Exploring the Integral Relationship between Psychology, Spirituality and Health: Healing the Symptom vs. Healing the Cause

Project Director: Henry Grayson, Ph.D., ABPP

Background Concepts

Most of Western medicine has focused largely on getting rid of physical symptoms. But as valuable as this might be, most often the causes are not dealt with. Dr. Grayson is largely concerned with what is the cause behind illnesses, not only his own, but of his patients as well.  Causes can range from unresolved childhood developmental traumas or adult traumas, negative beliefs about oneself, negative thought patterns, intrauterine traumas, genetic memories, cultural and tribal beliefs about what has to happen or what is possible or impossible, to secondary gains of many kinds and current sources of stress.  He has found that once these are identified and cleared using some of the newer methods available to us, and when we make definite commitments to deal differently with the issues or make life style changes, the symptom most often goes away.  Other times there may be a need to create healing rituals to give a heightened  focus of consciousness in order to instruct the bodily cells through our neuropeptides, our internal instant messaging system, informing them as to what they are to do to bring about healing.

So let us not stop with symptom removal,  for we often also need to get to the cause of the symptom, quite often largely unconscious,  in order for it not to recur or pop up in a different symptom later on. Since as much as 95% of all our behaviors are unconscious, it is most likely our cause could be at an unconscious level, requiring some newly developed methods to access that information. He has practiced these evolving methods through most of his career and teaches them widely across the country and abroad and is now setting up a research project with GHI to study the effects of identifying the causes of sicknesses, and bringing in healing from emotional, spiritual, energetic, mental, as well as the physical dimension.

Approach to Healing

Dr. Henry Grayson has been interested in mind/body/spirit healing and alternative medicine since his graduate school days when he had his first experience of self healing.  Since that time he has reconstituted a severely degenerated disc when his doctors said he would not walk again without back surgery.  He has healed a torn maniscus from two different ski injuries, both without surgery when prominent sports orthopedists said that surgery was the only solution, and numerous other self healings.  He continually preempts colds and viruses, and has done so for several decades.

Having been profoundly influenced by quantum physicist David Bohm, Ph.D., he has found that the Quantum world view, which shows that our bodies are primarily energy, offers a quite different world from the 350 year old science of Isaac Newton, which has influenced most of the research and practices in both medicine and in psychology.  In the Quantum world and in the spiritual world, there are infinite possibilities which we are “dis-covering”—such as the extraordinary healings currently performed by Joseph Pierce Farrell, as well as a number of world wide shamans and spiritual teachers throughout the centuries. 

Dr. Henry Grayson, Ph.D., ABPP

Henry Grayson, Ph.D., a scientifically and spiritually oriented psychologist in New York City, was the Founder and Chairman of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, an esteemed postgraduate training institute in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, chartered by the Board of Regents in New York State.  As one of the current leaders in integrating psychotherapy, spirituality and science, he holds graduate degrees both in psychology (Boston University) and in theology (Emory University), is Director of the Institute for Spirituality, Science and Psychotherapy and Founder and past president of the national membership organization, The Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy.  Originally a certified psychoanalyst, he has not only studied and practiced most of the major psychotherapies, but also has drawn from diverse worldwide spiritual traditions, quantum physics, neuropsychology, and the new "power therapies" such as EMDR, mind-body medicine, creative visualizations, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), EFTA, and others.  His published work includes Changing Approaches to the Psychotherapies, and will release soon two books: Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind and The Truth About Depression: A Non-Drug Approach. He appeared five times weekly on Lifetime Cable network, currently has a weekly radio show “Mindful Living” on the Progressive Radio Network, and lectures widely across the U.S. and abroad. You can find more about Dr. Grayson and his work at www.henrygrayson.com.