Kabat-Zin's Schedule

Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, will speak in Iowa City October 9 and 10. Bev Klug, MA, LMFT, director of the Mindfulness-Based Program at UI Hospitals and Clinics, says the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction program is an eight-week program that helps people respond more skillfully to the challenges in their lives while also experiencing life's fullness, including being awake to the joys and pleasures.

"The challenges may take the form of the stress of day-day living, chronic medical or mental health conditions such as pain, illness, anxiety, etc. Many people also come to the program as a way of taking better care of themselves. The program is based on a 2,500 year old meditation practice and there is research to support its effectiveness.

"Mindfulness means paying attention to whatever is happening right now with non-judging awareness. From that awareness, it is possible to be present and accepting with what is actually happening (rather than what we might wish was happening or think should be happening) and respond more skillfully to it rather than reacting in our usual habitual ways that may not be very helpful,: says Klug.

"Whenever most of us encounter anything that is uncomfortable or undesirable, our first reaction is to try to run away from it, push it away, or pretend it isn't happening. But, here it is. The practice of mindfulness helps us to be here with it and to recognize that, while we may not be able to control the fact that it is here, we do have some ability to effect how we relate to it, and by doing so from a place of gentleness and acceptance, we may find more creative possibilities of how to live rather than being chronically caught in some kind of resistance or denial.  

The founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program will be in Iowa City October 9 and 10 Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the MBSR program more than 25 years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. There are now more than 250 programs throughout the world.

"He is an excellent speaker and has important things to say. He will be interviewed on WSUI, reading from his latest book through Prairie Lights, and speaking at the Medical School and in the Department of Psychiatry at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

"Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness program is based on research. There have been several research studies which have shown the effectiveness of this program in areas such as chronic pain and illness, anxiety, stress, and prevention of depression relapse. There are also studies on how it affects brain function and the immune system.

"The mindfulness based stress reduction program serves a diverse range of people. Who of us can't benefit from being more skillful and awake to the possibilities of our lives? Anyone from the community is welcome to the program and The University also offers tuition support to employees who qualify through the liveWELL program. Outcome data has shown positive effects in many ways for employees."

Klug says participants need to commit to two hours of class once per week for eight weeks and to doing the daily practices that are assigned outside of class which usually take about an hour.

To learn more about the mindfulness program at UI Hospitals and Clinics, can call 319-384-5089 or email mindfulness@uiowa.edu .

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