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Head Cases Micheal Paul Mason, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (page 6 of 6) Page 6 of 6

I tell Melissa that it sounds like a wonderful and noble pursuit and that I hope her research opens up new solutions for survivors in the future. Then, being unable to resist, I ask her what mindfulness training has done to her sense of self.

“Who are you, really?” I ask.

“I love myself the way I am now,” she says. “I appreciate that I am not my brain injury. It was a traumatic experience, to be sure, but it deepened my relationship to myself and to others. I have become a more loving person. I am a lot more empathetic, and I know what compassion is now.”

The neuropsychological evaluation portrayed a woman about whom nothing seemed special, and in a sense, there is nothing special about Melissa Felteau anymore. She gets a little confused with directions, and she still goes off topic in conversation. She becomes a little flustered when she tries to parallel park, and she laughs at herself when she trips over a rise in the sidewalk. She is a student conducting her research, and she is a daughter who loves her parents. The spring flowers, the moon in autumn. Melissa is brain injured and she is wonderfully whole. Using only her ordinary mind, she has found her way.

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From Head Cases by Michael Paul Mason, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2008 by Michael Paul Mason. All rights reserved. To view or the book, go to www.amazon.com. For more information about author and brain injury case manager Michael Paul Mason, go to www.michaelpaulmason.com.

 Comments [2]

Hi, Sorry I didn't see your question earlier. Michael, the author mentioned "guided meditation" because I use notes to que my memory when teaching meditation but it is mindfulness meditation focusing on the sensations of the breath entering and leaving the body. Any CD by Jon Kabat-Zinn is fabulous. There is a CD narrated by Jon included in the text "The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness" (2007) by Mark William, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. New York: The Guilford Press. This book is wonderful and is the lay-person version of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program I teach. Best regards, Melissa Felteau

Jan 7th, 2010 11:35am

Would love to know which guided meditations Melissa is using. My father sustained a brain injury almost 15 years ago, but he has meditated for as long as I've been alive. I hadn't thought that his relationship to meditation may be different now, and guided relaxation might be more useful for his brain.

Jul 28th, 2009 4:54pm