Once perceived as flaky or new-agey, meditation is becoming mainstream. There has been an explosion of interest in meditation among doctors and other medical practitioners, neuroscientists, psychologists, and mental health care providers of all stripes. In particular, mindfulness meditation has become a popular and successful intervention over the past three decades, largely due to the pioneering efforts of Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts medical school. Kabat-Zinn and colleagues developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that is now taught at hospitals, clinics, and universities worldwide.
For some insight into the integration of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation in contemporary medicine, the MindSpace Clinic’s Sarah Roberts sat down with Dr. Adam Gavsie, a family physician who practices integrative medicine at the state-of-the-art Montreal Centre for Integrative Medicine. A McGill medical school graduate and faculty lecturer in family medicine at McGill University, Dr. Gavsie has trained extensively in Integrative and Holistic Medicine and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, as well as hatha yoga and restorative yoga.
Dr. Gavsie practices mindfulness meditation and teaches it to his patients. He graciously answered our questions about his medical and meditation practices:
http://mindspaceclinic.com/doctors-orders-mindfulness-meditation/