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Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D. Healing Asthma with the Mind
Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D., is a social scientist who suffered from asthma until age 35, when she tried a pioneering mind-body approach to the disease and experienced remarkable results. The improvement impressed her so much that she became a student of the practitioner who treated her, Gerald N. Epstein, M.D., and learned how to teach others the techniques which were so successful for her. Since then, Shafer has run the entire New York Marathon twice -- without the need for asthma medication. She is the author of Asthma Free in 21 Days (HarperSanFrancisco, 2000). Kathryn Shafer visited PlanetRx on April 12, 2000. This is an edited transcript of the chat. Read more about Kathryn Shafer.
PRx Host :
Welcome to PlanetRx's live events. Tonight's guest is Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D. Kathryn Shafer is a graduate of the American Institute for Mental Imagery. She currently maintains private practices in Florida and New York, and consults for hospitals, substance-abuse programs, and mental-health centers. Welcome to PlanetRx.com, Kathryn!
Kathryn Shafer :
Thank you!
PRx Host :
The story of how you conquered severe asthma is fascinating. Would you share it with our audience?
Kathryn Shafer :
First of all, I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 15 months old. All my life, I was prescribed medications such as steroids and inhalers, as well as respiratory therapy. I spent most of my childhood in emergency rooms and under oxygen tents because I had bronchial pneumonia. As I became an adult, I started thinking about why I'm living this life as a victim or as a patient suffering with this disease called asthma. Is there any known cure for it?
I pursued my degree in social work and started working as a clinician. I started exploring the emotional roots of illness from a bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective. As I was doing this in my education, the asthma symptoms started to disappear. At this time, I was living in New York City, which is a long way from my roots in Toledo, Ohio, where I was born and diagnosed with asthma. When I moved to New York and started exploring this aspect of the illness, the symptoms started to disappear. When I went to the pulmonary specialist, the asthma doctor said, "Maybe your asthma's just in remission and you should stop taking the medication for now." I started running in New York City and doing lots of aerobic activities I wasn't able to do before.
In 1988, I met a man and decided to move to Florida, and that's when the doctor planted the seed. We're always open to suggestions from people and the media, and how that influences us. The doctor said, "Oh, no, you're moving to Florida, the asthma's going to return!" I said, "Oh, no, it won't." He said, "Oh, yes, it will." Sure enough, it returned. I went to a doctor in Florida and he put me back on all the medications I had taken myself off of. I was having extreme difficulty breathing.
At this point in my life, I was pursuing my Ph.D. in social work and wondering why no physician ever encouraged me to explore the emotional roots of asthma. Here I am, a therapist, and I explore the emotional roots of illness with my patients. I thought, well, maybe I need to go to a therapist and explore the emotional roots of asthma. Isn't that interesting? A therapist seeing a therapist! So I went. This therapist handed me a book called Healing Visualization, a book by Dr. Gerald Epstein. She said, "You might want to read this book, because in it are exercises about asthma." She gave it to me, and I looked at the book, and I saw this exercise called "The Exorcism." It said if you do this exercise for 21 days, you can heal your asthma. The first thing I thought was "Who is this quack who is professing this cure in 21 days?" I call him, and here he is, back in New York, and I'm thinking, isn't this interesting? I leave New York City to come to Florida, and I pick up a book on healing asthma from a psychiatrist who lives in New York City.
I'm looking back at the city where the asthma symptoms disappeared, and here's this man who has these imagery techniques he claims can cure asthma. I call him up, and being the skeptic that I am, I demanded he tell me who he was, how he got his training. And how dare he profess to be able to heal asthma when I've been an asthma sufferer all my life. Then he made a very profound statement. He said, "Do you want to heal the asthma?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Then do the exercises for 21 days and see what happens."
In the meantime, I'm on the way to New York and I ask if I can have a session with him. I didn't just want to know him from his book. I flew to New York City, and on my way to his office, I read in the introduction to his book that his teacher, whose name is Colette, lives in Jerusalem. When I meet him face to face, I say, "Well, gee, I happen to be on my way to Israel. I'm going there with my father to visit the Holy Land with his church." He said, "You must meet my teacher, Colette. She's the one who created Healing Visualization."
