For more information, contact:


Cretella Associates
496 White Spruce Blvd.
Rochester, N.Y. 14623
(585) 424-3390

MindBodySpirit Work

Cretella Associates offers consultation and training in the field of mind, body and spirit work. This work is defined as skills, tools and techniques for self development and self discovery that can be applied in a variety of ways, from personal to clinical to educational. Approaches include meditation, relaxation, self regulation, use of breathing techniques, imagination, auto-suggestion, movement, writing, personal history, creative artwork, ritual, music and combinations of these modalities. We have received initial and advanced training in these skills from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and have engaged in a variety of independent study and training experiences in nature awareness, spiritual practice, martial arts, energy healing, yoga and dance.

The workshops offered are for personal and/or professional education and growth and are not direct therapy, although their use may be therapeutic in nature. Neither are these techniques a replacement for traditional medical or mental health care when these are needed.

Mind, body and spirit work addresses the individual as a whole being. It does not conflict with traditional health care but may promote changes that may affect the way in which an individual might utilize medication or respond to other treatments.

These techniques may also be used as part of a natural self-care regimen in a stress filled world. The techniques taught and used have, to varying degrees, been studied and validated as ways in which human beings can reduce stress, distress, pain and physical tension related to disease processes and subjective suffering. Their increasingly widespread use is developing into a trend within traditional mental health and health care services.

As experienced and traditionally trained practitioners, in psychiatry and in social work, we have begun increasingly to turn to the alternative methods we are teaching through these workshops in our own clinical practices. Why? Because these ways of relating to people open capacities and potentials for healing. They permit people to gain access to natural forms of self regulation and care that can be used in daily life, offering significant benefits with less chance of problematic side effects.

The use of creative alternatives may help address underlying causes of problems. Once learned, many of these methods are no or low cost, requiring time and practice rather than expensive gadgets or appointments. Such methods are also compatible with other care regimens, as is typically seen in the use of mind, body and spirit approaches in chronic pain management, cancer care, HIV/AIDS, end of life and a host of other issues.

Contact with us through this site does not constitute nor imply a doctor-patient or therapist-patient relationship. Resources offered on this site are not medical or psychiatric advice.