This introductory course focuses on the impact of words and ideas on health and healing. Specifically, it teaches how our words and gestures, as clinicians, can ignite the innate healing capacity of our patients – often, with truly amazing consequences. The course teaches how improper information delivery can have the opposite effect, namely, causing harm to our patients. As Dr. Bernard Lown recognized long ago: “Words are among the most powerful tools a clinician has... but they can maim or heal.”

The course is taught by Dr. Steve Bierman, a Family and Emergency physician, and Director of the AWCIM Noetic Medicine (Mind Medicine) Initiative. His journey includes over 40 years of clinical practice, American Board of Medical Hypnosis board certification, intensive training in NLP with John Grinder, and over 30 years of study in Taoist healing arts with Grandmaster Share K. Lew. While working as an Emergency Physician, his hypnotic skills were featured on Dateline NBC. Together with Drs. Weil and Dahmer, Dr. Bierman recently (2024) published a paper in Frontiers in Psychiatry that is said to have “cracked the code on understanding placebo and nocebo effects.” Presently practicing Integrative Medicine using the direct primary care model, Dr. Bierman’s methods include traditional allopathic practices, a broad range of supplements and atypical remedies, laser light therapy, waking and trance hypnosis, and numerous other modalities. His award-winning book HEALING – Beyond Pills & Potions describes how noetic medicine (i.e., mind medicine) can be easily incorporated into the rapid pace of daily practice to bring about often-stunning results.

Ultimately, participants will gain a nuanced understanding of noetic medicine, applicable to a wide range of ailments and conditions. For, as you will learn, noetic medicine is the matrix that binds the many mosaics of integrative medicine into a coherent whole.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Define noetic medicine.
2. List the four pillars of the hypnotic method.
3. Summarize the role trance can play in noetic medicine.
4. Employ techniques for developing rapport and linkage for use in the hypnotic method.
5. Describe noetic medicine approaches, applicable in clinical care, including:
   • Greetings and goodbyes
   • Painless injections
   • Delivering bad news
   • Trance Induction
   • Pre-surgical work
   • Protecting patients from curses
   • Emergency situations
6. Apply a variety of noetic medicine approaches in clinical care, including:
   • Greetings and goodbyes
   • Delivering bad news
   • Trance Induction
7. Discuss the "Worry Protocol" and its potential use to address fear.

Special thanks for the generous donor support from Mr. Al Assad and Mr. Gabriel Wisdom, for the creation of this course.

Curriculum

Introduction

• Introduction
• Hypnotic Method: Authority & Rapport Patterns
• Hypnotic Method: Language & Linkage
• Hypnotic Method: Clarifications & Wrap-up

Application

• Greetings and Goodbyes
• Painless Injections
• Informed Consent
• Delivering Bad News
• Trance Induction
• Pre-Surgery
• Other Skills and Refinements

The Worry Protocol

• Worry Protocol Overview
• Worry Protocol Demonstration
• Worry Protocol: Post-Demo Review & Instructions

Wrap-Up

• Concluding Thoughts
• Introductory Noetic Medicine Evaluation

Completion Requirements & Certificate

Complete all the coursework and course evaluation. Upon successful completion within the agreed-upon timeline, a link to the completion certificate will be available for download at any time from "My Account."

Target Audience

This enduring material educational program is intended for physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician assistants, psychologists, and psychiatrists in any specialty. Additionally, all healthcare professionals with an interest in an integrative approach to healing are targeted.

Disclaimer

This course does not constitute medical advice. Healthcare providers should exercise their own independent medical judgment.