Helping the helpers around the world: an interview with James S. Gordon, MD. Interview by Lewis, Sheldon

James S. Gordon, MD, is the founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr Gordon is a clinical professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and the former Chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. For 10 years, Dr Gordon was a research psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he developed the first national program for runaway and homeless youth, directed the Special Study on Alternative Services for President Carter's Commission on Mental Health, and created a nationwide preceptorship program for medical students. At The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Dr Gordon created a mind-body skills program for physicians, medical students, and other healthcare professionals and for people with cancer, depression, and other chronic illnesses. Through the Center's Healing the Wounds of War initiative, he has brought these programs around the world to populations in crisis in Kosovo, Gaza, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia, New York City following 9/11, and more recently to the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Dr Gordon is the author of Manifesto for a New Medicine (Perseus, 1996), Comprehensive Cancer Care (Perseus, 2000), and the forthcoming Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression (Penguin, June 2008). In November, Dr Gordon was honored as one of the Pioneers of Integrative Medicine by the Bravewell Collaborative. Recently, he spoke with Advances editor in chief Sheldon Lewis, who participated in the Professional Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine in New Orleans in September.