Stress Reduction Center

West Chester University

Donald McCown
Assistant Professor
Room 211 Sturzebecker Health Sciences Center
West Chester , PA 19383 610-436-2267
STRESSREDU@wcupa.edu


What is Mindfulness–Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)?

Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever is happening in your life, a way of taking charge of your life, a way of doing something for yourself that no one else can do for you — consciously and systematically working with your own stress, pain, illness, and the challenges and demands of everyday life.

In contrast, you’ve probably encountered moments of “mindlessness” — a loss of awareness resulting in forgetfulness, separation from self, and a sense of living mechanically. Restoring within yourself a balanced sense of health and well being requires increased awareness of all aspects of self, including body and mind, heart and soul. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is intended to ignite this inner capacity and infuse your life with awareness.

Fortunately, mindfulness is not something that you have to “get” or acquire. It is already within you — a deep internal resource available and patiently waiting to be released and used in the service of learning, growing, and healing.

People participate for reasons as diverse as...

  • Stress – job, family or financial
  • Chronic pain and illness
  • Anxiety and panic
  • GI distress
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Fatigue
  • High blood pressure
  • Headaches

This highly participatory, practical course includes:

  • Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices
  • Gentle stretching and mindful Yoga
  • Inquiry exercises to enhance awareness in everyday life
  • Individually tailored instruction
  • Group dialogue
  • Daily home assignments
  • CDs and a workbook

The course is challenging and life–affirming. The instructors are accomplished and skilled at creating a safe, supportive, and deeply engaging learning environment.

The Center for Mindfulness at UMASS Medical School

Established in 1995, the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) is an outgrowth of the acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979.

Under the direction of Dr. Saki Santorelli, the CFM is a multi-dimensional center in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, within the Department of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Since 1979, when the Stress Reduction Clinic was founded, the Center for Mindfulness has been a leader in mind-body medicine, pioneering the integration of mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness-based practices into mainstream medicine through patient care, research, medical and professional education, and to the larger society through a broad range of outreach and public service initiatives.

The Stress Reduction Program – the oldest and largest academic medical center-based stress reduction program in the world – has been featured in the Bill Moyers' PBS documentary Healing and the Mind and in the book of the same title, on Oprah, NBC Dateline, ABC's Chronicle, and in various national print media.  It is also the subject of Jon Kabat-Zinn's best-selling book, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (Delta, 1990) and Saki Santorelli's book, Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine (Random House, 1999). Since its inception, more than 17,000 people have completed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program and learned how to use their innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness and the challenges and opportunities inherent in life in the 21st century.

http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/index.aspx