple and straightforward guided journaling process to eliminate chronic pain. I worked through this workbook in 2017 and successfully healed my debilitating gastric pain with a couple of months of daily journaling.
Free Course: Reign of Pain on Coursera by Dr. Harold Schubiner. I’m currently working through the course and am impressed by its straightforward explanations of pain. Just a heads up: answers to the course’s reflection questions are publicly visible and can’t be deleted. I keep my answers to these reflections in a private file on my computer and don’t post them to the course page.
Podcast Episode: Recovery from Covid Long Haul with Lieke by Nichole Sachs. Listening to this podcast episode helped me heal long covid symptoms in 2022.
Dr. John Sarno Resources
Books by Dr. Sarno
Healing Back Pain: The Mindbody Connection - A simple introduction to mindbody healing for chronic pain
The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain - Another excellent introduction, and my own starting point in this journey
Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders - A somewhat more technical book geared toward clinicians, physicians, and motivated lay readers. Unlike Mindbody Prescription, this book contains a clear treatment plan (once you’ve read through a good amount of info on Freud)
Lectures, Interviews, and Audio
Dr. Sarno’s two-hour lecture on mindbody syndrome - This lecture is part of Dr. Sarno’s treatment plan as described in his book Divided Mind.
Healing Back Pain audiobook on YouTube
Lecture by Dr. Ira Rashbaum on Dr. Sarno’s methodology
YouTube playlist of Sarno resources
TMS Wiki
A free community wiki and forum filled with success stories and support
Main site: TMSwiki.org
Discussion forum: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/
Success stories: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Success_Stories_by_Symptoms_%26_Diagnoses
Free recovery program: Structured Education Program
Dr. Harold Schubiner
A highly respected author and leader in the field
Documentary: This Might Hurt
Book: Unlearn Your Pain: A 28-Day Process to Reprogram Your Brain
Book: Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression: A Self-Guided Process to Reprogram Your Brain
Free video course: Reign of Pain on Coursera (Note: Answers to the course’s reflection questions are publicly visible and can’t be deleted. I kept my answers to these reflections offline. Also, you’ll be prompted to pay for the course that that’s entirely optional.)
Alan Gordon
A psychotherapist specializing in pain recovery, author of the excellent book The Way Out
Book: The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain
Alan Gordon’s pain recovery program on TMSwiki
Pain Reprocessing Therapy website
Pain Reprocessing Therapy Wiki
More Books
Dr. John Sarno’s Top 10 Healing Discoveries by Steven Ray Ozanich
Use Your Mind to Heal Your Body: How I used Dr. Sarno’s medically proven treatment plan to eliminate my back pain forever by Stephen Conenna