Non-Profit Brings Focus Closer to Home

By Kathleen Mellen, Staff Writer, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Copyright GazetteNET.com
Originally published on Monday, February 2, 2004

NORTHAMPTON - When the staff at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society promote the use of meditation and yoga in the workplace, they are more likely to fly across the country or to the nation's capital than to walk across the street or drive around the block.

Locally we've been a low-profile organization, said research director Maia Duerr. ''People see the words on the door, but they don't know what they mean,'' she said, referring to the simple white lettering announcing the center's presence at 199 Main St.

But that is changing. ''We've just started working more locally in the last six months,'' said Duerr.

For example, the center is developing a pilot program for at-risk youth in Springfield. Working with youth organizations in the Springfield area, staff will teach the use of meditation as a way to prevent violence, encourage creativity and promote conflict-resolution skills.

Funding for the program - in the amount of nearly $100,000 - will come primarily from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund at the Peninsula Community Foundation.

''Awareness of our emotions helps us to make healthy decisions,'' said the center's executive director, Mirabai Bush, who said, as the youth ''become familiar'' with their anger through the use of meditation, they will learn to alter their responses to that anger in a positive fashion. The use of contemplative practices ''helps them make more moral decisions,'' she said.

In another local effort, Windhorse Associates Inc., a therapeutic community in Northampton for people with psychiatric disorders, was recently the subject of a study by the center to investigate how contemplative practices have impacted the treatment program.

Windhorse's co-executive and educational director, Michael Herrick, said the 10-year-old agency, located at 211 North St., was chosen for the study because it already uses a contemplative approach for training professional clinicians.

''Since the beginning of Windhorse, contemplative practice has been the foundation of our clinical approach. It is our experience that such practice greatly benefits the therapeutic relationship,'' said Herrick.

The study looked at ways in which Windhorse staff use the practices and the perceived benefits and limitations to the organization.