Here is a list of medical practioners who have embraced the concept of TMS and the mindbody connection in treating patient with chronic pain. For a more detailed and up-to-date list, check out the TMS Wiki’s practitioner directory.

Because this information is of a medical nature you should ensure that you fully research the credentials and background of all those listed below. 

John Sarno, MD

Dr. John Sarno is an American doctor and professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. He is the original proponent of the TMS theory and is the best selling author of a number of books on TMS and the mindbody connection.

David Schechter, MD

David Schechter is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Schechter has over twenty five years of experience with the TMS diagnosis, has treated over a thousand patients has published original research on the subject and is the author of The Mindbody Workbook. While a medical student at NYU, he was a successful patient of Dr. Sarno.

Howard Schubiner, MD

Howard Schubiner is board-certified in pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and internal medicine. He was a full Professor at Wayne State University for 18 years and now works at Providence Hospital in Southfield, MI, where he directs the the Mind Body Medicine Program that he founded. This program uses cutting edge research and both meditative and cutting edge psychological techniques to treat individuals who suffer from TMS.

Clive Segil, MD

Clive Segil is an internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon from Los Angeles with 30 years of experience in the management of musculoskeletal disorders – a healer not just a physician/surgeon, with creative approaches to patient problems. Dr. Segil sees the patient as a “whole person” not only a “disease,” and he places great emphasis on the mind-body connection, applying the concept of what is best for the patient. This means that he uses treatments that result in a cure, at best, and at very least, a marked improvement in their well-being.

Parvez Fatteh, MD

Dr. Fatteh is Board Certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and subspecialty Board Certified in Pain Medicine. He has been practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1998. His practice philosophy is that of a people-based approach. All treatment is tailored to the individual needs and comfort levels of each patient. He offers TMS treatment for a host of chronic conditions.

Bruce Eisendorf, MD

Bruce Eisendorf is a doctor with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California. He says:

“I try to understand my patients. I want to know what their experiences have been, what their joys and challenges are, and what’s getting in the way of their more full enjoyment of life. My studies with Dr. John Sarno, author of “Healing Back Pain”, “The Mindbody Prescription”, and other books, has strongly influenced my practice of medicine. The mind and emotions have a profound effect on our physical and mental health and well-being. To better understand this relationship and help patients use the mind to their advantage, I teach classes and offer monthly support groups.”

Dario M Zagar, MD

Dr. Zagar is the Director, Neuropsychology Services at The Associated Neurologists of Southern Connecticut, P.C. They offer Mind-Body Medicine, which “typically focuses on interventions believed to promote health and wellness such as Yoga, Relaxation, Biofeedback, Clinical Hypnosis, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. The Mind-Body Medicine perspective views illness as an opportunity for personal growth and healthcare providers are guides in this transformative process. Frequently, Mind-Body Medicine focuses on the impact of stress and the development of illness and the worsening of symptoms such as pain.”

Scott Brady, MD

Dr. Brady is the founder and Director of the Brady Institute for Health at Florida Hospital in Celebration, Florida. A graduate of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University, with Board certification in Internal Medicine – Dr. Brady has spent the last decade developing his holistic, non-invasive, mind-body-spirit treatments for chronic or recurrent pain. Dr. Brady has practiced Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care Medicine throughout Central Florida for over fifteen years. He is the Administrator and Senior Medical Director of Florida Hospital’s sixteen Centra Care urgent care clinics.

John Stracks, MD

Dr. Stracks is a fellow in integrative medicine at the University of Michigan. He first learned about TMS in 1998 after curing himself of significant hand pain and tingling while he was preparing to apply to medical school. Intrigued by the power of the mind to influence the body, he did research and studied this aspect of medicine during both medical school and residency. He currently runs groups for TMS patients in Ann Arbor, MI, and hopes to continue to expand knowledge of TMS while helping people in Michigan and around the country cure their chronic pain.

Marc Sopher, MD

Dr. Sopher, a family physician in New Hampshire, trained with Dr. John Sarno. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice and is board certified through the American Board of Family Practice. In addition to his family practice in Exeter, he serves as medical director of the Synergy Health and Fitness Center in Exeter, New Hampshire. From 1993 to 2003, Dr. Sopher also provided medical care to the students of Phillips Exeter Academy. He has also been on the editorial board of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal. Dr. Sopher diagnoses and treats patients using the theories and techniques of Dr. Sarno, a pioneer in the recognition and treatment of mindbody disorders. He was a contributing author on The Divided Mind.

Paul Gwozdz, MD

Dr. Gwozdz is a New Jersey general practioner. He says “I was probably fortunate that I was not yet an M.D. when I first found Dr. Sarno and was cured. It was easier for me to accept the diagnosis of TMS and accept the psychological cure for my physical pain. I then had 14 years of a pain free back during which time I went to medical school and completed my family practice residency. After graduating from residency, I went back and trained with Dr. Sarno at the NYU Medical School learning about his latest thinking. I now help patients following Dr. Sarno’s techniques.”

Thomas Nordstrom, MD

Dr. Thomas Nordstrom has been a personal patient of Dr. John Sarno. He used Sarno’s methods for his own pain. He says “I also incorporate it in my practice with success in a high percentage of patients. It’s real and works.” been helping people resume their normal, active lives with extensive medical knowledge and well-honed surgical skill. He is board-certified by the American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgeons and runs The Center for Orthopedic Care in New Jersey.

