Biography of Carl Hammerschlag M.D.

Carl A. Hammerschlag is a master storyteller and internationally recognized author, physician, speaker and healer. A Yale-trained psychiatrist; he has spent more than twenty years working with Native Americans. He is an expert on how to survive in rapidly changing cultures. Now one of the worlds leading proponents of Psychoneuroimmunology (mind-body-spirit medicine), he is a faculty member at the University of Arizona Medical School.

Dr. Hammerschlag's life work has been chronicled in three critically acclaimed books: The Dancing Healers, The Theft of the Spirit, Healing Ceremonies, and two children's books. He holds the highest honor given in the speaking profession, the CPAE Speakers Hall of Fame Award and is a recipient of the National Caring Award. Selected by the Caring Institute of Washington D.C. from more than a quarter million nominations, the award honors "the ten most caring adults in America." In his presentations, Dr. Carl Hammerschlag brings his gift of storytelling, a wealth of legends, and unique insights which bridge the worlds of science, spirit, and culture. With poignancy and humor, he leads his audiences on a joyful journey that will stimulate and renew their creative potential.

Overview of Dr. Hammerschlag's Speech Topics

PRESENTATION #1
The Way It Was, Is Not The Way It Is
To meet today's demands means not being crippled by preconceptions. Your old ways of thinking can stifle creativity. The task in this electronic marketplace is to unlearn old judgmentalisms that inhibit vision. Not since the advent of the printing press has the world seen such rapid change in the way information is shared, war is waged and how business gets done. To maintain the competitive advantage in today's explosively changing environment means more than having access to information or being able to transmit it quickly. Success has to do with how you process that information and come up with new ideas.

PRESENTATION #2
The Quest for Vision
Change is the biological order of the universe. How you come to those changes is more important than the challenges they represent. It's hard for us to change, as a species we seem to want to maintain the status quo. We are comfortable with the familiar even if it keeps us from achieving greater success by doing things differently. Sometime in our lives we will face difficult and serious challenges. If we can balance our fear of change with our hopes for the future then we can transform threats into opportunities.  In his inimitable style with humor and poignancy, this storyteller, doctor, healer, grandfather, sculptor and fly fishermen will guide you on a transformative experience of discovery that will allow you to become the hero of your own life's journey.

PRESENTATION #3
The Future of Medicine
This is a time in which the trajectories of culture, economics and technology are colliding to threaten the care of patients. When the tail of cost control wags the dog of healthcare delivery, then the profession becomes just another industry. The economics of healthcare is causing a crisis of faith between providers and patients and it threatens to steal our healing spirit. The future of medicine must move from expensive interventional care to prevention. Dr. H. is a practicing psychiatrist, whose unique experiences with groups and cultures provide the framework for the survival of quality healthcare in the future.

PRESENTATION #4
The Last Mask of the Authentic Leader
Only when we shed the masks that inhibit growth and learn to explore our preconceptions and face our fears can we take the risk to become great leaders. In this age of public scrutiny and accountability, Dr. H discusses leadership in terms of: pursuing authenticity; creating environments that encourage risk-taking; appreciating the intuitive (gut brain) and the power of the unconscious mind; and transmitting the clearest sense of mission and values.

PRESENTATION #5
Facing Serious Illness
Sooner or later, we all get to face our mortality. Things happen to us (by accident, illness, trauma, loss), and some of us become immobilized by these happenings while others find a way through them. It turns out that it’s not the events in our lives that paralyze us, it’s the choices we make about how we come to them. In this presentation, Dr. H. explores the ways we face fear and the difference between curing and healing. He blends the findings from the science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), or mind-body- spirit medicine, with examples and stories that weave a tale about the journey of possibilities.

PRESENTATION #6
The Dancing Healers
This is a personal story about the journey from doctor to healer. After completing medical school and internship in the mid-sixties, Dr. H. came to Indian country to serve his military obligation as an alternative to going to Vietnam. There he met an Indian medicine man who taught him how to dance. Like most Western trained physicians, he was an expert in the disease model – one that emphasized the identification and treatment of pathology. Over the next 30 years, he learned from Native American medicine men and women how to expand that disease model to a healing paradigm. This is a story about the importance of harmony between thoughts, actions and feelings - the foundation of the new science of psychoneuroimmunology (mind-body-spirit medicine). This is a confirmation of ancient wisdom that will inspire you to become the principal agent on your own healing journey.