WHAT IS MBSR?

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an educational group intervention that is client-centred and experiential. The core of the program involves intensive training in mindfulness meditation and its applications for daily living and coping with stress, pain and illness. Attending to whatever arises in the mind, the
meditator notes sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions without judgement.
Mindfulness meditation practice gradually helps the person to become present with one’s mind and body, no matter what is taking place.
Mindful movement in the form of Hatha yoga is incorporated as a component of the program. MBSR is eight-weeks in length and includes one full day of a silent retreat. It was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and written about in his 1990 book “Full Catastrophe Living”.
MBSR has been studied as an intervention for diverse populations for more than 30 years. The research has indicated effectiveness of this simple eight-week program in actually changing a person’s physiology and brain structure with only 8 weeks of practice.