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    Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher - Renée Burgard LCSW

    Renée Burgard is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist, consultant, and educator in private practice at Mindfulness & Health in Palo Alto, CA. She teaches Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs for Stanford University, Google, Inc., Apple Computer, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and for other schools, nonprofits, and corporations in the SF Bay Area; and serves as a senior MBSR instructor and mentor for teachers and psychotherapists in Northern California. She graduated with a B.A. from Stanford University, and an interdisciplinary Masters degree from UC Berkeley in Clinical Social Work and Health & Medical Sciences. Her background includes extensive education in the sciences, including neurosciences. She received training in MBSR from Jon Kabat-Zinn; is currently in training for certification in Interpersonal Neurobiology with Dan Siegel, MD; and is an expert contributor on the topic of mindfulness for GoodTherapy.org. She received ordination as a lay monastic from Thich Nhat Hahn, and has been a practitioner of meditation and other mindfulness practices for many years.

    Her mindfulness websites (where downloadable guided audio is available) are www.mindfulnesshealth-psychotherapy.com, and www.mindfulnesshealth.com.

    Click here for more information and to register for the free Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction orientation or MBSR 8 week series

    PAMF offers the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, an intensive 8-week course that helps people cope with physical and mental stress, and to reduce suffering from the conditions arising from stress. During weekly two-and-a-half-hour sessions, and a full-day mindfulness retreat, participants learn and practice:

    • breathing awareness, body scanning gentle yoga, mindful meditation
    • new ways of thinking, responding to difficult situations, relationships, and emotions
    • The course is experiential and practical; it includes guided practices and group discussions

    The program was developed in the early 1980s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., a molecular biologist from MIT who studied and taught yoga and Buddhist meditation, incorporating its key principles into a course harnessing the link between mind and body.

    Research shows that the mindfulness approach can reduce symptoms of:

    • Anxiety, panic and worry
    • Depression
    • Insomnia
    • Work stress and family stress
    • Chronic illness and pain:
    • IBS and other GI conditions
    • Psoriasis and other skin conditions
    • Blood pressure and other heart conditions
    • Asthma and other respiratory conditions
    • Muscle tension
    • Fibromyalgia, headaches, arthritis, lower back pain, TMJ, and other pain conditions
    • Infertility
    • Addictions
    • Grief and Loss

    Read more about Mindfulness and MBSR here: Mindfulness (.pdf, download Acrobat reader if you don't have it)