About 30 people affected by HIV/AIDS will attend tomorrow an all-day "healing retreat" designed to reinforce the idea that spirituality and alternative therapies are part of the complete healing process. The program, titled "Spirituality and HIV," is the first of its kind hosted by the UCSF AIDS Clinic.

"Surveys have shown that many patients are into alternative methods of healing," says Jason Tokumoto, MD, clinic director and UCSF assistant clinical professor of medicine. "Not only are patients becoming more aware of these alternative methods, but more and more health care providers and medical institutions are recognizing the benefits of some of these methods."

The focus of the day will be on mindfulness meditation, attitudinal healing, spirituality and personal empowerment. Ken Farber, MA, director of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Well-Being Program at UCSF, will facilitate the first part of the retreat. The overall goal of the program is to teach skills that can be applied in daily life for coping effectively with mental, emotional, physical and interpersonal challenges. Farber says that he hopes to teach people attending the event how to "touch more deeply into themselves and their experience of being alive.”

The second half of the retreat will be hosted by Don Goewey, director of the Center for Attitudinal Healing, based in Sausalito. "Our programs are not about illness or dying, but rather about the quality of living no matter what the circumstances," he says. "The concept of attitudinal healing is based on the belief that it is possible to choose peace rather than conflict, and love rather than fear."

The UCSF AIDS Clinic, established in 1983, serves 500 men and women with HIV/AIDS annually. The Clinic provides comprehensive primary care with an emphasis on the patient as a whole in the context of his or her family and community. Alternative healing methods and spirituality are areas of interest to the clients and providers of the Clinic.

By Rebecca Higbee

1st appeared 6/23/97