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Kundalini Yoga and Addiction Recovery — Part 2

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Melissa Killeen
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Melissa Killeen

This is part two of a guest post written by Fred Haas, a recovery coach from Texas. His post presents information about the use of Kundalini yoga as a resource for recovery from addiction.

Kundalini yoga can be part of the core strategy in a recovery plan or it can be an added tool to supplement and enhance 12-step recovery. Last week in the first part of this blog, Fred provided background information on Kundalini and Kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. This week is the second part of the article that provides information on Kundalini yoga and addiction recovery, Kundalini yoga meditation, Kundalini yoga Kriyas and additional resources for further exploration of the topic.

 Kundalini Yoga as a treatment modality 

Kundalini Yoga began as a treatment modality when 3HO ashram staff members in Washington, D.C. took in two heroin addicts and fed them. 3HO  was an ashram founded by  Yogi Bhajan. 3HO stands for Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization. 3HO started offering recovery services by keeping these heroin addicts in a controlled environment for two weeks and put them into a program that centered on Kundalini Yoga and meditation. Both of these male addicts experienced an amazing transformation.

SuperHealth, the country’s first alternative health center for the treatment of addictions in Tucson, Arizona was created from this Washington DC experience. SuperHealth developed into a systematized program with customized treatment plans for behavioral addictions including stress, substance abuse, other unhealthy habits and emotional disorders. The program included three Kundalini Yoga and meditation classes each day, providing a specific detoxification and rehabilitation diet complete with fresh juices, vitamins, an herbal regime, therapeutic massages, humanology sessions (applied psychology from the perspective of Kundalini Yoga) and individual, family and spiritual counseling.

SuperHealth earned the prestigious western medical accolade of accreditation from JCAHO, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in 1978 and eventually received its highest commendation. SuperHealth distinguished itself as being in the top 10% of all treatment programs throughout the United States in 1978.

From these pioneering efforts of the Kundalini yoga community, yoga and meditation began to be incorporated into mainstream treatment facilities. Today, it is increasingly more common for yoga and meditation to be integrated into treatment programs in hospitals, sober living houses and county treatment centers. From the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California to programs in prisons, yoga classes are presented as either electives or mandatory therapeutic experiences. Kundalini Yoga advances the spiritual quest that Alcoholics Anonymous finds integral to recovery so it serves as a good supplement to the 12 steps.

In 2004, a lifelong goal of Yogi Bhajan, that his teachings to be brought back to India, became a reality. The Punjab government invited SuperHealth to conduct a 90 day pilot project for drug users in Amritsar, India. In October of that year, with a team of professional volunteers, the program opened to serve ten clients. The experience profoundly changed their lives.

 Kundalini Yoga Meditation

In addition to the general benefits associated with meditation (remaining calm and centered, achieving peace of mind, self-discipline, increasing self-esteem, greater awareness and higher consciousness), each Kundalini yoga meditation creates a specific effect. Examples of specific effects that are created by Kundalini yoga meditations that help people in recovery include a meditation to shield us from negativity or a meditation to free us from guilt, blame, shame, resentment and bitterness.

The Medical Meditation for Habituation (also called the Meditation to Break Addiction) is one of the best meditations to specifically promote recovery from drug dependence. This is a quote from the book Sadhana Guidelines for Kundalini Yoga by Gurucharan Singh that serves as the commentary for this meditation.

“The pressure exerted by the thumbs triggers a rhythmic reflex current into the central brain. This current activates the brain area directly underneath the stem of the pineal gland. It is an imbalance in this area that makes mental and physical addictions seemingly unbreakable. In modern culture, the imbalance is pandemic. If we are not addicted to smoking, eating, drinking or drugs, then we are addicted subconsciously to acceptance, advancement, rejection, emotional love, etc. All these lead us to insecure and neurotic behavior patterns. The imbalance in this pineal area upsets the radiance of the pineal gland itself. It is this pulsating radiance that regulates the pituitary gland. Since the pituitary regulates the rest of the glandular system, the entire body and mind go out of balance. This meditation corrects the problem. It is excellent for everyone but particularly effective for rehabilitation efforts in drug dependence, mental illness, and phobic conditions.”

