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Katherine Puckett, Ph.D.
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VIDEO: Katherine Puckett, Ph.D. - Mind-Body Connection, What Do You Say To Women Questioning It?

Katherine Puckett, Ph.D. explains what she says to women who question the mind-body connection.

Katherine Puckett, Ph.D.:
When I am talking with a woman who is questioning the mind-body connection and is wondering whether it really exists or whether it can make a difference in her healing, I think sometimes just using concrete examples can help. For instance, “You know, when you came here were you feeling nervous?” If she says "yes," I say, “What did you notice in your body?” “Well, my heart was pounding, my stomach was churning.” “Okay, right there is an example of the mind-body connection. We have feelings. We may feel anxious; it shows up in our body.”

So, something as concrete and simple as that can resonate with a lot of people, and we can take it from there all the way up to showing them if they want to, I’ve never actually been asked by a patient directly for the studies, the research studies, but we have research studies showing, giving evidence of the mind-body connection, and if somebody wants to know that, we can give them that, but in between those two extremes, there’s a very simple example on the complex, scientific research, are other techniques that we can practice with them, we can show somebody, and then they feel the benefits themselves, and that’s when it starts to take hold.

For instance, deep breathing or focused breathing is a very powerful relaxation tool that’s very calming. It actually activates the relaxation response so people can feel within a few minutes, especially if they’re feeling at all anxious, which just about everybody is going through the cancer journey, they can start to feel the effects.

I had a woman in my office recently who had a lot of physical pain associated with her cancer, and she was waiting for an appointment with the pain management nurse, but she had about an hour to wait so I said, “Would you like to do some breathing together?” and, I think she was a bit skeptical because she is waiting for medication, but I said, “I think we could really help make a difference while you’re waiting.”

So, I did about a 10-minute guided breathing and imagery exercise with her. She was astounded when she kind of came back into the room from that she said, “I don’t feel any pain right now.” So showing her, letting her try it out herself, to experience it physically let her know that it really worked.

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