David Clarke, MD

Dr. Clarke is a clinical assistant professor of medicine emeritus at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a clinical lecturer with Pacific University, is board-certified in Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine and practiced Gastroenterology in Portland, Oregon from 1984 to 2009. He has frequently appeared on TV and radio. He says:

“In 1983 I encountered a patient whose illness baffled two universities. She was cured with a few months of counseling by a psychiatrist who shared her methods of diagnosis and treatment. Subsequently I used and further developed her concepts to help over 7000 patients. My book for patients, They Can’t Find Anything Wrong!, was published in 2007, enthusiastically endorsed by leading medical school professors and even translated into Hebrew for publication in Israel. I closed my practice after July, 2009 to travel the US teaching health care professionals and the public how to uncover and manage the hidden stresses that are capable of causing physical illness. I have also done over 100 television and radio broadcasts since the Fall of 2007. My long-term goal is to make stress illness a routine part of the education of health care professionals.”

Mark Strom, MD

Dr. Strom has practiced medicine for more than 25 years. He served as chief of cardiac and thoracic surgery at Garfield Medical Center in Los Angeles and is an Associate in Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, at UCLA. Widely published, Dr. Strom is a nationally renowned expert in the fields of healthcare information systems, healthcare change and healthcare quality. While continuing to practice as a cardiovascular surgeon, Strom became deeply involved in the search for a solution to the burgeoning healthcare crisis in America. In 2005 he Strom spent time with Dr. John Sarno at the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitative Medicine learning Dr. Sarno’s unique approach to chronic pain (Tension Myositis Syndrome). The confluence of Strom’s experience in these three crucial areas – traditional clinical medicine, medical acupuncture and TMS – has inspired his distinctive view of healthcare delivery, based on a fusion of the applicable tenets of all three. “We must give patients more responsibility for their own care; and most importantly, we must give both doctors and patients a doctor/patient relationship.”

Samuel Mann, MD

Dr. Mann is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Hypertension Center of the New York Presbyterian Hospital. He lectures widely and has published many articles in professional journals. He is the author of a book on the mind/body connection of hypertension “Healing Hypertension: A Revolutionary New Approach.” He also was a contributing author to Dr. Sarno’s The Divided Mind.

Ira Rashbaum, MD

Dr. Rashbaum is a clinical associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and an attending physiatrist at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York City. He has treated numerous patients with TMS since 1993. He was a former student of Dr. Sarno and was a contributing author to Dr. Sarno’s The Divided Mind.

James Rochelle, MD

Dr. Rochelle is a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Arkansas. He incorporates the TMS diagnosis and treatments in his practice. He says that only when people “accept the idea that unpleasant emotions in the unconscious mind actually cause physical symptoms will we see an end to the current epidemic of TMS musculoskeletal pain in its many varieties.” He is also a contributing author to Dr. Sarno’s The Divided Mind.

Douglas Hoffman, MD

Dr. Hoffman practices nonoperative orthopedics/sports medicine in Duluth Minnesota where he is the team physician for the University of Wisconsin-Superior baseball team. He is a proponent of the TMS concept saying that “many of their [his patients’] disorders have a psychogenic origin.” He is also a contributing author to Dr. Sarno’s The Divided Mind.

Dr. Nicholas Straiton

Dr. Straiton is an English doctor based in Brighton. He says:

“I am a medical practitioner and registered osteopath who works in the NHS but also has a private practice where I treat patients suffering from musculo-skeletal disorders. For the last ten years I have been working in the NHS for the Back Pain Service at the local hospital. I have always been interested in psychosomatic medicine and a few years ago a psychotherapist colleague introduced me to Dr. Sarno’s books. His description of the frustration of working in a hospital environment where high tech investigations and treatment strategies fail to alleviate many people suffering from back pain mirrored exactly my own experience . I became fascinated by his approach and eventually went out to New York to sit in at his clinics at the Rusk institute in order to learn at first hand the process that he uses to diagnose and treat patients with TMS. This experience was truly valuable and enriching to the degree that I would say that my practice has changed significantly since that time. I believe that many, but not all, of patients suffering with chronic back pain are manifesting emotional distress through a physical symptom and for any long lasting relief to be achieved the factors relevant to this distress need to be recognised and addressed.”

Dr. Mark Atkinson

Dr. Mark Atkinson is a medical doctor, well-being expert and one of the UK’s leading authorities on integrative approaches to mental health, addictions, stress-related illness and chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia. He is the founder of The Faculty of Integrated Medicine which provides the world’s only university-accredited post graduate training programme in integrated medicine. He is a Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery and a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology. As Dr. Atkinson started to work with patients he became fascinated by the relationship between what was going on in their head and heart and how this was for many people obviously restricting their capacity to enjoy a healthy, happy and fulfilling life. He offers courses on mindbody medicine and is the author of The Mindbody Bible.

Georgie Oldfield, MCSP

Georgie Oldfield is a Physiotherapist who runs the Pain Relief Centre in Yorkshire, UK. She came across the work of Dr. John Sarno after becoming increasingly unsettled with the physical explanation for pain. Her work with TMS began in early 2007 and she developed her own TMS Programme in the UK after visiting Dr. Sarno that same year. Due to the results she was observing with her patients, she began to focus more and more of her work in this area. She is passionate about developing this work and helping to raise the profile of this little known cause of pain.