Daniel J. Siegel, MD (1957- )
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, founding co-director of UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, founding co-investigator at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational center devoted to promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, institutions, and communities.
Marion Fried Solomon, Ph.D. (1935-2024)
Former lecturer at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and author of several books on love, relationship, and self-development.
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DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Average
344 pages
Table of Contents
C1. Strengthening Attention With Mindfulness Training in Workplace Settings
Ekaterina Denkova, Anthony P. Zanesco, Alexandra B. Morrison, Joshua Rooks, Scott L. Rogers, and Amihsi P. Jha.
C2. Love and Well-Being
Trudy Goodman Kornfield and Jack Kornfield
C3. The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger
Shauna Shapiro
C4. The Art and Science of Self-Compassion
Kristin Neff
C5. Learning to be a Self: From Reward to Habit
Judson Brewer
C6. Train Your Mind to Save Your Brain
Gary Small
C7. Mind-Body Medicine: Consciousness and Health
Helen Lavretsky
C8. Toward Creating a Natural Antidepressant Brain
Elisha Goldstein
C9. Therapeutic Relational Presence: Cultivating Shared Consciousness for Positive Well-Being
Shari Geller
C10. The Science of Presence: Awareness of Embodied Social Identity as a Pathway to Interconnectedness
Rhonda Magee and Daniel Siegel
C11. Being Present: Philosophical and Spiritual Principles to Guide Practice
Pat Ogden and Bonnie Goldstein
C12. The Enlightened Brain
Deepak Chopra
C13. What Alzheimer’s Can Teach Us About the Brain, Mind, and Self
Rudolph Tanzi
C14. Living the Living Presence
Means Kafatos
C15. The Interconnections of Mind, Consciousness, and Well-Being
Daniel J. Siegel
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Daniel J. Siegel and Marion F. Solomon have gathered leading scientists, clinicians, and mindfulness teachers to explore how training the mind will result in better health and well-being in our lives. They cover a fair amount of ground including the issues attention, personal resiliency, mindfulness, neuroplasticity—how the brain changes its function and structure in response to experience—“loving awareness,” empathy, compassion, and the use of the breath of realize mindfulness, self-compassion, and in clinicians, a “therapeutic presence.”
All of these things are realized by a more conscious use of consciousness, as it were. It has been found that consciousness achieves the above results by integrating neurological functioning, raising telemerase levels for chromosome preservation, and increasing the body’s anti-inflammatory ability. More so, the development of consciousness leads to deeper social connections and, ultimately, the holistic realization that we are embodied minds integrated into the greater fabric of reality.
The contributing authors run the gamut of those involved in mind-body integrative techniques including counselors; psychiatrists; social workers; psychologists; marriage and family therapists; addiction specialists; mindfulness teachers; crisis intervention specialists; educational guidance professionals, and dance, movement, and clinical somatic psychotherapists.
This book is of interest for therapists seeking to deepen their understanding of mindfulness and compassion-based perspectives, therapeutic presence, neurology, and interpersonal neurobiology. Many chapters include actual training exercises for immediate application.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Siegel, D. & Soloman, M. (2020). Mind, Consciousness, and Well-Being. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.