Mind/body interactions, often-called psychoneuroimmunology explores the complex relationships between mind and body. These approaches have been studied and shown efficacy in treatment of hypertension, asthma, urinary and fecal incontinence, insomnia, chronic pain, enhanced cardiovascular and immune function, improved balance and flexibility, and decreased depression and anxiety.

One example of these techniques is a 10-year study on a support group of women with metastatic breast cancer conducted at Stanford University Medical Center. All 86 women in the study received conventional therapy for breast cancer. Fifty of them also had a one and a half hour support group, once per week, run by two psychiatrists. On average, the support group women lived twice as long as the control group.

For the last three centuries, Western civilization has been steeped in the scientific tradition of reductionism. In the Western mind, by taking things apart and understanding its parts, we hope to gain an understanding of the whole. Many healing traditions believe that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.