Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction | Center for Veterinary Social Work

The goals of mindful practice are to become more aware of one’s own mental [and emotional] processes, listen more attentively, become flexible, and recognize bias and judgments, and thereby act with principles and compassion. Mindfulness involves as sense of unfinished curiosity
Ronald M. Epstein, MD (2005)

Moment to moment non-judgmental awareness
Jon Kabat Zinn , Ph.D. (1990)

Current MBSR students may access course materials. Students will be given a passcode on the first day of class.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was founded by John Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979. The program was designed to help human patients who were not responding to other forms of medical treatment. MBSR has now spread to multiple populations including health professionals and medical and nursing students as well as in multiple settings including work places, educational settings and even prisons. UT VSW is the first to offer this class at a veterinary teaching institution.

Two decades of published research indicates that the majority of people who complete MBSR courses report:

Lasting decreases in physical and psychological symptoms
An increased ability to relax
Reductions in pain levels and an enhanced ability to cope with pain that may not go away
Greater energy and enthusiasm for life
Improved self-esteem
An ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations.

In the News

Mindfulness is:

Mindfulness is a purposeful, non-anxious, reflective presence that can be applied to any aspect of [medical] practice
Ronald M. Epstein, MD (1999)

Mindfulness is a way of learning to consciously and systematically work with stress, pain, illness, and the challenges and demands of everyday life by not turning away from them but learning to be resilient with and through them.

Mindfulness is not something that one gets or acquires. It is already within the human experience – a deep internal resource available that is patiently waiting to be observed and used in the service of learning, growing, and healing.

Reasons people participate in MBSR

Stress — job, family or financial
Chronic pain
Illness
Anxiety and panic
Depression
GI distress
Sleep disturbances
Fatigue
High blood pressure
Headaches
Compassion Fatigue

Present Moment Practice

Physiological Benefits
Lower blood pressure and pulse rate
Increased brain activation in regions associated with positive thoughts and mood
Cognitive benefits
Increased ability to concentrate
Increase in ability to be non-judgmental
Increased self-awareness
Increase in positive thoughts
Emotional benefits
Increased ability to regulate emotions
Increased capacity for empathy
Increased capacity for compassion

The course schedule consists of eight weekly classes at 2 to 2.5 hours each and one daylong class on a Saturday or Sunday.

The 4 basic MBSR practices are:

The Body Scan- mindful attention while lying down
Mindful Stretching- mindful attention while stretching or doing yoga
Mindful Sitting Meditation- mindful attention while sitting still
Mindful Walking- mindful attention in daily life and activities

The class is highly participatory and includes:

Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practice
Gentle stretching and mindful yoga
Didactic instruction on stress response and stress hardiness models and research
Inquiry exercises to enhance personal awareness in everyday life
Individually tailored instruction
Group dialogue
Poetry and Stories
Pre and post assessment
Daily home assignments- at least 45 minutes a day
4 audio CD’s and a workbook

As the practice of medicine is not a business and can never be one, the education of the heart- the moral side of man- must keep pace with the education of the head. Our fellow creatures cannot be dealt with as man deals with corn and coal: the Human heart by which we live must control professional relationships.
Sir William Osler, (1849-1919)

Baer (2003): Baer, RA, (2003). Mindfulness as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology, 10(2), 125-143.
Grossman (2004): Grossman, P.; Neimann, L.; Schmidt, S.; Walach, H. (2004). Mindfulness based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 35-43.
Bishop (2002). What do we really know about MBSR? Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 71- 84
Smith J., Richardson J, Hoffman C. & Pilkington K. (2005) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as supportive therapy in cancer care: Systematic review, Journal of Advanced Nursing 52(3), 315-327

Davidson et al (2003)
N= Employees at a BioMedical company
25 experimental MBSR group
16 control group (wait-list)
Randomized control group design
Measured brain activity and immunity
Results: EEG showed an increase in left sided anterior activation for meditators
An influenza vaccine given at the end of intervention showed an increase in antibody titers compared to wait-list group
Beddoe & Murphy (2004)
N= 23 nursing students
Pretest-Posttest Design
Intervention was 8-week MBSR Course
Results:
Increased self-confidence
Awareness of stress as it is happening
Feeling more hopeful
Increased levels of empathy and decreased feelings of “emotional contagion”
Carlson & Garland (2005)
Impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on sleep, mood, stress and fatigue symptoms in cancer outpatients., Int J Behav Med. 2005;12(4):278-85
This study examined the effects of an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on the sleep quality of a heterogeneous sample of 63 cancer patients. Overall sleep disturbance was significantly reduced (p < .001) and participants reported that their sleep quality had improved (p .001). There was also a significant reduction in stress (p < .001), mood disturbance (p = .001), and fatigue (p < .001). The associations among these changes and implications for improving quality of life of cancer patients are discussed.
Rosensweig et al 2003
N= 2nd Year Medical Students
140 MBSR Participants
162 control group (didactic stress management)
Non-Random: Pre-Post: Control Design
Results: MBSR group scored significantly lower than control group on the Profile of Mood States’ Total Mood Disturbance as well as the Tension-Anxiety, Confusion-Bewilderment, and Fatigue-Inertia subscales
Shapiro et al. (1998)
70 pre-medical and 180 medical students
Randomized control group design
Results:
Decrease in levels of depression
Decrease in levels of anxiety
Increase in capacities for empathy

It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself. It is only love that can give us insight into what is real and what is important. And so a radical act of love makes sense- love for life and for the emergence of one’s truest self.
Jon Kabat-Zinn