February 2006 | Whole Health
Uncommon Healer
By Nancy Ging
Practitioner Profile
Who: Carol Lynn Lenart, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Registered Nurse, Board Certified Clinical Psychophysiologist, creator of Expanding Horizons Integrated Health Services, a clinical behavioral medicine and psychotherapy practice. Diagnosed with cancer, she recently came back to full health by putting her knowledge and faith to work on herself to complement the chemotherapy.
Quick Take: Clinical behavioral medicine (CBM) is based on the scientific study of human stress response, its impact on mind-body homeostasis and the effects of stress on thoughts, emotions, behavior, brain chemistry, hormones and the immune system. “Stress is a response of the entire bodymind and not just the brain,” says Lenart. “We define stress as a disruption of homeostasis caused by ongoing challenges that exceed our ability to adapt to them. We seem to have more stress today than ever before due to time demands, information overload and choices to make,” adds Lenart. Clinical behavioral medicine teaches clients ways to empower themselves to change their response to stress by becoming more stress-resilient. Therapies may include breathing regulation, biofeedback, neurofeedback, cognitive therapy, clinical hypnosis, guided imagery, positive psychology and psychoneuroimmunology. CBM does not take the place of regular medical care, but is often complementary to it.
Old vs New: “We still have essentially the same brain, nervous system and alarm system (fight/flight) as our cavemen ancestors. However, rather than having intermittent episodes of stress with a return to baseline functioning in between, in today’s modern life we may be bombarded with numerous stressors on a daily basis (traffic, work, deadlines, juggling mutiple tasks, unexpected events, etc.) that interfere with our ability to bring down our level of physical and emotional arousal,” says Lenart.
Knowing the difference: CBM or other integrative disciplines like meditation, yoga, prayer, relaxation and energy work are all popular and effective ways of reducing that stress response, says Lenart.
Biggest Myth: The old medical model held that the mind and body were separate entities, and if someone had persistent or troubling physical symptoms that were not able to be diagnosed by lab tests/x-rays/MRI, they were told their symptoms were caused by stress and offered a pill, or sent to therapy. Current research of the highly complex patterns of the intertwining of psychology and physiology acknowledges the impact these processes have in creating symptoms all the way down to the cellular level.
Case Study: After creating many individualized treatment plans, Lenart found herself to be the client with a rapidly progressing, life-threatening form of leukemia. Lenart put her training and skills to work on herself for a month early in 2005. Now she is fully healed or “in complete remission” and back at work.
Personal file: Carol Lynn Lenart has degrees in nursing, counseling psychology, and applied behavioral sciences, and completed post-graduate training in clinical behavioral medicine through Harvard Medical School’s Mind-Body Medical Institute and through NICAMB (National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine). She has lectured nationally on a wide variety of mind-body topics. Expanding Horizons is in Downers Grove, Illinois. Lenart will be part of the new Clarus Center in Warrenville, opening this spring. CBM is covered by most insurance companies. She can be reached by telephone at 630-964-7797, and claruscenter.com. Also visit eegspectrum.com.
Nancy Ging, A.C.S.W., L.C.S.W., is a Chicago-area holistic psychotherapist, consultant and author.
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