Mindfulness in Medicine

Mindfulness in Medicine offers mindfulness-based learning and practice for rural health care providers and staff. Through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), drop-in Community of Practice sessions, and in-person workshops, the program supports providers in pausing, practising together, and building skills to navigate stress, uncertainty, and complexity in work and life.

Mindful Relationship: Connecting to Self, Community & Life workshop, June 2025.

“I have started a weekly 10 minute mindfulness check in with one of my clinical teams and it's been great so far. Overall, I feel less emotionally drained which impacts my ‘practice’ in all ways.”

MBSR Participant

Achievements

Growth of the Mindfulness Community of Practice

The Mindfulness in Medicine Community of Practice continued in 2025, offering virtual drop-in sessions for MBSR alumni and participating providers. Attendance remained steady, with sessions attracting between 12 and 22 participants.

The sessions created time for participants to practise together and explore how mindfulness can support work and life. Topics included aging, illness and pain; moral distress; boundaries and mindful speech; mindful leadership; rest; types of mindfulness practice; and focused attention.

Supporting wellbeing through MBSR

In 2025, two eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction cohorts were delivered to health care professionals and staff from across British Columbia.

The Winter 2025 cohort included 14 participants: 11 physicians, two nurse practitioners and one staff member. The Fall 2025 cohort included 15 participants: nine physicians, one nurse practitioner, two midwives and two staff members.

Pre- and post-course evaluations showed reduced stress and improvements in emotional regulation. Participants also described the course as helpful in their personal and professional lives, including feeling more balanced, less anxious and better able to pause during demanding moments.

Mindful Relationship: Connecting to Self, Community, and Life

In June 2025, Mindfulness in Medicine offered a full-day experiential workshop, Mindful Relationship: Connecting to Self, Community and Life, at the BC Rural Health Conference in Prince George.

Designed for health care providers with previous mindfulness experience, the workshop brought 13 participants together for guided practice, reflection, dialogue and interpersonal exercises. The day moved from relationship with self, to community, and then to life more broadly.

Participants valued the silence, small-group dialogue and sense of connection. One participant described the workshop as “helpful, meaningful” and said they made connections with other participants. Another noted that mindfulness workshops are an important part of provider wellness because they help the health community feel more connected and better able to support one another.

Explore the numbers

29 participants

Twenty-nine participants completed the accredited MBSR course in 2025.

12-22 attendees

Community of Practice sessions attracted between 12 and 22 participants.

13 participants

Thirteen participants attended the Mindful Relationship: Connecting to Self, Community and Life workshop.

“I feel more balanced and aware. I have had more emotional energy to be really present. This course helped me have more perspective.”

MBSR Participant

Mindfulness in Medicine gives rural providers practical ways to notice stress, pause and reconnect with themselves and others. Participants described using these practices in clinical teams, during periods of overwhelm and in their personal lives.

Plans for the Future

In 2026, the Mindfulness in Medicine Community of Practice will continue with sessions focused on loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, open monitoring and resting in awareness itself.

The program will also offer a new series, One Eye Open, One Eye Closed: Navigating Global Crises Together. The series will explore racism, the climate emergency, health care system transformation and societal polarization through mindful relationship, guided practice, invited reflections and facilitated dialogue.

The team is also considering a three-day, in-person MBSR course in fall 2026. This responds to feedback from providers that protecting one evening a week for eight weeks can be difficult, and will help the team compare in-person and online delivery.