Meditation-Based Clinical Interventions: Science, Practice, and Implementation Part II

Dialogue 13|Session 3

Meditation-Based Clinical Interventions: Science, Practice, and Implementation Part II

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Overview

Some clinical applications of mindfulness medita­tion in medicine and psychiatry: The case of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

MBSR has been widely accepted, used, and studied within main­stream medicine and psychiatry for the past twenty five years. This talk will describe MBSR’s approach to making mindfulness, “the foundational core of Buddhist meditation,” accessible to Western medical patients in a secular form while preserving the universal dharma dimension at its heart. Results from two clinical trials will be presented, one on rates of skin clearing in psoriasis, the other on emotional processing in cortical regions of the brain, and accompa­nying effects of immune function. Directions in current and future research programs will be pointed out.

Speakers

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. did his doctoral work in molecular biology at MIT, in the laboratory of the Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria. Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (in 1995), and (in 1979) its world-renown Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic. He is the author of 14 books, published in over 45 languages. His work has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions such as medicine, psychology, health care, neuroscience, schools, higher education, business, social justice, criminal justice, prisons, the law, technology, government, and professional sports. Over 700 hospitals and medical centers around the world now offer MBSR. Jon lectures and leads mindfulness workshops and retreats around the world.

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