UAMS to Offer Online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

By News Staff

The program is an eight-week, nine-session training in mindful awareness and meditation skills offered by the UAMS Mindfulness Program. Classes meet weekly for about two hours and for an all-day session toward the end of the course.

Cost for the course is $300 and covers materials. UAMS employees may take the course for $250. Couples or families can qualify for a group discount at $225 each. Payment plan arrangements can be made. There are scholarship-supported slots available at $100 for those with financial need.

The course is open to UAMS students, faculty, staff and the public. Because this is an online course, participants do not have to live near UAMS or be affiliated with the university.

To register or apply for a scholarship, contact Feliciano “Pele” Yu Jr., M.D., at FBYu@uams.edu. For more information, visit Mindfulness.UAMS.edu.

The online course begins Sept. 29 with orientation from 5:30-7 p.m. The series continues from 5:30-8 p.m. on Tuesdays from Oct. 6 to Nov. 24. An all-day online class and retreat is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 14.

MBSR was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is a form of mindfulness and meditation that is well-documented and supported by scientific studies. Participants learn different meditative tools to mindfully explore healthier relationships with the day-to-day challenges and demands of life.

Elements include:

  • Guided mindfulness meditation practices
  • Gentle stretching and mindful movement exercises
  • Group dialogue and discussions aimed at enhancing awareness in everyday life
  • Mentored instructions on MBSR meditation practices
  • Printed and digital materials and resources, such as workbooks and MP3 files.

The course will be taught by Yu, a professor of pediatrics, biomedical informatics and public health at UAMS; associate director of the UAMS Mindfulness Program; and certified Koru Mindfulness teacher who has completed the MBSR Teacher Training Intensive through the University of California San Diego Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute.

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

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