We can change our destiny by changing our habits

The effects of meditation are mastered when they are established as part of a Sadhana, which translates to  ‘daily practice’. This ‘daily practice’ develops a life promoting habit. Humans are habitual creatures so we can actually change our destiny by changing our habits. According to yogic science, the human mind works in cycles. We can use various cycles to help replace unwanted patterns of behavior (mental or emotional habits), with new, more positive ones when we commit to a particular meditation or kriya for a specific time. It takes 40 days to change a habit. It takes 90 days to confirm the habit. In 120 days, the new habit is who you are. In 1000 days, you have mastered the new habit.

A duration of practice that lasts 40 days lets the meditation provoke your subconscious (mind) to release any thoughts and emotional patterns that hinder you. A good meditation will break your old patterns, put in a seed for a new pattern, and clear the subconscious.

The length of the Sadhana meditation has an associated affect. Three (3) minutes affects the electromagnetic field and blood circulation. Eleven (11) minutes affects the nerves and glandular system. Twenty two (22) minutes balances the three minds (Negative, Positive and Neutral) and they begin to work together. Thirty one to thirty three (31-33) minutes affects all the cells, the rhythms of the body, and the layers of the mind’s projections. Sixty two to sixty six (62-66) minutes alters the ‘grey matter’ of the brain – subconscious and outer-projection are integrated. Two and a half (2.5) hours alters the psyche in relation with the surrounding magnetic field to firmly hold the subconscious mind in a new pattern.

Kriyas

In Kundalini yoga, a kriya is an exercise or group of exercises that have a specific purpose. It is a technique that produces an altered state of consciousness. Practicing a kriya launches a succession of mental and physical changes that affect the body, mind and spirit.

Choosing a kriya to support the recovery process is simplified because each kriya makes a claim to its specific effect. Examples of kriyas that can apply to recovery are the kriya for conquering sleep, the kriya for conquering depression, the kriya for liver detox, the kriya to get rid of anger and fear, or the kriya to be rid of internal anger.

Additional resources pertaining to Kundalini Yoga and Recovery for further exploration:

Books:

• Meditations for Addictive Behavior by Mukta Kaur Khalsa, Ph.D.

• Kundalini Yoga – Guidelines for Sadhana (Daily Practice) by Gurucharan Singh Khalsa

Websites:

• http://super-health.net • A reprint from their website: Super-health is on the cutting edge of breaking habits and addictive behavior. It is at the forefront of yogic therapeutic technology that is precise and proven effective. The system addresses alcohol, drugs, smoking, food issues, co-dependency, gambling, work, and computers. It also includes stress, depression, fatigue and anxiety.

• http://www.wholeselfrecovery.com • A reprint from their website: The Whole Self Recovery Program facilitates journeys of healing and rejuvenation that purify, strengthen and merge the body, mind, heart and spirit. Whole Self Recovery offers an alternative to those who seek something other than the traditional recovery program styles as well as something alternative to the most popular 12 step programs. The program immerses the individual in a lifestyle where optimum physical, mental and spiritual health can be achieved and maintained using Kundalini Yoga, Acupuncture, Chiropractics, Ayurveda, Cleansing, Psychology, Addiction Counseling, massage, numerology and other elective therapies.

• http://www.totalhealthrecoveryprogram.com/ • A reprint from their website: Total Health Recovery Program is a world class international holistic drug and alcohol residential-like treatment center and rehab program using master healers and innovative diagnostic and treatment technology to treat drug and alcohol clients. Total Health Recovery Program uses Kundalini Yoga and meditations because it has thousands of exercises available to the practitioner. It is one of the most powerful of all yogas. It is great for releasing stress.

• http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/kyt11.html • Reprint from their website: Food, diet, weight loss, eating disorders, and other addictive substances and behaviors-whatever our specific issue, every day we are all confronted with what to put in our mouths and how the decisions we make affect our well-being. My approach is to use our addictive tendencies as a path to empowerment. In the process we can claim “the gifts from the garbage.”

