Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his
work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged
in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine
and society. He is professor of medicine emeritus at the
University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was
founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness
in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and founder (in
1979) and former director of its world-renowned Stress
Reduction Clinic. Prominently featured in the Bill Moyer’s
PBS special Healing and the Mind in 1993, the
clinic and its research has continually demonstrated that
most participants in its programs achieve long-lasting
improvements in both physical and psychological symptoms,
as well as major positive changes in health attitudes and
behaviors. More than 200 medical institutions nationwide
and abroad now use the clinic’s mindfulness-based
stress reduction model.
Kabat-Zinn received his doctorate in molecular biology
from MIT in 1971 with the Nobel Laureate in physiology
and medicine, Salvador Luria. Kabat-Zinn’s research
between 1979 and 2002 focused on mind/body interactions
for healing; on various clinical applications of mindfulness
meditation training for people with chronic pain and/or
stress-related disorders; on the effects of mindfulness-based
stress reduction (MBSR) on the brain and how it processes
emotions, particularly under stress, and on the immune
system; and on the use and effects of MBSR with women with
breast cancer and men with prostate cancer; on patients
undergoing bone marrow transplant; with prison inmates
and staff; in multicultural settings; and on stress in
various corporate settings and work environments.
Kabat-Zinn is a Founding Fellow of the Fetzer Institute,
a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the
founding convener of the Consortium of Academic Health
Centers for Integrative Medicine, a network of deans, chancellors,
and faculty at major United States medical schools engaged
at the creative edges of mind/body and integrative medicine.
He also serves on the board of the Mind and Life Institute,
a group that organizes dialogues between the Dalai Lama
and western scientists and scholars to promote deeper understanding
and harnessing, for beneficial purposes, different ways
of knowing and probing the nature of the mind, emotions,
and reality.
Kabat-Zinn is the author Full Catastrophe Living: Using
the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and
Illness; Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation
in Everyday Life; and Coming to Our Senses: Healing
Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. He is also
coauthor, with his wife Myla, of Everyday Blessings:
The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting.
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