Michael Mayer, Ph.D. has devoted the past 30 years to researching, lecturing and writing about the integration of ancient and modern methods of healing the body and mind. He is a licensed Psychologist, hypnotherapist and a Qigong/Tai Chi teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who specializes in giving his patients self-healing methods for physical and mental health problems. In the 1970's he co-founded the Transpersonal Psychology Program at John F. Kennedy University and trained graduate students there for 12 years. His interest in integrating the body and mind in psychotherapy led him to be the SF Bay Area training coordinator for Dr. Eugene Gendlin's "focusing" process, a bodymind healing method, which won many psychotherapy awards.
Dr. Mayer now presents his integrative approach to bodymind healing at hospitals, universities, national/international conferences and workshops, and is a keynote speaker The First World Symposium on Self-Healing gave him an award for outstanding research and contribution to the advancement of mind-body medicine.
Dr. Mayer pioneered the integration of Qigong and Psychotherapy. In the 1980's, for 5 years, he trained Master level psychology students culminating in a three semester course in "Tai Chi, Qigong and Psychotherapy;" and then in the 1990's he became the first person in the country to train doctoral level psychology students in the integration of Qigong and Psychotherapy and in Energy Medicine East and West at the California Institute of integral Studies.
Dr. Mayer co-founded and serves as part of a multidisciplinary medical team called The Health Medicine Institute, which practices integrative healthcare. His synthesis of Qigong and Western bodymind healing methods is an integral part of the team's approach to health care.
He has authored ten publications on bodymind healing, including books, audiotapes on cancer and chronic disease and articles on chronic pain and anxiety. His peer reviewed article on Qigong and hypertension appeared in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, and is updated in the book Healing Intention and Energy Medicine by Dr. Wayne Jonas, former Director of the National Institute of Health, Office of Alternative Medicine. He has served as a peer-reviewer for the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Mayer's Bodymind Healing Qigong DVD/ videotape synthesizes ten Qigong systems from some of the most respected Tai chi and Qigong Masters, for a lifetime preventative medicine practice. (This DVD is now being used by world-renowned trauma specialist Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk, MD in his trainings.) Dr. Mayer’s latest book is, Secrets to Living Younger Longer: The Self-Healing Path of Qigong Standing Meditation and Tai Chi. Website: www.bodymindhealing.com.