Work with Dr. Gray: Mindfulness Classes & Mentoring
I offer three main services:
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Classes
- Mindfulness-Based Recovery from Stroke Classes
- Individual and Group Mentoring in Mindfulness Meditation
I will share a little about each service for you here. Please subscribe to the email newsletter for information about mindfulness and to stay informed of upcoming courses and event offerings. Please contact me with any questions.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week series of classes designed to teach you skills and tools to reduce your experience of stress along with its negative health impacts. You’ll learn mindfulness skills for regulating and lowering stress reactivity, as well as how to relax your body, quiet your mind and open your heart. All it takes is a consistent commitment.
Neurological research demonstrates that practicing MBSR actually changes the structure of the brain. With a 30+ year history of effectiveness, I’m pleased to be trained to teach MBSR and offer it to the greater community, currently in a remote format using Zoom.
This workshop is a combination of ancient wisdom and modern medicine, creating one of the most effective programs for harmonious, healthy living available today. Learn how to reduce your stress, change your relationship to physical or emotional pain, and cope with the demands of everyday life. Deepen your relationship with yourself, others, and the places you work, live and play. You will receive personal, supportive, guided instruction in mindfulness practices – leading to less stress and greater health and happiness in your life.
Mindfulness-Based Recovery from Stroke (MBRfS) is an 8-week series of classes that is specialized mindfulness training for those who have experienced a stroke and are seeking additional support in rehabilitation and living well in stroke recovery.
Individual and Group Mentoring in Mindfulness Meditation is intended for those who have already taken mindfulness classes or have undergone meditation training and would like to deepen their practice, ideally in a (virtual) community of like-minded individuals.
Mentoring is a unique helping relationship that is different in many ways from psychotherapy, counseling or even coaching models. The intention of mindfulness mentoring is to support ongoing personal mindfulness practice through group or individual sessions, with the support of an experienced mindfulness teacher.
Mentoring groups provide a dedicated space for shared meditation practice, reflection and sharing in a supportive community while deepening your practice according to each individual’s need. Mentoring encourages when motivation to practice may feel weak, and a mentor can help teach skills in how to work with challenges that arise in advanced practice.
Mindfulness mentoring can be extremely supportive for practitioners just finishing a class as a new meditator, as a way of renewing commitment and motivation to practice, and as a pathway to bring strength and greater clarity to personal meditation practice.
Group mentoring opportunities will be announced via the newsletter and social media. Please note that I offer individual mentoring in a very limited capacity at this time, please contact me for more information.
What does training in mindfulness do? Too often we spend our days on “automatic-pilot”, worrying about the future or analyzing the past and, as a result, we are not able to fully bring our energy and resources to deal with the very real difficulties and challenges we all face in the present moment. Mindfulness training teaches the art and science of paying attention (on purpose) to the present moment with open and non-judgmental awareness.
By learning to pay attention in this way, we learn to respond skillfully to life’s challenges rather than react automatically, thereby increasing stress reactivity in the body. Through the skills taught in this workshop, you will train and “tame” your mind to be less reactive and responsively resilient. A growing body of research demonstrates that engagement in this series of classes (combined with home practice sessions) literally changes the structure of the brain! Mindfulness is both an art and a science. It is a skillset, and a way of living.
This original mindfulness training curriculum I offer here (MBSR) was created by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979. It encourages you to be an active participant in your health and well-being. Mindfulness is a natural human capacity that can be strengthened to help access our inner abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain and illness.
People who complete mindfulness training report more effective skills to cope with stress and an increased ability to relax, resulting in significant decreases in reported physical and psychological symptoms, reduction in pain, greater energy, in addition to feeling emotionally and physically aware and alive. This workshop teaches skills and practices that can be utilized daily and built upon following the conclusion of classes.
Participants receive customized, step-by-step instruction of mindfulness practices (lying down, sitting and walking), gentle stretching/movement, inquiry exercises to enhance self-awareness, group dialogue as support, and weekly home assignments. An average of 30-45 minutes of practice, six days a week is recommended to maximize workshop goals.
These classes are an evidence-based curriculum designed specifically to benefit those experiencing:
Stress (work, family, financial, health)
Chronic pain and chronic illness
Recovery from stroke
Anxiety and panic
Preventing depressive relapse
A sense of overwhelm within a fast paced, high tech and complex society
Sleep difficulties
Fatigue
Headaches
Hypertension
...or those wishing to increase quality of life and prevent stress related disease
In a safe, accepting and supportive classroom environment, you will develop and explore:
- Mindful awareness as a means to reduce stress and improve health and concentration.
- Flexibility of body and mind to be responsive and adaptive in choosing effective options in your daily life.
- Increased sense of compassion and kindness for yourself and others.
- “Equanimity” – a means of balanced and conscious responding rather than automatically reacting to stress triggers and patterns.
Past participants say...
“My life was transformed by this class and Lori’s guidance. My family and co-workers noticed a huge difference!"
“I now look forward to going to work…..something I would never have dreamed could happen! Thank you!”
“The things that stressed me out completely before, now feel manageable. When I’m upset, I’m better able to calm myself and make good decisions going forward.”
“I’m sleeping better than I have in years! Much less chronic pain and physical symptoms that had my physician stumped for answers. My body is learning to take care of itself!”
“Thank you for sharing MBSR and helping me get my life back.”
Your Teacher & Mentor
Dr. Lori Gray, Ph.D. is a licensed doctoral psychologist and a student of mindfulness at the Center for Mindfulness in the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. She has completed professional training with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Lori has also recently completed a 70 hour practicum at the Center for Mindfulness, a 92 hour Teacher Development Workshop and received certification from the Center for Mindfulness as an MBSR instructor in 2014. Most recently, Lori completed a training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in Mindfulness Mentoring.
A note about medical care: It is important to remember that this program is not intended to serve as a substitute for proper medical care. It is recommended that you speak with your physician and inform your healthcare providers of your participation in this program. If you are unsure if the activities in this program are right for you, please approach your concerns in a private interview with Dr. Gray. If you are actively abusing substances, are in an abusive relationship, or have active symptoms of psychoses or suicidal thoughts, you will be assisted in seeking appropriate resources to support you so that you may return to consider mindfulness training in the future.
Please know that you can learn to regain a connection with inner peace, strength and wisdom, no matter with is happening around you. Mindfulness is a skill that is learned, strengthened and retained with practice.