Carl Hammerschlag M.D. Speaking Topics

• Life Between the Pings.

  Wireless technology is reprogramming human behavior on a massive scale. We can stay connected to friends, family, do business, and foment uprisings; we can talk, listen to music, and look at streaming video while driving. 85% who have a handheld device are never more than an arms length away from them. As a culture, we are always ready to respond to the sound of the ping, and stop whatever we’re doing and be someplace else. We are becoming addicted to the ping of an arriving message which triggers a burst of endorphins that stimulate the reward centers of our brains and urge us to want more. As a culture, we suffer from an Attention Deficit Disorder, and it’s stressing us out. In the language of science and stories, Dr. H. reminds us how to thrive in these rapidly changing times. With passion and humor this internationally recognized psychiatrist helps us appreciate the importance of a life between the pings.

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.