I also told him that I was going to Egypt, and he said, "That's interesting. That's where this technique of imagery comes from. When you go to Egypt, make sure you look on the pyramids and notice that the Egyptians talk in the form of images. Imagery was the first language. Hence, the etchings of the images on the pyramids." He said to me, "If you want to heal the asthma, do this exercise called 'The Exorcism' with me now, and do it for 21 days." I got very angry with him. I thought, "I fly all the way to New York, and here's this author giving me an exercise in his book." I'm thinking, "What did I pay him all this money for to get an exercise in his book?" He said again, "If you want to heal yourself, do the work, and call me in 21 days." I did the exercise, and I was afraid of doing it. I thought of Regan from The Exorcist. Actually, the exercise is about removing the influence of people in your life that you find are suppressing you or restricting you, which is what asthma's about. As a result of doing this exercise for the first 21 days, I realized all of the major changes I needed to make in my life, and I was able to stop all oral medication that first month.
PRx Host :
In your book, you write about your first imagery experience. It is very profound. Would you mind telling our audience what you realized, and how it related to your condition?
Kathryn Shafer :
It goes right along with the exorcism exercise. What I'd like the readers to know is that it is really important, when you do the work of imagery, to understand that the image never lies. As a result of doing an imagery exercise, you don't need to do what the image is telling you right away. It is just giving you information that you might consider as something that you need to do for your healing.
When I did the exorcism exercise, what it required was for you to close your eyes and breathe out three times and look at yourself in the mirror, and point the center of your chest, and see to whom it is that you cannot breathe -- see whose face emerges. What happens for me is I saw two faces. I saw my mother's face, and I saw the man whom I moved to Florida to be with. Then, the exercise says, remove these people from your chest area. Tell them in your imagery that they will not be allowed to suppress you anymore. You are removing the influence they have over you from your life. They will never be allowed to influence you in that way again. Remove them as much as you can, gently at first, and using increasing force as necessary to completely remove them from your chest, from your lungs and then replace that space with blue-golden light and breathe out and open your eyes.
When I did that, I looked at Dr. Epstein and I was very upset. I have a wonderful relationship with my mom, and I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about my relationship with this psychiatrist, whom I was just meeting for the first time. I told him that, and he said, "It's just information. How is your relationship with your mom?" I said, "It's very loving." He said one of the theories about asthma is that it usually relates to issues of intimacy with a parent -- "smother love." An example of this was eloquently portrayed in the movie, As Good as It Gets, where Helen Hunt played the mother of an asthmatic child. Her life became absorbed in whether her child was breathing or not, and that's what happened with my mom and me. I told her when I was writing the book that I was going to discuss this, because I have a wonderful relationship with my mom. What she has taught me, as a result of this loving relationship, she always instilled to me to make sure I am taking care of myself. There will come a time in my life when she's not around anymore. I have to tell her when she is getting too involved and too controlling, to stop and move away and let me breathe for myself. Let me do this, let me show you that I'm capable of taking care of myself.
What I also needed to look at was my relationship with the boyfriend. He was restricting me, but that was only because I was allowing him to control me. We were in a very restricting relationship. When I tried to exorcise his influence from my life, I realized that what I needed to do was to leave him. There was no working this out with him. I couldn't be free with him, so in order to get my breathing under control, I needed to leave him. That was a big drastic step I took in my life to be asthma-free.
That's what a lot of people need to be aware of, if they're going to take a healing stance in their life, it may require them to make changes that they don't want to make. Always remember that it's your choice. Imagery will always direct you and tell you the truth about the situation, but you must decide if you want to take the courageous steps that it may require to achieve that healing stance.
PRx Host :
We've got a lot of questions from the audience, so let's turn to those.
Pirate6 :
What causes asthma?
Kathryn Shafer :
There are a lot of theories about what causes asthma. Asthma is a highly individualized disease. It is a disease of the lungs, it causes restrictions in the bronchial tubes. It is caused by environment, environmental pollutants, microscopic entities that live in the air and cause irritation to the bronchial tubes, which then creates mucus, which causes the bronchial tubes to shut down, which creates the wheezing and restrictive breathing. When people ask "What causes asthma?" no one really has an answer for that. What they say contributes to the onset of asthma is environmental pollutants or irritants. This can occur with people who have allergies or people who only have asthma. I happen to have both. I have been diagnosed with asthma and have many allergies, but there are people out there who have asthma but do not have allergies. There are people who have allergies and do not have asthma. It's kind of a mystery.
PRx Host :
Here's another audience question:
zrica :
I have allergy-induced asthma. How can imagery help me?
