About Mindfulness & Behavior Therapies for Individuals
Overcoming complex problems in life requires a comprehensive approach. That approach integrates behavior therapy and mindfulness practice.
Mindfulness practices enable you to have deeper, clearer, more accepting and more compassionate awareness of yourself and others. Behavior therapies provide practical, skills-based solutions for coping with a variety of life challenges.
Together, mindfulness and behavior therapies offer helpful tactics if you are struggling with a wide range of problems, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Impulsive or difficult-to-control behaviors
- Intense emotions
- Many other issues
At the same time, these approaches can help if you do not have significant challenges. They can assist you with strengthening and deepening your relationships with yourself, your loved ones and others.
Mindfulness
Our mindfulness-based approaches help people use this age-old practice to improve their lives. Mindfulness helps you pay nonjudgmental attention to the present moment in order to live more fully, and with purpose.
By using mindfulness, you can more easily face problems head on and commit to actions that will help you thrive. Other benefits of mindfulness include:
- Decreased stress, anxiety and depression
- Increased focus, productivity and mental clarity
- Improved listening and communication
- Improved working memory
- Improved ability to make decisions
We offer the following mindfulness approaches and trainings to help you cultivate inner resources for learning, growth and mastery:
- Individual mindfulness-based therapy: Individual therapy uses mindfulness to help you with a variety of life problems.
Essentials of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
The Essentials of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is derived from the original MBSR program created by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This intensive eight-week series is designed to empower participants to cultivate their natural capacity to manage stress and create greater health and well-being.
MBSR is offered as a complement to, and not a replacement for, traditional medical and psychological treatments. As the most widely researched mindfulness intervention, MBSR has demonstrated effectiveness in helping to treat the following conditions:
- Addictions
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Chronic illness
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Grief
- Headaches
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Pain
- Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD)
- Skin disorders
- Sleep disturbances
Course content includes guided instruction in mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga for all ability levels. We also incorporate educational and interactive discussions focused on identifying habitual maladaptive reactions to stress, developing coping skills and building resilience.
Participants will learn a variety of informal and formal practices to cultivate mindfulness and experience how that mindful attention can change their relationship with challenging thoughts, emotions and pain. Additionally, participants will receive support for integrating these practices into their daily lives in order to live with greater balance, ease and peace of mind.
Mindfulness and Skills-Based Organizational Services
We offer a range of mindfulness and skills-based organization services for schools and businesses.
- Introduction to Mindfulness: A brief workshop that provides an overview of mindfulness theory, practice and benefits
- Mindfulness Talks: Presentations at meetings or retreats tailored to suit the needs of the group; topics include mindfulness, physiology of the stress reaction cycle, emotional intelligence, effective communication and skills for managing stress
- Customized Employee Wellness Programs: A multi-week series that provides the foundation of knowledge and practice to enable the integration of mindfulness into everyday life; programs can be tailored to meet the needs of organizations across sectors, including finance, technology, health care, education and the justice system
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for the Workplace: An eight-week curriculum based on the original mindfulness intervention developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society
- Mindfulness Training for Leaders: A training focused on mindfulness and emotional intelligence to enable the development of resilient, creative and effective leaders
- Skills-Based Trainings: An offering that includes communication skills, skills to manage emotions and stress, dialectical thinking skills for creativity and optimal individual and team performance
To schedule a consultation, please call 847-733-4300, ext. 648.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) gives you cognitive and behavioral tools to change problem behaviors and thoughts, and teaches you skills for improving your life and relationships. The research-based skills taught in DBT are especially useful if you are experiencing serious challenges, including:
- Anxiety
- Chronic thoughts of suicide
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Self-harming behaviors
- Substance abuse
- Violence
Developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan and her colleagues at the University of Washington and other major institutions throughout the country, DBT has considerable research supporting its effectiveness with chronic suicidality, self-harm and other behaviors related to intense and painful emotion.
Michael Maslar, Psy.D., who trained under Dr. Linehan, and his team of DBT therapists offer a combination of work with an individual DBT therapist, weekly skills training groups and as-needed between session phone contact for additional assistance. This combination of services helps people who struggle with major life problems learn new behaviors to help them feel better and ultimately do better in life.
We currently offer specialized DBT programming for adults:
- Our adult skills training groups run on Monday and Wednesday evenings at our downtown Chicago office, which is located at 8 S. Michigan Ave., with an advanced skills group on Thursday evenings at the same location.
Individual DBT therapists are available at most of our locations. We also offer modifications of our DBT program for family members who want help coping with loved ones who have difficulties with intense emotionality.
To schedule a consultation, please call 847-733-4300, ext. 604.
Radically Open DBT
If you experience life problems related to excessive self control, Radically Open DBT (RO DBT) offers an evidence-based treatment approach that differs from standard DBT treatment. RO DBT can help people with a range of issues, including:
- Treatment resistant depression
- Treatment resistant anxiety
- Treatment resistant social anxiety
- Anorexia
- High functioning autism
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders
The RO DBT approach helps people achieve greater open mindedness, flexibility of action and social connection. With RO DBT, you will learn skills to change basic neurophysiological states that lead to rigid ways of thinking and acting. You will also develop skills to become more social and more open.
Greater receptivity and openness allows you to learn more effectively from experience. More flexible control enables you to adapt to life's changing circumstances. Greater social connection affords you the chance to live more fully and deeply.
