best practice

The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR Training) began in 1979 at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Its initial mission was to treat people for various stress related illnesses that hadn’t responded to traditional approaches. It became apparent after a short period of time that not only were people greatly benefiting from the mindfulness based stress reduction therapy using this alternate approach, but that the results we often better than the traditional approaches.

The realization of the potential broad based benefits of this practice gave rise to initial studies in the area of pain management. Outcomes were excellent and along the way it was noticed that people were benefiting in many other ways. Since 1980 there have been over 1500 studies from all over the world attesting to the effectiveness of mindfulness in many different areas of illness and also in areas of human performance. It is being taught in health care settings, school systems, athletics, corporations and every area of our society.

The studies touch upon physical, mental and emotional conditions of every imaginable kind. Everything from heart disease, immune disorders, digestive problems, pain, fear, depression, anxiety, anger, inability to focus and many others have been studied and published over the past 35 years. MBSR training at the Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine serves the entire Phoenix area and teaches the same program pioneered at the Center for Mindfulness by Jon Kabat Zinn, PhD.