Bernie Siegel, M.D. and friends

In the early 1990s, I was led to meet the renowned medical doctor and spiritual teacher, Dr. Bernie Siegel, MD, bestselling author of Love, Medicine & Miracles, Peace, Love & Healing, and many other notable books. He had become a pioneer in the field of Body Mind & Spirit medicine and a proponent of integrative and holistic approaches to healing that heal not just the body but the mind and soul.

Bernie had been a general and pediatric surgeon until 1989, when he retired from his surgical practice and began to dedicate himself to humanizing the medical establishment’s approach to patients. He and his wife, Bobbie, founded Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP) support groups to help patients facilitate their own healing.

I was fortunate to be able to train with Bernie and Bobbie during a weekend retreat in Marin County, California, that was designed for Health Care Professionals to learn how to facilitate ECaP support groups. It was a profound experience for me to learn how to lead individuals and groups using meditation, creative visualization, dreams, drawings, the exploration of feelings, and with lots of love and laughter.

I then attended a workshop with Bernie at Mount Madonna Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, where he taught a group of health care practitioners and patients how to do spontaneous drawings, using color crayons, of our own bodies—drawings that revealed our illnesses, our belief in the effectiveness of any medical treatments we might be receiving, and our feelings about our body’s ability to heal. Bernie then taught us how to interpret these drawings, both for ourselves and any patients we might work with. He showed us that we could turn on our own innate healing abilities and bring about healings that were often considered miraculous.

During another event I attended in Monterey, California, Bobbie sat up on the stage on a high stool, cracking one hilarious joke after another—she was the warm-up for Bernie’s thoughtful and insightful sharing of how we truly can heal ourselves. Bernie and Bobbie wholeheartedly believed in the power of laughter to heal and always had the audience in stitches.

For many years, Bernie and Bobbie traveled the nation, giving heartfelt talks, workshops, and presentations at hospitals, in conference centers, and at weekend retreats. Bernie and Bobbie became great teachers and mentors to me along my spiritual path. They helped me to learn how to heal myself and helped me become a better nurse by showing me new and creative ways to facilitate other people to heal themselves.

Thank you, Bernie and Bobbie!  I am eternally grateful for your contribution to my life.