Videos:

• Yogi Bhajan – An Effective Approach to Addictive Behavior http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auFInq0nMPc

• Yogi Bhajan -Yogic Approach to Addictive Behavior • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fip6PzUMc4

• Carolyn Cowan – Addiction: Understanding the Addictive Mind • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZbCLwxSL3c&feature=related

• Carolyn Cowan – Kundalini Meditations: Healing Addictions • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyjJ2U-L3CE&feature=related

Article:

• This article present treating the Chemically Dependent as a Resurrection Process By Sadhu Singh Khalsa LISW, MSW http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?Id=2350

 

This blog was written by Fred Haas is a recovery and empathic coach in Texas and current president of Recovery Coaches International. For more information on Kundalini Yoga as a resource for recovery from addiction, please contact Fred Haas at his web site: http://www.fredhaascoaching.com/ or by email at: Fred.Haas@sbcglobal.net 

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Using the Power of Kundalini Yoga as a Resource for Recovery from Addiction – Part 1

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Melissa Killeen
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Melissa Killeen

This guest post has been written by Fred Haas, a recovery coach from Texas. His post presents information about the use of Kundalini yoga as a resource for recovery from addiction.

Kundalini yoga can be part of the core strategy in a recovery plan or it can be an added tool to supplement and enhance 12-step recovery. The first part (this post) provides some background information on Kundalini, Kundalini yoga, and Kundalini teachings of Yogi Bhajan. The second part of the blog (next week) provides information on Kundalini yoga and addiction recovery, Kundalini yoga meditation, Kundalini yoga kriyas and additional resources for further exploration of the topic.

Kundalini Yoga

The earliest known written mention of Kundalini Yoga is in the Yoga-Kundalini Upanishad. Some have estimated that the composition of this text dates back between 1,400 and 1,000 BC. The origins of Kundalini Yoga come from the Kashmir region of India. During the thousands of years Kundalini Yoga existed in India its teachings were restricted and maintained as a secret oral tradition to protect the techniques from being abused.

Kundalini yoga is the yoga of awareness. It incorporates physical, mental and spiritual aspects of yoga into a cohesive and integrated system. It is considered an advanced form of yoga that consists of active and passive asana (yoga posture) based Kriyas (protocols for different issues), pranayama (breath control), mantra (sound) and meditations that target the whole body system (nervous system, glands, mental faculties, chakras). The asanas focus on naval activity, activity of the spine, and selective pressurization of body points and meridians. Pranayama and the application of Bhandas (3 yogic locks) aid to release, direct and control the flow of Kundalini energy from the lower centers to the higher energetic centers. This practice raises the complete body awareness and thereby prepares the whole body system to handle the energy of the Kundalini rising.

Kundalini yoga develops awareness, consciousness and spiritual strength. The purpose of Kundalini yoga is for humans to achieve their total creative potential. It cultivates the creative spiritual potential of a human to uphold values, speak truth, and focus on the compassion and consciousness needed to serve and heal others.

Kundalini Activation and Effects

Kundalini energy or spiritual energy is a psycho-spiritual energy of the consciousness that lies at the base of the spine in a latent form, a sleeping, dormant, potential force. Kundalini is described as a great reservoir of creative energy. It is useful to think of Kundalini energy as the very foundation of our consciousness so that when Kundalini moves through our body, our conscious body naturally changes with it. Kundalini energy is an innate and essential part of spiritual advancement, unfoldment, or realization. Kundalini energy is aroused either through spiritual discipline or spontaneously, to bring new states of consciousness, including mystical illumination.

The arousal of Kundalini energy takes place in the subtle body. The subtle body consists of nadis (energy channels), chakras (psychic centers), prana (subtle energy), and bindu (drops of essence). In yogic anatomy, awakened Kundalini rises up through the central energy channel (or nadi) called the sushumna. The sushumna is the central energy channel or conduit for the Kundalini energy to run inside or alongside the spine, up to the crown of the head. There are seven major chakras (psychic centers) located along this central energy channel. These chakras are associated with aspects of our anatomy. They are the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown chakras. In essence, these chakras are psychic centers that, when activated by Kundalini energy, connect us to spiritual energies, and ultimately to the divine.

To summarize the chakras briefly, the first chakra (root) is associated with the color red and with basic root power, pure potential energy. The second chakra (sacral) is associated with the color orange, and with sexual and creative energy. The third chakra (solar plexus) is associated with the color yellow and with emotions, feelings and intuition. The fourth chakra (heart) is associated with the color green and with feelings of love, unity and balance, as it is the midway point between the upper and lower chakras. The fifth chakra (throat) is associated with the color light blue and with the voice and personal expression. The sixth chakra (third eye) is associated with the color indigo, or a deep blue, and with the eyes and with spiritual sight and visions. The seventh chakra (crown) is associated with the color purple and with oneness and enlightenment, and a connection to the rest of the universe. The progress of Kundalini through the different chakras leads to different levels of awakening and mystical experience. When the Kundalini reaches the top of the head, the crown chakra, it produces an extremely profound mystical experience.

