At home learning format based on audiovisual CD lectures and readings. You can start anytime and work with the instructor via e-mail.

Professor: Richard A. Sherman, PhD

Concept / Objectives:
Complimentary and alternative (C & A) practices, including those which form the core of “behavioral medicine” are rapidly finding acceptance within the clinical community. Simultaneously, “accepted” practices are falling from favor as they are shown to be ineffective or even counterproductive. Patients now visit as many or more “alternative” providers as traditional providers and are spending billions of dollars on attempts to get care not available from the traditional medical community. This course is intended to acquaint you with many of those practices which may become the new standard of care in the near future. It is also intended to help you learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the claims made by the proponents of these practices so you can more readily separate the real knowledge from the emotional advertising.

Specifically, this course intends to:

1. Provide you with an introduction to the basic mechanisms and principles of behavioral medicine and its most common techniques.
2. Provide you with a balanced overview of a selection of complimentary and alternative medicine interventions recently and currently practiced in the “West”.
3. Provide information on the underlying psychophysiological mechanisms through which non-specific interventions are likely to produce very real effects.
4. Provide you with practice in and techniques for objectively assessing the validity of claims presented in formats different than usually acceptable to current “Western” science.

Texts:
Required:

1. Mosby’s Complementary & Alternative Medicine: A Research-Based Approach. By Lyn W. Freeman and G. Frank Lawlis. Published by Mosby of St. Louis Mo. In 2001. ISBN: 0323 00 6973.

2. Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Edited by W Jonas and J Levin, Published by Lipincott / Williams & Wilkins publishers of Baltimore MD, 1999, ISBN 0-683-30674-X.

Optional:
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Rehabilitation Edited by Eric Leskowitz, Published by Elsevier (Churchill Livingston) of Edinburgh and New York. 2003, ISBN 0-443-06599-3.

Format (How we are going to proceed through the course):

This home study course is divided into 28 units. Each unit consists of one of more chapters of reading in the texts, sometimes an audiovisual lecture, review questions to be answered, and an e-mail or phone based discussion with me. The course begins with an introductory audiovisual lecture profusely illustrated by power-point slides.
When you sign up for the course, I will mail you a CD containing both the audiovisual lectures and a copy of the slide set upon which the lectures are based so you can make notes on your copy of the slides as you attend the lecture. After doing the reading for each unit (and attending the audiovisual lecture when provided), you will answer a brief series of essay questions about each topic, e-mail your answers to me, and then we will interact by e-mail or phone about each topic. This will give you an opportunity to ask questions and for me to fill in gray areas and provide additional information on topics of special interest to you.

Topic Outline / Reading & Listening Assignments:

1. Introduction – How medical practice changes – the history of C & A practices
Audiovisual lecture 1; Jonas/Levin introduction, chapter 1
2. Evaluating credibility of claims for efficacy of C & A products and practices
Audiovisual lecture 2; Jonas/Levin 4 and 5; Freeman/Lawlis Appendix A
(Note that audiovisual lecture 2 presents similar material to that presented in the UNM and Behavioral Medicine R&T Foundation courses on general biofeedback. You can skip listening to the lectures if you had these courses but still must answer the review questions.)
3. Evaluating the safety of C & A products and practices Jonas/Levin Introduction to part II,
chapters 6 10
4. Potential indirect mechanisms Freeman/Lawlis 1 – 4
5. Overview of alternative medicine techniques Jonas/Levin Introduction to Part III, Audiovisual lectures 4-6. (Note that audiovisual lectures 4-6 present similar material to that presented in the UNM and Behavioral Medicine R&T Foundation courses on pain.
You can skip listening to the lectures if you had these courses but still must answer the review questions.)
6. Relaxation Freeman/Lawlis 5
7. Meditation Freeman/Lawlis 6 Jonas/Levin 30
8. Hypnotherapy Freeman/Lawlis 8 Jonas/Levin 25
9. Imagery Freeman/Lawlis 9
10. Chiropractic Freeman/Lawlis 10 Jonas/Levin 15
11. Acupuncture, Qigong, & Traditional Chinese Medicine Freeman/Lawlis 11 Jonas/Levin 12, 19, 23
12. Homeopathy Freeman/Lawlis 12 Jonas/Levin 28
13. Massage Therapy Freeman/Lawlis 13 Jonas/Levin 22
14. Herbal Medicine (Phytomedicine) Freeman/Lawlis 14 Jonas/Levin 20
15. Exercise Freeman/Lawlis 15
16. Electromagnetic Medicine Freeman/Lawlis 16
17. Spiritual Medicine Freeman/Lawlis 17 Jonas/Levin 21
Article by M. Shermer on CD in file “flying carpets”
18. Therapeutic Touch Freeman/Lawlis 18
19. Trigger Points Audiovisual lecture 6 (Note that audiovisual lecture 6 presents similar material to that presented in the UNM and Behavioral Medicine R&T Foundation courses on pain. You can skip listening to the lectures if you had these courses but still must answer the review questions.)
20. Holistic Nursing Jonas/Levin 18
21. Osteopathy Jonas/Levin 16
22. Naturopathy Jonas/Levin 17
23. Diets / Vitamins Jonas/Levin 27, 29
24. Ayurvedic Medicine Jonas/Levin 11
25. Native American Medicine Jonas/Levin 13
26. Biofeedback Freeman/Lawlis 7; Jonas/Levin 24
Note that the biofeedback topic is optional if you have taken or are going to take the Foundation’s general biofeedback course.
27. Behavioral Medicine from a psychiatric perspective Jonas/Levin 26
28. Incorporating Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine to practice. Ethics and the decision to change practice.Jonas/Levin 3Audiovisual lecture 7. (Note: This lecture is similar to one given in the UNM and Behavioral Medicine Research and Training Foundation’s general biofeedback courses. You do not have to listen to the lecture again if you took the course from one of these groups but you do have to answer the review questions.)
29. Further information Freeman/Lawlis Appendix C & D; Jonas/Levin App. A Schedule: You can begin the course any time you want to and proceed at your own speed.

CE Credit: This is a continuing education, not an accredited course. CE credits are given through the state of California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences (Approval # PCE1895).

BCIA credit: This can be used toward recertification in both general biofeedback and neurofeedback.

Refund and cancellation policies: Full refund until the CDs are mailed to you. After the CDs are mailed, there is no refund at all as the Foundation has committed its resources to you. A course would only be cancelled due to an extreme emergency on the part of the course instructor or the Foundation. In the highly unlikely event a course is cancelled, you would receive a full refund.

Faculty: The course is directed and coordinated by Dr. Richard Sherman.
Richard A. Sherman, PhD is certified by BCIA, approved by BCIA to teach the general biofeedback certification course, and currently teaches A&P for the Behavioral Medicine R& T Foundation. He is a professional psychophysiologist with extensive training (his PhD is in biology / physiology) and has nearly 30 years of experience in the field.

Ordering Information:
If you wish to pay by check please send it, payable in U.S. funds, to:

Allied Products/Biofeedback Instrument Corp.
255 W. 98th Street
New York, N.Y. 10025