Kathryn Shafer :
What that person needs to do is to look at what they're "allergic to." What is it that irritates them with that allergy? What's irritating you in your life? What is creating the physical reaction in your body? Look at what your beliefs are about allergies. See how influenced you are by what the media tells you about the environment. If a person who has allergy-induced asthma pays attention to the allergy or the pollen reports, I would tell that person to stop listening to them. Otherwise you're under the influence of the media. If you're already susceptible to allergies, you could be susceptible to having an allergic reaction when they tell you the pollen count is high.
There's a wonderful imagery exercise in the book. Just before you leave the house, see yourself putting on a bubble over your head like an astronaut. See yourself inserting a straw through which you can inhale pure oxygen. As you walk out of the house with this bubble over your head, hear the pollen and the dirt or the dust blowing against the bubble, unable to get in because you are protected, you are inhaling the pure oxygen and you know that the allergens cannot get in and irritate you. Feel and see your lungs filling up with the pure blue oxygen as you breathe out in the form of gray smoke. The answer to that person is, they can create whatever protective shield they need to before they go out into the environment.
Another great example of that is for those listeners out there who know anything about the Harry Potter books. Harry Potter is a wizard, and whenever he wants to be invisible and walk around and not have people see him, he puts on his invisible cloak. That's another thing you can do for fighting off pollen. Before you leave your home, see yourself put on a white turban and an invisible cloak. When you walk out, none of those particles in the environment will affect you. You're creating a protective shield by using imagery.
Prmt_patti :
What I want to know is can you be cured of asthma if it is allergy-related?
Kathryn Shafer :
What I do is I stay away from the word "cure." I want to heal from asthma. Cure means symptom-reduction or just being stabilized by medicine. I'm interested in healing, in healing as a process, so while the title of the book says Asthma Free in 21 Days, healing is a process that I'm committed to for life. I am feeling more free from disease than I ever have in my life. What I have to make sure I do is commit to the process of healing, and keep doing every moment what is currently keeping me asthma-free.
BlueFly :
My son is 7 and has asthma. We have him on bronchodilators and are very aggressive about keeping our house free of allergens, and he is cheerful and energetic. How can we help him understand the holistic aspects of his condition, and help him grow into the ideas you present in your book?
Kathryn Shafer :
Read your son the first book of the Harry Potter series, because what Harry Potter does is overcome everything because he's a wizard. In my book, there's a chapter on imagery exercises for children, because they have incredible imaginations. You should help your son create an image of what "the asthma witch" looks like, kind of what Harry Potter does when he meets these demons at his school for wizardry. What you can do is help him image what he needs to do to make the asthma monster go away.
In the book, I talk about the asthma witch, kind of like in The Wizard of Oz. When the asthma starts happening, he can see the asthma witch melting away like they do in The Wizard of Oz. Also, you might get an anatomy book or go to any asthma support group or asthma foundation, and show your son what a healthy lung looks like, so he can see the difference between a healthy lung vs. one that is having an asthma attack. When he feels the constricted breathing come on, he can close his eyes and take a magic wand or whatever magical powers make sense to him and see himself go in and open up his bronchial tubes and see them filling up with white light.
Your son can be taught just by simply starting to breathe out through his mouth, first taking a long exhale out, and then breathing in through his nose and breathing out again creates a cycle of calming the person down. When you just breathe out first, and breathe in, and just simply focusing and slowing down your breathing calms people down, and that calming down right there by simply breathing out first instantly opens up the bronchial tubes to allow the air to flow out and in easier.
One of the myths about asthmatics is that people think asthmatics cannot inhale. Actually, it's the opposite; they can't exhale. By teaching your son to pay attention to how he's breathing all the time and just slow himself down, will relax the lungs and open up the bronchial tubes, and also not be afraid of the asthma. Fear itself can cause the bronchial tubes to constrict and tighten up. The asthma is his friend. It's just giving him information that he might need to slow down and take a little time out for himself.
PRx Host :
Here's another question from a parent:
Messy :
My younger daughter, 6, has asthma. I also have an 8-year-old daughter. My question is, how can I help my 8-year-old deal with the attention my younger daughter gets, and how can I help my eldest be supportive to her younger sister?
Kathryn Shafer :
What is wonderful about imagery is that it can be a family event. While the younger child may be the one diagnosed with asthma, the older one can also learn about the anatomy and physiology of the body. Later on in life, she may have difficulties that she's having trouble dealing with. This technique that she's learning with the family can help everybody learn how to calm down and not take things that are happening in life so seriously. Life is about having fun.