Kundalini can be awakened by an indirect or direct path. Indirectly Kundalini can be awakened by devotion, by selfless service, or by intellectual inquiry. Sometimes we experience blocks to the awakening of the Kundalini experience. It is through these indirect paths the blocks to the awakening of Kundalini are slowly removed. Direct paths to Kundalini awakening are initiated by a guru showing a person how to surrender to Kundalini or by using intentional yogic techniques that use the will to awaken the Kundalini and to guide its progress. These intentional yogic techniques include Mantra Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga or Kriya Yoga.

All of Yoga actually leads to the activation of Kundalini. The ultimate outcome of Kundalini is the union of Will, Knowledge and Action (The Absolute).

Kundalini awakening takes different forms for different people. The differences can range from experiences of pure bliss to extreme inner challenges. It can result in a wide array of sensations. The more pleasant experiences associated with a Kundalini awakening may include waves of bliss, periods of elation, and glimpses of transcendental consciousness. The less pleasant experiences associated with a Kundalini awakening may include trembling, sharp aches in areas associated with the chakras, periods of irrational anxiety, and sudden flashes of heat.

Kundalini energy is like a power wash that cleanses the chakras of any blockages or disturbances, and brings them back to their full, vibrating potential. Once the power wash is switched on it cannot simply be turned off so this intense cleansing continues until the body adjusts. Once the energy is gushing forth, rising up the chakra system, it comes into contact with each of the chakras. If it is met with resistance in the form of blockages from psychological debris and unconscious material then the Kundalini energy will wash away the debris and unconscious material and expose the raw unprocessed intimate core of the matter. As a result, even in the best of circumstances, the joy associated with the awakening of Kundalini is likely to be attended with a certain amount of anxiety as Kundalini wrests control from the ego and unconscious contents spill over into consciousness.

There are things that improve the Kundalini Yoga experience. First a knowledgeable teacher or yogi, makes a difference. A supportive environment of fellow practitioners who have undergone the same awakening can provide comfort and confidence. Finally, a strong and resilient mind capable of coping with this sudden burst of unconscious material will help.

Also, there may need to be some integration of the effects of these experiences into the body and personality. This is a time when stabilizing actions are important, including daily exercise, wholesome food, reparative sleep patterns, and healthy relationships with others.

Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan

Yogi Bhajan brought Kundalini Yoga from India to the west in 1968, and taught extensively until his death in 2004. He began training in Kundalini Yoga when he was eight years old, and mastered this discipline at age sixteen.

Yogi Bhajan broke the ancient tradition of secrecy and introduced Kundalini Yoga to the Western world. Kundalini Yoga had never been taught anywhere publicly before this time. Yogi Bhajan started teaching Kundalini yoga because he saw that thousands of young people were using drugs in search of higher consciousness. He offered an alternative to the drug culture. He knew Kundalini yoga would give seekers a real experience of God within, and help heal their mental and emotional problems as well as the physical bodies that had been damaged by the use of drugs.

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® is a formalized style of yoga. A class typically consists of six major components:

1) tuning-in with the Adi Mantra,

2) pranayama or warm-up,

3) Kriyas,

4) relaxation,

5) meditation and

6) close with the blessing song, “May the Long Time Sun Shine upon You”.

The Kriyas are complete sets of exercises that are performed in the specific sequences and directions given by Yogi Bhajan. Yogi Bhajan established the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) foundation in 1969 to further his missionary work.

Next week’s blog post will continue with discussing Kundalini yoga and addiction recovery, Kundalini yoga meditation, Kundalini yoga Kriyas and additional resources for further exploration of Kundalini yoga.

 

Fred Haas is a recovery coach in Texas. For more information on Kundalini Yoga as a Resource for Recovery from Addiction. Please contact Fred Haas at his web site: http://www.fredhaascoaching.com/ or by email at: Fred.Haas@sbcglobal.net 

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Performance Addiction: If I do this, then will I finally be happy?

