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Hospital partners with
a yoga studio
Based
upon the success of their initial collaboration in the spring, Capital
Health System in Trenton and the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health
will once again be presenting an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) course at the yoga center's studio in Montgomery,
beginning Sept. 24.
This is news, folks.
First, it's news that Capital Health, based in Trenton,
has joined other forward-looking medical centers throughout the country by
establishing a department of "integral medicine" — the formal
term for such complementary approaches to health and healing as
mindfulness-based psychotherapy and stress management, meditation, yoga
practice, hypnosis and self-hypnosis training, nutrition programs, fitness
programs, and massage therapy.
It's also news that the health system is partnering with
an independent yoga studio — even a studio with PCYH's excellent
reputation. It isn't all that long ago that such a partnership would have
been unthinkable. But as clinical study has followed clinical study
indicating that complementary therapies have a measurable influence on a
wide range of health issues — chronic pain, migraine headaches, high blood
pressure, tolerance of cancer therapies, sleep disorders, anxiety and
depression, post-operative recovery — attitudes have changed.
"Institutions such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York City and the California Pacific Medical Center in
San Francisco offer complementary programs to patients being treated for
cancer, chronic cardiovascular disease, sickle cell disease, sleep
disorders and undergoing operative procedures," stated Robert
Remstein, DO, FACP, vice president of Medical Affairs at CHS, when the
department's establishment was announced in May.
"At Capital Health System, we not only welcome
Integral Medicine for these same purposes, but also open our doors to
anybody who is searching for a complement to traditional pharmacology to
address issues of pain, stress and anxiety," Dr. Remstein stated.
The linchpin between both institutions is Pat Vroom,
Ph.D., Capital Health's director of Integral Medicine, a Princeton resident
who has worked before with Deborah Metzger, RYT, LSW, PCYH's director.
A psychologist with substantial clinical and research
experience in mindfulness-based therapies, Ms. Vroom established Memorial
Sloan-Kettering's Mind-Body Program, based upon the work of Dr. Jon
Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Kabat-Zinn's work has been featured in
the Bill Moyers' PBS documentary "Healing and the Mind" and in
the book of the same title. More than 17,000 people have completed his
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, according to the UMass Medical
School.
So what are we talking about? We're talking about an
evidence-based approach that develops mindfulness — that is,
self-awareness, awareness of the mind-body connection — by introducing the
practice of meditation and what Ms. Metzger describes as "gentle"
yoga. The two women work as a team to guide participants through the MBSR
course.
"Mindfulness is as simple — and as difficult — as
living in moment-to-moment awareness. It is invoked by first paying close
attention to your breath and then to every other aspect of your life,"
Ms. Metzger said. "It's not a deeply mystical thing unless people want
to take it there. It's a way of breathing, feeling, noticing what's
happening in the body, listening to what the body says. These is not about
perfect asanas (classic yoga poses) — it's about people being totally aware
of themselves, not about doing perfect yoga postures."
The PCYH, which offers a wide variety of health-promoting
classes and specialty programs, has hosted a research study for individuals
with multiple sclerosis. Beginning next month, the center will be
partnering with the Delaware Valley chapter of the National Parkinson
Foundation by offering "Yoga for Parkinson's." Subsidized
participation is available.
The cost of the MBSR course is $495 per person "at the door"
or $450 for advance registration, 609-924-7294. Free introductory sessions
will take place on Saturday, Sept 8, at 1:30 p.m., and Monday, Sept. 17, at
7:30 p.m. PCYH is located at the Montgomery Professional Center, 50
Vreeland Drive, Suite 506, Montgomery, a half mile from the intersections
of routes 206 and 518 West.
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