You Can Heal Yourself: A Guide to Physical and Emotional Recovery After Injury or Illness

Julie Silver, MD
St. Martin’s Press (2012)
ISBN 9780312605803
Reviewed by Tracey Rock for Reader Views (1/12)

 

Dr. Julie Silver, MD, is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and an award-winning author and editor of more than twenty books.  In “You Can Heal Yourself,” Dr. Silver takes the reader through a very clear and user-friendly journey towards their own personal healing.  The book begins for the reader at a point when they are no longer at the hospital or under close supervision of a medical professional.  It is the time when a patient enters the “Healing Zone,” when their body needs the most help that this book begins.  It is through her combination of current medical advice, common sense and intuition coupled with her own personal experiences that she creates a simple approach to helping anyone with any type of illness or ailment begin their journey towards recovery, both physically and emotionally.  The chapters are broken up in a step-by-step approach to allow the reader more time to take the information in.  Within the book, she provides various self-assessments and strategy plans designed to aid in the recovery process.  There are also step-by-step guidelines and logs that help the reader stay on track and progress on to their goal of developing healing strategies.  By developing healing strategies, this can help lead to a healthier and happier person that has healed optimally.

I thought “You Can Heal Yourself” is the type of book could give a friend leaving the hospital after having chemotherapy.  It felt like it was written more for cancer patients than for any illness, as the beginning of the book suggests.  It had most of the basic information that doctors tell their patients, along with information that most people already know.  Dr. Silver had a way explaining her methods of recovery in detail that the average person would understand.  She also mixed that with a nice sense humor that made me want to continue reading.  What stood out the most was that I liked how she championed the reader throughout the book.  I think when you are recovering from an illness and lying in bed and reading a book, it’s nice to read positive things that are specific about what you are going through.  I think this is something readers will appreciate.  “I encourage you to commit yourself to healing as well as you can.  Make your journey as safe a passage as possible.  Work hard and diligent to ensure that your final destination is the best place that you can arrive at.  Know that there are bumps in the road – accept them, change your navigation as needed and continue your journey.”  This was a nice passage and summed up her book nicely.  A lot of what Dr. Silver talks about in her book could be applied to everyday life.  I am sure at some point in everyone’s life this book could come in handy.  “You Can Heal Yourself” was a nice read. 

Make comment on weblog

FTC Disclosure