Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

A combination of healing memoir and research into the effectiveness of alternative therapies, including meditation, yoga, and acupuncture. The author, a science reporter, tried these for a year to see if they would help with her numerous auto-immune and other ailments, and enable her to live a more joyful life. The answer in her case was unquestionably yes, and the research supports this as well. What was most surprising to her was that her illness had to do with unprocessed childhood trauma, and that the release of this through the mind-and-body based healing modalities (along with a bit of talk therapy) seemed related to her healing, which was not a 100% cure but definitely significant. The way she was able to resist and deny the importance of her childhood suffering for so long--and nobody apparently ever tried to bring it to her attention before--speaks volumes to our general blindness to such connections. Fortunately, that climate seems to be changing and the clear connection between childhood trauma and a vast range of body and mind dysfunctions is being made. Now, how can we all find the healing we need, too? (Kudos to Nakazawa for trying to include modalities that are within most people's reach and not completely unaffordable, although she did have quite a lot of resources, clearly.)