Dr. Felipe Jain, MD, is Director of Healthy Aging Studies at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Depression Clinical and Research Program. He is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and serves on the MD Board of Advisors for the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Research funding from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) and private foundations has enabled him to develop a mindfulness and guided imagery treatment approach for people experiencing chronic stress, Mentalizing Imagery Therapy (MIT), which seeks to improve personal well-being, increase emotional intelligence and promote healthy relationships. The MIT guided imagery practices focus specifically on increasing feelings of ecological connectedness as well as interconnectedness with others. Early data from the first randomized controlled trial of MIT shows that different aspects of interconnectedness – with the natural environment and with social relationships – are correlated with neuroimaging markers in different subregions of the anterior temporal lobe. Dr. Jain is the first psychiatrist to receive a highly competitive NIH Beeson K76 Emerging Leaders in Aging Research Career Development Award since the inception of the award in 2016.
