Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction- 8-week course
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Now Accepting Registrations for Spring 2022
To learn more about MBSR and how it can help you manage stress more effectively join us for a FREE orientation class on the following dates:
Wednesday, April 13-2022, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm (MT)
Thursday, April 28-2022, 7:00 pm-8:30 om (MT)
What Is MBSR?
MBSR is an evidence-based program that uses the tools of mindfulness to help people meet their lives and their circumstances in a more healthy and balanced way. Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the University of Massachusetts in 1979 as a new kind of public health initiative for patients living with chronic illness and pain it has helped thousands of people to improve their lives using the tools of mindfulness and meditation. With a history of over 40 years, this highly respected program is now taught across the world and helps people to live better lives by teaching them how to use mindfulness to deal more effectively with illness, pain, and the stresses of an increasingly busy and stressful world. As the most researched program of its kind MBSR stands alone as a public health initiative as it teaches participants to engage with their minds and bodies allowing them to tap into their own innate resources for wellbeing and healing.
Over the course of 8 weeks, this hands-on course uses guided meditation practices, short lectures, group sharing, and dialogue to explore several themes including how we perceive ourselves and the world around us, the physiology of stress, the automatic nature of our stress responses, communication and how we can bring mindfulness into our daily lives.
Who Is This For?
MBSR is intended for people who are looking to learn how to manage their stress in more effective ways or to bring more peace and balance to their daily lives. It’s open to individuals with no previous experience in mindfulness and experienced practitioners looking to deepen their practice. MBSR is a valuable tool to bring into our lives but it is not meant to replace traditional or psychological treatments but serves as a complement to them. This MBSR program is available to Canadian residents 19 years or older.
What Will You Get?
MBSR is an immersive program where you and your classmates will explore mindfulness and stress over the course of 8 weekly meetings and a full-day silent retreat.
- One information/orientation session that outlines mindfulness, MBSR and how it can bring well- being into our daily lives (1.5 hrs). Session is Free and open to all
- 8 weekly sessions (2.5 hrs). With the exception of the first and last session (3 hrs)
- Weekly exercises to build mindfulness skills and serve as topics of discussion during group and open session time.
- Silent Retreat (6 hrs)
- Supportive Handouts + Recorded Guided Meditations (MP3’s)
- Maximum class size of 20
What Will You Leave With?
At the end of this immersive course, you will leave with several skills that you can bring into your daily life to manage stress more effectively and cultivate feelings of acceptance, peace, and overall wellbeing. Some of these include:
- An understanding of how perception shapes our world and individual experiences
- The ability to recognize and explore habitual “ways of being” or “relating” to ourselves (ways of thinking and reacting) and others and how these patterns can be detrimental to our sense of
well being - An understanding of the habitual nature of stress and it’s physiology
- Flexibility of attention
- How to bring mindfulness to moments of difficulty (unwanted physical sensations, emotions etc.)
- Bringing mindfulness to and exploring how unmonitored reactivity can affect your health.
- How to bring mindfulness to interpersonal communication and different communication styles
- How to develop a mindfulness plan for your daily life (even though it’s busy!)
What Will You Need?
Due to current Covid 19 restrictions, this course will be provided via Zoom. In order to participate you will need the following:
- A computer or another device with sound. microphone and video capabilities
- Internet Connection
Please Note
- All participants are required to attend the information/orientation session
- MBSR is an experiential program that requires a commitment to practice not only the weekly exercises but also to attend and engage with every session
- MBSR is a valuable tool to bring into our lives but it is not meant to replace traditional or psychological treatments but serves as a complement to them
Meet your Facilitators for Spring 2022-8 Week MBSR Course
“Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And, they are all we can offer others.”
– Sam Harris
Michelle Huser is a qualified MBSR Teacher (Level 1) through Brown University and the Center for Mindfulness Canada. Her purpose is to create balance, resiliency, and emotional well-being for individuals, families, and businesses by helping them to build better minds.
Personal circumstances and experiences within the autistic community sparked an interest in mindfulness and meditation that helped to create a new way of being and relating to an increasingly complex world. This new way of “being” led to more peace, better health, and improved ways of dealing with difficult challenges within her community and family. Moved by the desire to help individuals, families, and communities to re-establish balance she utilized her science degree to research how mindfulness and meditation affect our minds and pursued formal training from Brown University and the Center for Mindfulness Canada.
With a long history of advocating for the neurodivergent community, Michelle brings an openness, acceptance, and empathy to her teaching spaces rooted in the understanding that even though every person is unique we all share a common humanity regardless of the challenges we face. She is dedicated to helping people access their own vast inner resources so they can bring more compassion and understanding to their lives, families, and communities.
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
– Joseph Campbell
Dr. Jano Klimas is a social psychologist who’s trained in health sciences and is interested in improving primary care services through practical implementation research. He is also a spoken word poet, mindfulness teacher, writer, and thinker.
Dr. Klimas graduated with a Psychology MSc degree from Trnava University in Slovakia where he specialized in factors conducive to changes in people undergoing substance use treatment in therapeutic communities. After pursuing his Ph.D. in Social Psychology investigating the quality of social interaction and personality characteristics of people who use drugs he continued his studies in Ireland and the University of British Columbia where he completed his postdoctoral training giving him the ability to train other healthcare providers in the care of people who live with substance use disorders and related harm.
Dr. Klimas’ passion for learning and personal growth led him to mindfulness meditation training. In 2021, he became qualified as an MBSR Teacher (Level 1) trained at the Centre for Mindfulness Canada, recognized by Mindfulness Center at Brown University.
As a Research Scientist, Educator, Writer, Poet, and Mindfulness Teacher Dr. Klimas’s passions include communicating his scientific knowledge to the public, sharing his poetry via the Downtown East Side Writers Collective, and improving the care of people with mental health and substance use disorders
Meditative Solutions 