What I outline in the book, what I call the Fun Program Imagery, can be a technique that the older child can do for whatever she would like in her life. What the mom can do is say, "While we're focusing on helping your sister open up her bronchial tubes, what would you like imagery to do for you?" Give her a goal. Ask her what she wants. Maybe she wants to do better at school, or learn to do math equations easier. Ask her what she wants, and what you as a parent can do is create an imagery exercise to help her work on something that's important to her.
Everybody's got an imagination, and the most powerful healing exercise that we can create is the one we design ourselves. Maybe she's having trouble dealing with a friend at school. A parent can teach her the breathing techniques and teach her to go back and talk to her friend in a loving way. All children have goals that they want to work on so she won't be excluded in the healing process that's going on with her sister, but instead, she will also be healing herself or learning imagery techniques to help her. Imagery is for everyone!
PRx Host :
Speaking of imagery as a family event, here's a question from a mother with asthma:
Angie :
I have three small children, a full-time job, and a loving husband. I have a very hard time finding the time or the peace to do imagery exercises, and haven't yet come to any great realizations. How much time do I need to set aside to see any effects?
Kathryn Shafer :
This is a wonderful question to ask, because I know how busy mothers are, especially those who work. But everybody's got to go to the bathroom! The first thing that I would like her to do is when she gets up every morning and she goes to the bathroom, to just take 20 seconds to two minutes to focus on her breathing.
When people tell me they don't have time to do imagery, I say that's not true, because everybody's got to go to the bathroom, and everybody needs to breathe. Twenty seconds to two minutes of your time will start your day off with a healthy image. It's like a prescription for living. Just sit there in the bathroom and start with the exhale first. As she inhales, she asks herself what she would like to accomplish for today. Maybe it simply is to have a day breathing free. On the next inhale, just see what image occurs to help her breathe free. If she would like to inhale blue-golden light, like the image from the sky and the sun, and exhale in the form of gray smoke so that she's breathing in what's healthy and needed for her body, and she's breathing out what's unhealthy or not needed for her body. Breathe out and then open your eyes. That's it!
If she finds herself and her family with a lot going on, or at work, and she thinks, oh my goodness, I need to do one of those exercises all she needs to do is excuse herself and say she needs to go to the bathroom. She can even be talking to people or doing work around the house, and just focus on her breathing. She can do it while driving the car or while she's putting away groceries. She can see herself inhaling blue-golden light and breathing out gray smoke. This exercise can be done while a person is doing other things. You don't need to carve out a specific time. But a simple way to excuse yourself is to say you have to go to the bathroom.
PRx Host :
That sounds like it can be worked into any schedule! Here's another audience question:
Tutu :
My cousin has asthma and often is hooked up to a big machine that makes whirring noises. This seems very scary to me. Could it be hurting him by scaring him?
Kathryn Shafer :
It depends on the age of the person. I'm going to assume that this person is a child. Sometimes these machines with these noises can be perceived as monsters. What needs to change is the belief that it's a monster. It's a humming noise for healing. You can transform the noise into a wind of healing. While they're healing the humming noise, they can go in and see the noise cleaning out the lungs, or feel the humming noise nurturing the body to wellness. Change the belief about the noise.
For example, during my healing process I was hit by a drunk driver and almost killed. I would wear headphones and listen to music that I felt was healing for me when I had to go through surgeries so that I could focus on my healing and not be distracted by the noise. Maybe what this person can do, when doing this inhalation work, is to listen to music that soothes them and make them relax. Classical music is really good. I happen to be a Rolling Stones fan, so I listen to rock and roll.
PRx Host :
Here's a question about air-filtration systems:
melboyd :
How do you feel about using air-filtration systems to help cure asthma problems? I hear that they can be extremely effective.
Kathryn Shafer :
Yes, I have heard that, too. I am all for anything that can purify the air. However, I don't use air-purification systems in my house. I do make sure that I change the air filter. I live in Florida, so the air conditioner is on almost all the time, so I want to make sure the air filters and the air vents are clean. I also believe that they can be very good at controlling the environment in terms of the air. I also think it's recommended to check into if you're having difficulty breathing at work. The air-filtration system in the workplace can be very toxic. I'm all for anything that can clear out the air.
greystone :
What sets off or triggers attacks, and how do attacks look when they first start?