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Melissa Killeen
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Melissa Killeen

Performance Addiction

As a recovery coach it is hard to surprise me with an addiction of which I am not familiar. Yet, I had never heard of Performance Addiction. Well as Gandhi said “it is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

I was introduced to the concept by Dr Arthur Ciaramicoli, professor at the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge Massachusetts and author of Performance Addiction: The Dangerous New Syndrome and How to Stop it from Ruining Your Life. His book describes in depth  the compulsive ride the over achiever, or the type “A” personality experiences. It is the rollercoaster many of my clients are riding.

Dr Ciaramicoli explains, in a big way, how perfectionism comes into play in performance addiction. Psychologist Robert Stanley and his graduate assistant, Doug Johnson, developed an Almost Perfect Scale to measure the components of perfectionism. Stanley reports that setting standards for perfect performance is desired, reasonable, and after all, is basic to the pursuit of happiness and the American dream. However, Stanley’s work suggests it is our perception of perfectionism that can run amok. The elusive desire to appropriately pursue high standards is adaptive, meaning it is considered healthy perfectionism and is present in many of us. What performance addiction is all about is the pursuit of high standards in order to hide our imperfections or inferiority, which is considered maladaptive perfectionism, or a rather unhealthy pursuit. With performance addiction, when you don’t reach your goal, what happens? You believe you are inferior and that belief turns into a whole bunch of disapproving thoughts, depression, negative self-esteem and unhappiness.

Return to the scene of the crime.

Dr Ciaramicoli invites his readers to return to the “scene of the crime” or where was this performance seed was planted? Where does this belief that if you try harder you will be rewarded by love and happiness begin? The seed is usually found in our families, experiences in our youth, and our schooling.

How many of us grew up in a household where our performance was compared to our worthiness? Did your parents elevate you by bragging to neighbors or by giving you money if you got all A’s on your report card? Did they negate you if you did not make a goal at the soccer game, or get nominated to the honor society? Were they hypercritical of every move you made? The seeds of maladaptive perfectionism were often sown in the home. Some of us marry into it. When two people who grew up in highly perfectionistic households marry, the two play out their maladaptive perfectionism to such a high degree that the level of evaluation and pinnacles of judgment can cause nose bleeds. Yes, things get done, professions may flourish but there is little intimacy, enjoyment or meaningful spontaneity in their lives.

If I do this, then will I finally be happy?

Growing up and doing better than your parents was basically a depression era mind set. Yet today, three out of four kids go to college “to make more money.” A study by UCLA and the American Council on Education completed in 1998 listed the objectives desired after graduating: 74 percent of the students ranked “being very well off” higher than developing a meaningful philosophy on life, helping others or raising a family. The seeds of performance addiction have been sown. After all, isn’t making more money the perfect goal?

Ed Deiner, positive psychologist from the University of Illinois surveyed 100 people from Forbes list of Richest Americans. He found that the happiness quotient was only slightly higher for the richy-rich than the average Joe. But the elusive thought of “maybe if I do it better, work at it harder, I will be rewarded financially and then, I will finally be happy” is firmly planted in everyone’s brain. Especially in the performance addict’s head.

Performance addiction is not just evident in the workplace, it effects love interests as well. In the book General Theory of Love, three psychiatrists have answered the age-old question of “How do I pick a partner?” Thomas Lewis, MD, Fari Amini, MD, and Richard Lannon, MD, explain that emotional attachments are deeply rooted in our early life experiences. Emotional attachments cannot be directed or rationalized. However, these doctors have seen there is a link between the emotional attachments that were vital to our childhood survival and the same attachments that influence our selection of a mate when we are adults. They use the example of a child being dependent on his mother. Whether or not the mother is beautiful, smart or an ax murderer, the child grows to love the emotional patterns he has linked to his mother. So when he is an adult and meets a potential mate who has the same characteristics as his mother, BAMM! He is entranced, feels he belongs with this person, and falls in love.

None of us falls in love with another person. We fall in love with an image.

Ciaramicoli goes into great depth about “Image Love.” The image of “what or who” we think that person we have fallen in love with is. But the reality is; they are not who we think they are. We idealize these lovers into an image of our mother, father, rich woman, smart man, independent woman, athletic man, whatever our mind makes up will be the perfect person for us. We create an image in our brains that this is our true love. But it is really based on our past. Performance addicts are especially prone to this. They have goals in mind for their partner, images that their partners must fit into. Such as their parents must love this person (sometimes this is more important, than the performance addict actually loving this person), this person has to have a certain body type, have a high sexual performance rating or believe in a certain religion. In essence the performance addict is creating a love image of their mate, before he/she even walks in the door on their first date.

