Progressive Commentary Hour – 01.19.16

Michael Ellner is an internationally respected scholar in mind-body medicine, an expert in hypnosis, and a leader in warning people about the destructive consequences of unrecognized suggestion and self-hypnosis, especially when confronting medical choices.  He is the president of HEAL – the Health Education AIDS Liaison in New York City, the world’s oldest and largest all volunteer Alternative AIDS Information network started in 1982.  HEAL was the first AIDS organization to challenge the automatic death sentence embedded in a positive AIDS diagnosis and was a pioneer in offering alternative challenges to the official AIDS establishment. Michael has received honors as Educator of the Year by the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association, the National Guild of Hypnotists and the National Federation of NLP. More about Michael and his work can be found at his websites:  NYCAnxietyHypnosis.com  and  QuantumFocusing.com 

Tom DiFerdinando is a pain, injury and trauma therapist with nearly thirty years of experience. He was the Executive Director of HEAL NY (Health, Education, AIDS Liaison) from 1992 to 2013, working as an international speaker, HIV counselor, writer and editor, and director of HEAL's popular weekly cable TV program HEAL This Week. Tom has been a leader in the AIDS dissident movement that perceives AIDS is a social problem and not a medical problem. He has also developed a counseling technique that centers on "crisis mentality" - an anxiety-regulating mechanism where, in the face of a crisis, preexisting and unresolved emotional tensions and conflicts in one's life drive one not to solve the crisis but to perpetuate and escalate it. Along with HEAL’s president Michael Ellner, Tom's mission has been to demystify health and illness, advocate for non-toxic, alternative approaches to health and healing, and help people with fears, concerns and conditions about AIDS.