Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Gurian
PR4P: You’re a Dentist, a Comedian, a Writer, and a Healer, what is the common thread?
JG: Cindy Adams from the NY Post once said that she figured out the connection, that I make people laugh to see if they have any teeth missing!” The true answer is that when I was 12 years old I had already decided that I wanted to be a dentist and I was already writing comedy. I never changed my mind, and couldn’t decide between the two so I did both. All of the things you mentioned are about putting Positive Energy out to The Universe. That has always been my goal with everything that I do, and I believe that is the common thread. Making people look and feel beautiful, and making them laugh.
PR4P: How did you first discover that you are an empath and a healer?
JG: I recall very clearly practicing my touch on myself as a very young child, maybe 7 or 8 years old, trying to develop the lightest touch possible. For some reason I already knew that touch would be very important to me. My parents knew nothing about Energy Work or Healing. It came to me intuitively and I would take away pain from myself and my younger sister just by touching the area with my hands. After I went into practice, I studied many different modalities of Healing which led me to create “STAR” Therapy, an acronym for Spiritual, Transformational, Affirmative, Resonance Therapy, which I developed to treat the physical symptoms of stress-related illness, often with a TMJ (Tempero-Mandibular Joint) causation. The most common cause is Bruxism, which is clenching and grinding the teeth, and some of the most common symptoms are Migraine-type headaches, head, neck and shoulder pain, especially on awakening, ear pain, shifting of the teeth, chipping of the teeth, ringing in the ears, and several more.
“STAR Therapy” is a very gentle system of talk and touch and I used it not only in practice but also in my 12 years as a Clinical Prof. at N.Y.U. in the Oral Medicine/Oro-Facial Pain Department. My status as an empath has been confirmed to me by several psychics who have crossed my path, but most importantly by Marcy Calhoun, the accredited psychic who wrote the amazing book Are You Really Too Sensitive?
PR4P: Do you think every human being has empathic abilities?
JG: To some degree, but some people have it more than others. I think it’s more accurate to say that most people have the ability to transfer Healing energy. The best example, that hopefully we’ve all experienced, is if you’re upset and someone you trust gives you a hug and you feel better afterwards. It’s because you allowed then to transfer positive Healing energy to you and you were open to receiving it. The essence of Healing is when you can do that for a stranger! For someone you never met before.
PR4P: What led you to write Healing Your Heart by Changing Your Mind?
JG: All of the things I’ve been talking about so far. It’s a book that’s been in me literally for decades, and it’s a culmination of thought and experience gathered throughout my life. The sub-title says it best: “A Spiritual and Humorous Approach To Achieving Happiness.” It’s about learning to examine your thoughts to see which ones are not valid, and releasing the “heart wounds” we’ve accumulated since we’re children from things that people, including our parents, have said and done to us that have hurt our feelings in some way.
These “heart wounds” as I call them affect our self-esteem and our self-confidence, and affect every decision we make. Because when we are forced to make a decision we use our thoughts to help us decide what to do. But some of our thoughts are not valid. So if your decisions have not been working for you, maybe you need new thoughts. All of our thoughts are self-created, based NOT on our experience, but on our INTERPRETATION of our experience in the world. It’s the reason you can have siblings growing up in the same household, with the same parents, yet they turn out completely different because of the way they interpret their experience. I used the techniques of examining my thoughts to see which ones were not valid and changing them to new thoughts in order to conquer a severe stuttering problem I had well into my 20’s and beyond. I stuttered so badly I couldn’t even say my name. Speech therapy was not able to help me, but I realized one day that I did not stutter when I was alone, only when I tried to speak to someone else. That taught me that there was really nothing wrong with me because you can not have a disability based on your location. A man with a limp limps in every room of his house. He cannot go into a room by himself and walk perfectly. With that in mind I worked on myself for the next few years, gradually changing my thoughts, until my sub-conscious mind was ready to allow me to stop stuttering. As an avocation I work with stutterers to teach them how NOT to stutter. The overlying thought here is that “You cannot get better with the same mind that got you sick. You must have new thoughts in order to do that.” This book will give you those new thoughts.
PR4P: What are the three most important things people will learn by reading your book?
JG: In this book you will learn more than three important things! You will learn:
- How to overcome the fear that’s stopping you from accomplishing your goals.
- How to release the ‘heart wounds” that affect every decision you make.
- How to create your own “Happiness Center.”
- How to examine your own thoughts to discover which ones are not valid.
- How to reprogram your mind and create positive thoughts through the use of affirmations.
- How to incorporate ancient Spiritual wisdom into your life in order to stay “sane” and centered through the hard times.
- How to change your cellular memory with new techniques like “Verbalization”.
- How to stay connected to your “inner child.”
PR4P: Do you think laughter has healing properties?
JG: There’s no question that laughter has Healing properties and I look at comedy as a Healing force. Not only does it release endorphins on a biological level, which are known as “the pleasure chemicals,” but it serves to bring people from all backgrounds together laughing at things they have in common. That’s why I’m on the Board of a group called “Laugh M.D.” that brings comedy to people who are sick in hospitals. I’m also on the Board of The Association. for Spirituality and Psychotherapy since 1999. And that’s why this book is sub-titled “A Spiritual and Humorous Approach To Achieving Happiness.” I’m one of the only doctors with a long-time comedy career as well.
PR4P: Who are the most important people in your life and why? One hundred percent my children and my grandchildren, because as I say in the book, nothing ever HAS to happen, and the fact that I was given that Blessing to have children and see THEM have children is beyond what I could ask for. Not everyone wants that, but for me that was very important, and I hope they feel the same way. And it’s why I’m so grateful to my ex-wife because without her D.N.A. they wouldn’t be those children.
PR4P: What makes you happy?
JG: Hard question. Sometimes it changes from day to day. I can find momentary happiness from certain ego-driven things like when a project goes well, or like when I got the word that this book had reached Best Seller status on Amazon, but true Happiness, which I always capitalize, is from the important things in life, which to me are the relationships I have with family and friends and the feeling that I am cared for, loved and hopefully respected by people that mean something to me.
#
