• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Mind, Body and Spirit; New Center Focuses on Holistic Approach to Healing

Posted on: Friday, 18 February 2005, 12:00 CST

LAPORTE -- The lights were lowered in the small chapel, and meditation began.

Bryan Manuele, an international teacher of progressive meditation and practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, led a group of people into a calm state of meditative well-being.

"We will give each other permission to use a gentle nudge, if someone falls asleep," Manuele of Beverly Shores, said in jest.

No snoring was heard, though.

Pastors, nurses, social workers, therapists, physicians and artists from throughout northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan sought to attain attunement through meditation.

"Feel the condition of being supported by the chair," Manuele advised them. "Feel the condition of even being supported by your body."

At the center of the healing arts activities at LaPorte Hospital Family Chapel was Sister Judian Breitenbach. She's a member of the international Catholic order of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, who promote concepts of self-healing.

She serves as a consultant with LaPorte Regional Health System.

Breitenbach also provides client referrals to healing arts practitioners through her work at The Namaste Center for Holistic Education in LaPorte.

Namaste is a Sanskrit word translated as "the spirit within me greets the spirit within you."

She believes that the hospital has become a spiritual haven in the community, which brings technology and healing touch together.

"Namaste does not exist in a vacuum -- it exists with LaPorte Regional Healthcare System," Breitenbach noted. The center opened its doors at 1402 Lincolnway in January 2003.

In 1995, Breitenbach founded the Healing Arts Center on the River in Mishawaka, a center inspired by Dr. Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Center in La Jolla, Calif., and a spiritual author. The center, which has since closed, was designed to promote a holistic approach to health and self-healing.

Breitenbach is a board member of Healthy Communities of LaPorte County, the LaPorte Hospital Foundation and volunteers at the hospital.

The Namaste group has quickly expanded to form a social, regional network with therapeutic resource providers, such as the Bodywork Institute of LaPorte, the Therapeutic Resource Center in Chesterton, and the Holistic Alliance in St. Joseph along with other holistic practitioners.

Edwin Shelton, the education and exhibition director at the Jack and Shirley Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, enjoyed the event at the chapel, which featured meditation as well as a demonstration of cranio-sacral therapy and Somato release techniques by Gloria Franklin Piette, a therapist with the Therapeutic Resource Center.

Dr. Curt Bejes, a holistic medical practitioner with a medical practice in North Judson, attended the meeting as well.

He discussed the benefits of a holistic approach to patient care.

"Patients respond well to unconditional love. Trying to treat the whole body and mind is always received well. Patients learn to increase physical activity and how to relax. They learn how to forgive others, and how to laugh," Bejes explained.

Namaste holds Interfaith Healing Services on the second Wednesday of every month that are open to the public. The service offers the laying-on of hands for healing, silent and spoken prayers, music and guided meditation.

Christine Buerger, volunteer coordinator and manager of Namaste, understands firsthand the benefits of the power of prayer, traditional healing arts and western medicine. She has been declared cancer-free following treatment -- both western and eastern -- for bilateral inflammatory breast cancer.

Christina R. Dougherty, a certified healing touch practitioner affiliated with Namaste, has helped Buerger to achieve self-healing through her post-surgical support efforts and healing touch therapy.

Buerger said she has been cancer-free for four months following four surgeries. She was diagnosed with cancer in June 2003. She underwent four different chemotherapy regimens.

Source: South Bend Tribune

More News in this Category