Mind-body wellness and healing are the focus of a special daylong series of events at the 2009 Fall for the Book Festival. On Wednesday, September 23, the festival joins Mason’s Center for Consciousness and Transformation to explore new research and provocative ideas related to this rapidly growing field. All events take place at George Mason University’s Fairfax, Virginia Campus, and all events are free and open to the public.

The day’s program will begin at noon with a brown-bag lunch with Mason psychology professor Todd Kashdan, author of the bestselling new book Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. Kashdan’s study encourages, in his words, “living a life that matters with a broader view about what the ‘good life’ entails…. This includes meaning and purpose in life, wisdom, satisfying relationships, the ability to tolerate distress, spirituality, creativity, compassion, feeling a sense of competence and mastery, and so on.”

At 1:30 p.m., there is a panel discussion titled “What is the Role for Mind-Body healing and Wellness in the Reshaping of America’s Health Policy?” This will be followed by Mark Thurston, a senior fellow at the Center for Consciousness and Transformation and author of Willing to Change: The Journey of Personal Transformation, who will offer a meditation workshop, providing an overview of different traditions and leading participants in short meditation periods – seeking to both start beginners on new routines and help others deepen their personal practices.

Following the workshop is a 6 p.m. concert by Mason’s Healing Arts Ensemble, led by Glenn Smith, the Director of Theory & Composition at Mason’s Music Department.

The day’s finale is a 7:30 p.m. presentation by James Gordon, author most recently of Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression. Gordon is the founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine and a clinical professor in the departments of psychiatry and family medicine at Georgetown Medical School. He is a former chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and was recently named Dean of the College of Mind Body Medicine at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. His book, Unstuck, seeks to help people deal with their depression through a number of alternative approaches, including “food and nutritional supplements; Chinese medicine; movement, exercise, and dance; psychotherapy, meditation and guided imagery; and spiritual practice and prayer.”

Initiated in 2009, the Center for Consciousness and Transformation, the event’s co-presenter, is an interdisciplinary research and teaching center at George Mason University whose mission is to understand the nature and effects of individual and group consciousness and its role in transformative learning and social change.

A growing schedule of events and participants is now available at the FFTB website. Please mark your calendars now to attend the full festival, taking place September 21-26 at George Mason University and in locations throughout Northern Virginia, D.C and Maryland.