This book would not have been possible without the kind support of the Mental Insight Foundation. Their grant provided resources that allowed for its completion with the goal of creating an educational guide that would help shift society’s focus from disease toward the healing potential within everyone.
Char Luchterhand, my longtime colleague at the University of Wisconsin, was pivotal in helping organize this and many projects that we worked on for more than a decade. Thanks Char!
I am grateful to Kate Ledger, a gifted writer who helped me get this book started. She introduced me to my literary agent, Laurie Abkemeier, who helped secure a publisher at W. W. Norton. I couldn’t have navigated this new world without her. I am also grateful to Jill Bialosky, our editor at Norton, for her feedback and guidance, which helped make this a better book.
The stars aligned when they connected me to Susan Golant. Susan is a gifted writer who beautifully channels the person she is writing with, using her skills to make the message understandable and enjoyable. Thank you, Susan, for your partnership, mentoring, and friendship.
I am grateful to the teachers I have been blessed to learn from. Andrew Weil’s commonsense genius helped me understand how to learn from and respect the wisdom of nature. Thanks to Jon Kabat-Zinn for introducing me to mindfulness, and a big thanks to Katharine Bonus, longtime director of the UW Mindfulness Program, who has filled me with all sorts of “ah-ha” moments through her gifted teaching style. Thanks to Tracy Gaudet for being there at the beginning of this Integrative Medicine journey and for the opportunity to work with shifting the VA health delivery system. Thanks to Rachel Naomi Remen for introducing me to the Healer’s Art.
I am also very grateful to be part of an academic community of faculty and staff at the University of New Mexico who are dedicated to making this world a better place. I am honored to be able to work with you.
And most of all, to my patients, who have taught me so much over the years. It is such an honor to be able to make a living taking care of my friends.
—David Rakel, MD, Albuquerque, New Mexico
For my part, I am grateful to my agent, Madeleine Morel, for introducing me to David Rakel and to our editor at W. W. Norton, Jill Bialosky, for her insightful and cogent direction. Without them, this book would not have come to fruition. I’m also most grateful to David—one of the kindest and most compassionate human beings I’ve ever met. I feel blessed that he took me along on this journey of learning with him. And finally, as ever, I am grateful for my husband, Mitch Golant, himself a master of the compassionate connection and a constant source of strength, light, and love to me and our family.
—Susan K. Golant, MA, Los Angeles, California