Performance addiction is constantly evaluating and the addict’s emotional capital is based on the outcome of that judgment. It gets even more complicated when sex gets into the picture, but that is another blog post, entirely. Again, our shrinks from the book General Theory of Love classify being in love as different from loving. The first distinction between these two is time. Taking the time to get to know the other person. Going through that incredible Dopamine-filled period of infatuation and truly getting to know the other person. Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon, say that being in love requires a brief acquaintance, a spark, some chemistry, a few dates or maybe a roll in the hay. However, loving requires time, intimacy, and a prolonged surveillance of another person’s soul. Of course as a performance addict it is hard to move from in love to loving, because one has to move from a relationship that is sexually exciting, passionate, alive with attraction, tons of verbal acceptance and compliments to, well, let’s call it boring, normal relationship stuff, truly mediocre life experiences. Such as waking up late, running out the door eating cornflakes, passing gas under the covers or deciding who is going to vacuum the living room.

I can’t even use the word mediocre, it’s terrifying.

A performance addict hates the thought of being average in anything they do. Their mood goes up and down depending on how their performance is rated by others. They are labeling others based on their projected imperfections. Being better than is preferred to being less than, white collar over blue collar, college educated over a high school education, exceptional over mediocre. Whether it is in the workplace, the bedroom or at home, performance addiction is tremendously damaging to relationships. As Dr. Ciaramicoli stated, the scene of the crime started with the family. How do you think the performance addict learned their behaviors? Most likely from another performance addict.

The parent trap.

Besides teaching a performance addict-in-training how to be better than the Jones’ next door, how many times is the child used by the parent-performance-addict first? How does a parent-performance-addict use their children to bolster their self-worth? Does the TV show Dance Moms ring a bell? Have you heard a father brag about his son making the varsity team? Or a mom criticizing her daughter for dying her hair purple? How about a parent who yells and screams at their kids at a little league game? Of course the media has us convinced that every Jewish mother wants her son to grow up to be a doctor. How about in small business? In every family-run business the child is expected to take over the enterprise. What if they don’t want to? It is tough to break this cycle.

All of us need to push away the illusions we have lived with for the majority of our lives. The illusions that money can buy happiness, that true fulfillment comes with business success, we have to take over the business to please Dad or if we are thin, rich or young enough, we can find love.

People who are experiencing these secret compulsions to succeed at any cost are thrown off the merry-go-round every time something changes. Their desire to control, be perfect, too find happiness is their path and they will not accept anything less. Their performance addiction is a defense against feelings of fear and inferiority. These addicts depend wholly on exterior measurements of value, big house, fancy clothes, corner office rather than exposing their vulnerabilities by video taping their daughter with Down Syndrome and putting it on YouTube.

Performance addiction permeates our culture, work, home, church and school. But if we are equipped to treat ourselves as individuals we hold in high regard, if we have deeper respect for ourselves as evidenced by taking care of ourselves, loving our spouses and caring for our family, we can change. Performance addiction can be worked on, healed and then set aside.

Arthur P. Ciaramicoli, Ed.D., Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been treating clients for more than 35 years. Dr. Ciaramicoli is the SoundMindz Chief Medical Officer, and has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for several years. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Ciaramicoli has lectured at Harvard Health Services, Boston College Counseling Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore as well is also a seasoned media expert, appearing on CNN, Fox News, Comcast TV, Good Morning America Weekend, The O’Reilly Report, and other shows. Dr. Ciaramicoli is the author of The Curse of the Capable: The Hidden Challenges to a Balanced, Healthy, High Achieving Life (Wiley, 2010), Performance Addiction: The Dangerous New Syndrome and How to Stop It from Ruining Your Life (Wiley 2004) and The Power of Empathy: A Practical Guide to Creating Intimacy, Self-Understanding, and Lasting Love (Dutton 2000). His newsletter, blog comments and contact information are available at this web site, http://www.BalanceYourSuccess.com. You can follow his daily insights at www.twitter.com/docapc.

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