History of MBSR
The MBSR program began in its first iteration in 1979, developed by a scientist who was also a meditator and yogi, Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Since that time a considerable body of research has developed, and the program is now taught all over the world. What started as a public health initiative to shifted to a broader effort to support “greater health, wellbeing and wisdom” (JKZ, 2018).
Early research on the program helped establish MBSR as a viable intervention for a host of physical, emotional and psychological conditions. MBSR supports primary, secondary and tertiary public health goals: preventing illness and disease—including cultivating inner resources that support resilience and healthy coping; as an intervention for current conditions, especially since stress-reduction is applicable in any disease-state; and to ameliorating effects of chronic, long-standing conditions for which recovery is not possible.
Jon Kabat-Zinn and a dedicated community of teachers and researchers have contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions in society such as medicine, health care and hospitals, schools, higher education, corporations, prisons, the legal profession, and professional sports.
Over 720 medical centers and clinics nationwide and abroad now offer MBSR.
Meet the founder and the developers of MBSR at UMass
Center For Mindfulness - University of Massachusetts
In this 24 min video, you will meet the founder and MBSR and the team of senior teachers at the CFM who worked to refine the program over a number of years.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. 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 received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT in 1971 and founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society in 1995 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
His research between 1979 and 2002 focused on mind/body interactions for healing, on various clinical applications of mindfulness meditation training. Jon is the author of several books, namely: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness first published in 1990 and revised in 2013, which conveys the basis of the MBSR curriculum. He handed on the direction of the Center for Mindfulness of UMass to Dr. Saki Santorelli during the years 2000 through 2015. Though his many books and guided meditations, Jon Kabat-Zinn is know for making mindfulness meditation practice commonsensical, relevant, and compelling, inspiring generations.
Healing and the Mind - Healing from Within, Bill Moyers documentary from 1993 on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR, discusses the stress of modern life (6 part documentary).
Find out more about Jon on his website here.