Bridging Eastern and Western Medicine

Mind and Body – the integrated medicine approach
Concepts and Philosophy
Michael Eisner

Dear readers,

Let me invite you on a trip of discovery of our healing paradigm.
It happened about six years ago, when I was completing my Registered Massage Therapy training and we were deciding on how to combine my wife Family practice with the massage therapy clinic. We had several brain storming dialogues to come up with something we would enjoy and would be a source of living for both of us.
Slowly but surely, having been involved with several ‘consciousness’ communities, meditation and yoga training we came up with the idea of integration of the medical systems we saw around us. Frankly, we saw a lot of animosity and looking down on each other in the different modalities. We felt there must be a better way – a path of integration. But I am running ahead of myself – this is the summary of our story.


1. There are two fundamental healing systems


For many of us the concept of integrated medicine is a new one. In the next few minutes of reading I will try to share with you what it was or is that led my wife Dana and me to embrace this concept and what it is we, at Mind &   Body Integrated Medicine Clinic mean, when we talk about Integrated Medicine.

In the traditional, western medicine, the practitioner, usually the physician
•     investigates each individual symptom,
•     makes a diagnosis,
•     sets out to develop a treatment or a treatment plan and
•     prescribes the solution in the form of medication, surgery, chemotherapy, etc.

Most of these treatment plans deal with individual ailments, often in isolation from the rest of the person, almost as if the rest of the human and his/her environment did not exist.  The Treatment comes from outside of the patient and he or she is often viewed as some sort of passive object.

When studying the Eastern, particularly Buddhist tradition, we can see the healer approaches an ailing person with different tools, including spiritual ones healing.

While most of the Western medical approach is based on science, most of the work of the Eastern practitioners is based on oral tradition, and often they allow themselves to use their intuition to guide them on the path of healing the patient. We also believe the patient will heal himself and that he has to take responsibility for his/her own healing process.

In addition, the Eastern approach has one element inherently present – it considers the people in their wholeness and, as I said, supports the healing from within.

We can see that each approach has its merits – advantages, but also its shortcomings.

2. The Integrated approach to healing

And, this is where the concept of Integrated medicine comes in. It strives to embrace the best of the conventional – Western, brainy-mind oriented traditions (developed in the spirit of Descartes – I think, therefore I am) with those of the East – mostly oriented towards the body awareness and the mindful, spiritual path and ability of one’s body to heal within. This includes our responsibility for our own health - our inner power as human beings with a diversity of feelings. We as patients become a part of the “healer circle”.

{I sometimes wonder, how it would have develop, had Descartes had the other idea – Ardeo, ergo sum – ‘I deeply feel, therefore I am’}

The wholeness aspect of integrated medicine is more apparent when we consider that the patient is not only the dis-ease he or she presents with, but a complex individual who has his/her

•     own sense of identity or ego,
•     lives, works, socializes in a community environment,
•     has his or her own sensitivities,
•     belief systems,
•     convictions,
•     traditions,
•     child and adulthood experiences and history,
•     dietary habits, etc.

The holistic approach to treatment enables us to support the patient and achieve the synergies of healing. We strive for merging of the two concepts the Western and the Eastern. And this is where- we believe- the whole is bigger then the sum of the individual parts.

4. Integrated medicine Clinic – Etobicoke

I would like to say a few words only on how our clinic started and what at present time we can do for our patients, clients and community at large.

When we started, we truly had only a vague idea about this ‘integration’ concept and absolutely no idea we will get where we are now.

To start with, Dana and me thought we would like to have a place with a couple of other practitioners and share our space, knowledge and healing approaches to our patients.

And then we started to investigate more and more about mindfulness, integration, holistic healing from the little literature there was. By then we have also undergone an extensive treatment course in psychotherapy and we were able to look at ourselves in a more conscious manner. So, right from the beginning, when the Clinic has physically started, our goal was to build a mindfulness-based practitioner-patient-client based community. And that is the cornerstone of our BEING to-date.

The clinic is serving as a place of conscious healing. We, as managers-owners of the clinic act more like mentors to our very careful selected circle of practitioners. The practitioners are chosen not so much from the point of view which modalities we accept, but more how they will fit into the mindfulness pattern of the Clinic.

What counts for us the most is the qualifications, immediately followed by the emotional and ‘philosophical’ view of the person. What is his/her approach to life, how do they view a patient, how do they view cross-referring to other practitioners and our principle of ‘integration healing’. It also makes a difference if the person is teachable.

So, by now we have reached our 3rd anniversary and we are offering the following services:

•     Physician –MD – with >35 years of practice as the community general practitioner and with impeccable reputation as a caring and conscienscous practitioner. She is the cornerstone of our reputation and acts as a consultant to all others
•     Two Registered Massage Therapists,
•     Four psychotherapists in a variety of capacities, e.g. gestalt therapy, group-circle therapy, mindfulness based stress reduction,
•     Shiatsu practitioner,
•     Two Yoga trainers
•     Hypnotherapist
•     Lomi practitioner
•     Naturopath
•     Homeopath and Bowen practitioner
•     Qi-gong trainer
•     Reiki therapist
•     Tantric sex trainer
•     Life coach



Our practitioners also offer

•     Courses in partner-couples’ massage
•     Workshop – circle in Anger management
•     We are starting a Circle to help its participants to develop a sense of  emotional, physical, health, financial and other aspects of Abundance in their life through dealing with their inner barriers to Abundance
•     Reiki workshops and self help circle
•     Yoga for pregnant women and post-natal yoga
•     Emotional and physical Body transformation and weight loss clinics

Yours truly,


Michael Eisner, R.M.T.