Article January 21, 2002 Issue

Med school courses in mind/body relationship

By Kim Shippey Sentinel staff

DR. ROBERT LESLIE teaches a course in spirituality and healing, and in medical ethics, at Texas A&M University's College of Medicine. We interviewed him when he attended his third consecutive Harvard symposium in Boston last month.

"The interest in the role of spirituality in medicine is phenomenal," said Dr. Leslie, as he gathered his papers and notes together after attending the conference. "And what cheers me the most is that there is a growing concern to care for the person who needs more than prescriptions and operations. I'm pleased to see physicians linking arm-in-arm with psychotherapists, nurses, clergy, spiritual healers, healthcare workers, and others who are saying that our concern is the well-being of the patient and not the satisfaction of our ego needs."

Leslie points out that when he began teaching ten years ago, there were just five colleges across the nation offering courses in the relationship between spirituality and medicine.

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