Mind-Body Skills Groups are an experiential, evidence-based approach designed by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. We have received formal training in and adhere to CMBM's group model. Drawing upon ancient healing traditions and modern medical and behavioral health principles, Mind-Body Skills Groups teach participants skills to more effectively and openly move through their emotions and tune in to their innate ability to heal and nurture themselves. Group members come together in a highly supportive environment to heal trauma, relieve stress, and increase resilience through scientific techniques like meditation, guided imagery, breathing, and movement. The group is an essential source of support as we learn, practice, and implement the mind-body skills in our lives, sharing and growing together along the way. You witness your own as well as others' emotions and experiences, all in service of individual and collective well-being.

We bring together people with a variety of concerns and goals, and we believe anyone can benefit from Mind-Body Skills. This group can help with emotional challenges like anxiety, depression, grief, and posttraumatic stress. It can also help with physical challenges like chronic pain, illness, and poor sleep. You do not need to possess any specific symptoms or challenges-- just a willingness to explore your inner life and work toward a greater sense of peace and wellness.

Mind-Body Skills groups can help you:

• Better understand the impact of stress on your emotional and physical health
• Learn ways to manage stress and improve your quality of life through greater emotional and physiological balance
• Enhance self-awareness, identify your strengths, and gain new perspective
• Build personal resilience and self-efficacy for managing future challenges
• Address and improve the symptoms that may be driving chronic health conditions and emotional unease
• Enhance your capacity to seek and receive social support, and to feel more connected to others.

The evidence-based skills we teach have helped people help lower levels of stress, improve mood, enhance resilience and optimism, and help prevent and manage chronic health conditions.

These skills include:

Meditation: Promote relaxation and awareness.

Guided Imagery: Harness your imagination to relax the body and engage your mind and spirit.

Autogenic training & Biofeedback: Learn to regulate the autonomic system to reduce stress and balance your mind and body.

Breath Work: Improve health and reduce stress through breath awareness

Movement: Release stress and increase energy through stretching, dancing, and more.

Self-Expression: Journal and draw to increase self-awareness and reach new insights and solutions to your problems
adapted from CMBM.org

A sense of community is central to the Mind-Body Skills experience. Our groups typically comprise 8-10 members and 2 co-facilitators (Drs. Blandford and Riggs) who meet for a two-hour session once per week for eight weeks. In every group meeting, we incorporate elements of meditation, education, skill-building, and sharing. As facilitators, we are there to guide the experience and teach skills, but we also participate alongside you as group members. Ultimately, we are not there to tell you what to do, but to help you discover your own truths and answers. Participants are also encouraged to establish a regular routine of practicing the self-care skills that are taught during the weekly small group meetings.

We believe that the best Skills Groups are made up of group members who are fully committed to the Mind-Body Skills process. This is not a drop-in workshop or class, but rather a holistic journey of witnessing your own and others' growth over the course of eight sessions; each group offers new material, and both the content and the relationships build over the weeks. In addition to consistent attendance, we ask our participants to come with an open mind and heart and a willingness to participate in learning and implementing the skills taught. We also ask participants to have genuine interest in connecting with and supporting other group members, as they will support you.

We are so excited you are interested! To start the process, please complete the interest form linked here or at the button below. We will reach out to you for a brief phone screening to determine if MBSG is a good fit for your needs. If we agree to proceed, you will be sent a virtual intake form so we can gather more information about you.

Fee: $100 per 2-hour session. For this package price, you'll receive 16 hours of high-quality group therapy, written materials to guide your experience, and lasting connection with a small group of like-minded, motivated peers. We will provide paperwork to submit to your insurance for group therapy reimbursement should you desire to use your out-of-network benefits.