The Power of the Mind-Body Connection

From the time she was a young girl in Belgium, Dr. Ann Van de Winckel was fascinated by eastern medicine. As she grew, so too did her interest in how eastern, western, and integrative medicine could work together to help overall wellbeing.

For more than 25 years, including her time as an associate professor of rehabilitative medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, she has conducted brain imaging research and clinical trials related to body awareness, especially for those with neurological disorders such as spinal cord injury or stroke, and those experiencing chronic pain.

“Body awareness is so important for everyone, not just for those with chronic pain and neurological disorders,” she says. “Your body will send you signals to keep you healthy with subtle signals first—for example, light muscle tension. If you don’t listen, then your body will scream to get your attention.”

Moving Integrative Medicine Forward

Crucial to expanding her research is federal funding, but receiving it can be challenging. Beyond being limited and competitive, the federal government often wants to see preliminary data before awarding funding. This is where the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing’s A. Marilyn Sime Fellowship comes in. It is named after Marilyn Sime, a former professor in the University’s School of Nursing.

“Dr. Sime took an early interest in the Center and was particularly intrigued and supportive of our interdisciplinary work and our focus on what was then called complementary therapies and healing practices,” says Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer, director of the Bakken Center. “As someone who lived with chronic illness, she understood the value and impact of therapies such as guided imagery, healing touch, nature-based therapies, music, and animal-assisted interventions.”

The fellowship is dedicated to supporting faculty who are committed to conducting research in the field of integrative health and healing. It supports up to half of a faculty member’s salary for two years, enabling them to develop a research trajectory focused on integrative therapies. The hope is that by the end of those two years, the faculty member will have preliminary study findings to secure extramural funding.

After an extensive review process, Van de Winckel was chosen for her groundbreaking work focused on the impact of mind and body approaches with neurologic disorders and chronic pain.

“Dr. Van de Winckel’s long-term goal is to find approaches that go beyond symptom management to comprehensive recovery and healing,” says Kreitzer. “I am very excited to see what will emerge from her Brain Body Mind laboratory over the next two years.” 

“I’m so happy to have this opportunity,” says Van de Winckel. “I want to be a pioneer in research, and the fellowship allows me to do that and go for those bold ideas that make a difference.” Van de Winckel will use the fellowship to help fund her effort on three research projects.

Reducing Phantom Limb Pain

The first project focuses on the impact of Cognitive Multisensory Rehabilitation (CMR) in reducing phantom limb pain in adults with an amputation, which is experienced by 80 percent of patients within the first week after surgery.

CMR aims to reduce neuropathic pain—stemming from a disease or injury of the nervous system—or other pain, through improving body awareness, which can improve sensation and motor function. This is important because when the brain no longer receives continuous feedback from the nerves of the amputated part of the body, many people experience phantom limb pain.

“The brain is wired to make you survive, so it’s constantly checking how you are,” says Van de Winckel. “If the brain doesn’t get that information from your nerves, it gets worried and sends neuropathic pain because it wants to draw your attention to check that body part and let the brain know that this body part is still doing okay.”

To reduce this pain, CMR uses a combination of physical and mental exercises to restore the awareness of perceptions of both the remaining and amputated limbs. For example, one exercise could involve a patient placing their remaining foot on two sponges with varying firmness levels and identifying which one is firmer. This feeling is then related to past life experiences of firmness or softness, such as the sensation of how the feet felt when sand slipped between their toes while walking on a beach.

“The moment they recover awareness of where body parts are, including the restored feeling of the amputated limb, that’s when pain goes away,” says Van de Winckel. “Along with reduced pain and improved sensation and motor function, we observe people regain more control over their life and pain, causing their resilience and agency to improve.”

Improving Wellbeing During Hospital Stays 

The second project will explore the benefits that people with epilepsy experience when they practice Qigong—a healing method rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine that combines gentle meditative movements with focused breathing and attention to the body.

Van de Winckel will work with Dr. David Darrow, a neurosurgeon at the University of Minnesota Medical School, to conduct a study in adults with drug-resistant epilepsy. As part of their clinical healthcare treatment, these patients stay in the hospital for up to two weeks while thin electrodes are implanted in their brain to help identify the source of their seizures—a process that can often be anxiety-inducing and disrupt sleep.

While there, Van de Winckel and a Qigong instructor will guide these patients through Qigong, which can be practiced standing up, sitting, or lying down. “I ask them to move to the extent that they can, but in any case, to imagine the feeling in their body as if they were actually standing up and doing the whole body movement,” says Van de Winckel. “I also ask them to focus on the flow in the body and the contact of the soles of their feet on the floor.”

The hypothesis is that practicing Qigong will calm the autonomic nervous system, helping patients to be calmer, more grounded, and sleep better while in the hospital.

Using Neuroarts to Navigate Life Challenges

The third project was inspired by the rise of the neuroarts research field, which studies how art influences health.

Van de Winckel will examine mental health and wellbeing benefits in two different groups as they view her mentor, artist Marc Noël’s “Quantum Paintings.” With each breath and each brush stroke, Marc Noël incorporated Qi, described as a vital life force or energy in Japanese and Traditional Chinese Medicine, into the paintings.

One group is undergraduate and graduate students struggling with anxiety and stress, while the other is adults with spinal cord injury. Van de Winckel will have both groups engage with the paintings in a number of ways such as focusing on how their body feels when they hold their hand close to the paintings with their eyes closed, holding a UV light to the paintings to uncover new paint layers, or while observing the paintings emitting light in the dark.

Both groups will also explore the Quantum Paintings in Marc Noël’s Metaverse platform while embodying the avatar by wearing virtual reality goggles and sensory gloves, allowing them to feel objects in a virtual space. Some adults with spinal cord injury have not experienced the ability to grasp an object or walk for years.

Their brain can be reminded of what it and other sensations feel like during this virtual experience. “The objective is to help students with anxiety and stress, as well as adults with spinal cord injury, achieve a calm, liberated, grounded, mindful state while engaging with the Quantum Paintings,” she says. Above all, Van de Winckel is excited that the fellowship will allow her to continue her impactful research.

“Body awareness, mindset, thoughts, and beliefs are important for our perception of reality and how we perceive our bodies, which greatly impacts wellbeing and recovery,” she says. “I have seen participants with chronic pain and/or neurological disorders who not only had alleviated pain and spasms and improved sensation and motor function after our integrative treatments, but they also regained hope and a different perception about what is possible in their lives. The fellowship will help me continue this line of research and improve lives and wellbeing for everyone.”