Early in my career as a clinical psychologist and mind-body medicine researcher, I met Jon Kabat-Zinn at a scientific conference. I was intrigued at the idea that meditation could help my patients and research participants with chronic pain and chronic illness. Lucky for me, I had to become the ‘scientist of my own experience’ before even considering introducing my patients to meditation. This means, finding teachers and learning to meditate, maintaining a regular practice, and going on retreats. Not easy, time-wise, since I had young children and a full-time academic job!  Well worth the effort, however, because I was able to discover, for myself,  the personal benefits of meditation, which  have been life-changing.

Meditation has felt like coming home, almost from the very beginning. After about 10 years of Zen and Vipassana practice, I began the MBSR teacher training pathway. Since 2005, I’ve been teaching MBSR at the UPMC Center for Integrative Medicine and have mentored several other teachers there. As a clinical scientist and educator, I have also mentored numerous students over the years in a variety of disciplines such as dental medicine, bioengineering, rehabilitation science, nursing, education, palliative care, and psychology.

As a researcher and mindfulness teacher, I’ve been able to help advance the science of meditation. One set of research projects I was involved with found an adapted MBSR program to be helpful for older adults with chronic pain. Another project I worked on found links between participants’ changes in the brain and reduction in their levels of inflammatory biomarkers after a meditation program.

I am also very curious about measuring mindfulness in research. How can something that is so personal and nuanced be measured? I have a research project underway with a colleague in Chicago to create precise self-report questionnaires to measure this elusive concept, mindfulness. Wish us luck!

You can read my academic biography here and find me at UPMC Center for Integrative Medicine here.