TORONTO – The Centre for Mindfulness Studies offers clinical services for people with mental health problems, as well as professional training for health-care providers, physicians, psychotherapists, and social workers.

Their new program entitled Managing Stress Through Mindfulness involves 18 agencies and 42 front line social service workers from across the city. The program teaches the participants various tools and mechanisms to cope with the intense stress of their jobs.

“The first stage is implementing the Train-the-Trainer program which involves both personal practice training for front line workers in the area of mindfulness and then…learning how to teach mindfulness for stress related problems in the workplace with colleagues,” said Dr. Patricia Rockman, family physician.

Rockman, the Director of Education at The Centre for Mindfulness Studies, has been an educator of healthcare providers in stress reduction and mindfulness based practices for more than 20 years.

She said that in the program they work “with various sensations throughout the body so that they can learn to hold and shift attention…so that they’re able to let go of stressful reactions or at least they can have an awareness that they’re there then have some choice about how to respond.”

Story continues below advertisement

One participant, Andrew Adams, said that the Train-the-Trainer program has allowed him to find ways to manage the stresses of being the Tenant Support Coordinator at Family Service Toronto.

“I’m under a lot of stress at work,” said Adams. “You can get caught up in what they call “vicarious trauma” so that would be the other extreme of the situation where you’re actually carrying other people’s stories around with you and being affected in your daily life by them.”

The Managing Stress Through Mindfulness program involves six intensive full days of training with additional support and supervision. After completion, the participants will return to their respective agencies and train their colleagues on managing stress through mindfulness.

Rockman says that mindfulness is becoming more popular in today’s hectic environment. “I have the feeling that it’s here to stay because the wave of interest is huge.”