Kathryn Shafer :
It depends, because asthma is a very individualized disease. A person who gets upset could be traumatizing their body to trigger an asthma reaction because of what's going on emotionally. When I was a kid, laughing could bring on an asthma attack, because I would be so excited and having so much fun. However, I like to have fun, so I think it's important to laugh, but sometimes, you need to be careful about how excited you're getting.
What also can bring on an asthma attack is failing to pay attention to the environment when you know there are certain triggers in the air, such as dust, animals, damp, mold, dust, or toxic fumes. For instance, people who live near golf courses where the greens are sprayed can inhale those toxic chemicals, and that can induce an asthma attack. In New York City, when they sprayed the five boroughs because of an encephalitis scare, a great incidence of respiratory distress was reported in the emergency rooms because of the spraying.
Spraying your house for bugs or rodents, chemicals that you use to clean your house, or foods that have a lot of preservatives can induce asthma symptoms. By the way, asthmatics need to avoid dairy products because they are mucus-producing and can induce an asthma attack. Stay away from peanuts -- they are mucus-producing. Sulfites in alcoholic beverages can create difficulties in breathing. Avoid smoke-filled rooms. Smoking can induce asthmatic breathing. Here in South Florida, burning off the sugar cane fields can induce an asthma attack. There are lots of things in the environment that can induce an asthmatic reaction, as well as what's going on emotionally with the person.
PRx Host :
Thank you. That's good to know. Here's an audience question:
pooka :
In one study of 100,000 nurses, it was found that the most obese individuals had the highest risk of developing asthma as an adult. Do you find that most people with asthma are obese due to lack of exercise?
Kathryn Shafer :
First of all, people who have weight problems, my first question is, what's the burden that they're carrying? People who have weight problems are carrying around a burden of some kind and they need to lighten their load, so to speak. What I'd like to know is, is that person willing to exercise, to start becoming more active and to look at their diet, and to see how they can reduce the fat and increase the protein so they can become more lean and lighten their load.
The weight increases the difficulty breathing, because it's hard for the body to carry around all of that weight. Think about what it's like when you're carrying something heavy, and how your breathing gets shortened. Think about how you will open up your breathing passages once you lighten up the load that you're carrying, due to lack of exercise, and what the emotional burden is that they're carrying around with them. People who are overweight are carrying around a burden. Of course, people who are carrying around this extra weight, it exhausts the body. It's like carrying around a heavy package. The person needs to look at ways to lighten his/her load and become more active to take the weight off.
howie :
How is asthma diagnosed?
Kathryn Shafer :
By a physician who puts the person through a series of tests. One of the tests uses a peak-flow meter. What it does is measure the person's ability to breathe out -- there's a range that is measured on the peak-flow meter that's considered "normal" breathing. With asthmatics, it's like breathing through a straw -- they don't have the same elastic capacity of the lungs. That's one thing. They also do a series of scratch tests to determine if the person is having difficulty breathing due to allergies, and if the allergies are causing the restrictions in breathing. Also, X-rays are taken of the lungs to see if the bronchial tubes are constricted or if there's mucus formed. They'll take samples of the mucus in the patient's nose to see if there is an infection. That's how asthma is diagnosed.
MoonRiver :
Do allergy shots help asthma?
Kathryn Shafer :
I took allergy shots when I was a kid, but I'm not sure it's so true that they help. I still have allergies. Even with all the shots I took, it didn't stop me from having an allergic reaction. Maybe they work for other people, but I'm not sure that they actually worked for me. I stopped taking the shots. It's a very expensive process, very time-consuming. I don't have any reactions to the allergy seasons when they go on the media and say that certain allergens are in the air. I don't have any hay fever or anything like that. I think it's an individual process. Some people may benefit from allergy shots, but I didn't.
PRx Host :
In your book, you have an exercise called "Two of You." Would you describe it for our audience?
Kathryn Shafer :
"Two of You" is when you close your eyes and breathe out three times and you imagine that there are two of you, and that you see yourself standing in front of you as you're sitting there. You ask yourself to come over and sit on your lap and see and sense yourself hugging yourself and see yourself holding your own face in your hands. What happened? How do you feel? Then breathe out and open your eyes.
PRx Host :
Some people must have a difficult time with that.
Kathryn Shafer :
The reason this was important to me is I really learned that the real essence, the heart of the healing process, is our relationship with ourselves and with others. Love is the most important healing emotion on our planet. If you don't love yourself first, and you don't learn how to take care of yourself first, how can you possibly take care of others? What I had to learn for myself is that I needed to love Kathy. What I needed to take an honest look at was myself, as I was going through this healing process. I really didn't love Kathy, and I needed to correct that.
What I also have in my house, all over the place, are hearts hanging up as a symbol that nothing is more important than love. This exercise is to help people be comfortable with embracing themselves because wherever you go, there you are. You're there with you. There's a difference between being lonely and alone. For people who are not in a relationship, you're never alone when you're at one with yourself. When you look at the word "alone," and you add another L to it, you create "all one." You may be alone, but you're not lonely when you're connected with yourself. You need to learn how to have the relationship with you first.
PRx Host :
Here's a question from a guest named breathless:
breathless :
Do you have to do the exercises forever or do you get cured so you don't have to think about it anymore?
Kathryn Shafer :
No! I think about it every moment. What this work is teaching me is that I need to pay attention to what I'm thinking at every moment. That's how I become a responsible being, a healthy person. We're creatures of habit, and that's why I call it "Asthma Free in 21 Days." It takes 21 days to create a habit, 21 days to de-create one. Now that I'm in the habit of paying attention to my health and well-being, I want to make sure I keep that going. I don't want to be breathless! I want to be full of life and breathing freely and easily.
PRx Host :
Are these techniques helpful for other ailments?
Kathryn Shafer :
As a matter of fact, in the back of the book, there are three 21-day healing plans as examples for people to try, to see if they suit them. This is not just limited to asthma. A lot of the techniques that I describe in the book I have borrowed from substance-abuse literature, and from the 12-step programs of AA and NA and from other mental-health problems that I have worked with. When I help clients with other medical problems such as cancer and headaches, people with anxiety or depression can also benefit. When you really go into your beliefs, and you work with mental imagery, what you believe, you create. So if you believe that you're a depressed person, for example, you start acting like one, or if you believe you're an addict, you act like one. What this program teaches you from a mind-body perspective is to change your beliefs. When you change the image, you change your life. Shift happens!
PRx Host :
Have you ever read Louise Hayes' book, You Can Heal Your Life?
Kathryn Shafer :
Absolutely! She endorsed my book. That book greatly influenced me. That whole section of affirmations on what the body is telling you is very important. She broke the ground in terms of looking at what the body is telling you, and how it relates to what you believe about your life.
PRx Host :
Are you ever concerned that asking people to take responsibility for their asthma could be "blaming the victim"?
Kathryn Shafer :
Absolutely not. We never want to blame ourselves for our illness. That's abusing ourselves. What's important for us is to say, things don't happen by chance, everything happens for a reason. This illness is to teach me something about my life. That's what life is about, learning the lessons that come to us while we're here. I never thought I'd be able to say I'm grateful to this disease called asthma, but this disease has taught me so much about my life. My goal in writing this book was if I could use my life as an inspiration to help others, I would have made a contribution to the world. Mind-body medicine gets criticized because of "blaming the victim." You don't want to blame anyone for his or her illness. There are a lot of things that contribute to disease. All we need to do is pay attention to what the body's telling us, learn from the information coming to us from the disease, and see what we can do to shift and make the corrections so we can go on.
I'm afraid we're running out of time. Your story is inspiring. Thank you for joining us!
More About Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D.
Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D., is a social scientist who suffered from asthma until age 35, when she tried a pioneering mind/body approach to the disease and experienced remarkable results. The improvement impressed her so much that she became a student of the practitioner who treated her, Gerald N. Epstein, M.D., and learned how to teach others the techniques which were so successful for her. Since then, Shafer has run the entire New York Marathon twice -- without the need for asthma medication.
In Asthma Free in 21 Days, Shafer and her colleague Fran Greenfield, detail their step-by-step plan that allows asthma sufferers to decrease their dependency on medications. In her book, Shafer suggests people can learn to control and sometimes even eliminate their asthma symptoms by understanding the psychological aspects of the disease as well as employing visualization and breathing exercises.
Shafer trained at the Mind/Body Institute of the Harvard Medical School and graduated from the American Institute of Mental Imagery. In addition to her private practices in West Palm Beach, Fla. and New York City, she works in hospitals and mental health centers, and teaches courses in social work.
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