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Penn State Health Mindfulness

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MBSR Instructors

Timothy D. Riley, MD, has been a practicing family physician for more than 15 years, and has been in Penn State's Department of Family and Community Medicine since 2012. After learning how mindfulness can impact provider well-being and quality of care at the University of Rochester, he became a qualified MBSR teacher through the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. He currently serves as the Department of Family and Community Medicine's associate vice chair for wellness.

Holly Socolow, MHS, received professional training under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, Founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 2005. She was the MBSR facilitator for the Penn State Health Women's Health Research for overweight women. Her commitment to teaching arises from witnessing the benefits of mindfulness in the lives of people from all walks of life, and in her own life over the years. She is a qualified MBSR teacher through the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts.

Participants are saying...

"By practicing mindfulness… I developed a picture in my imagination of a bubble surrounding me, separating me from those difficult situations and the accompanying emotions… I have been able to use that distance between myself and my emotions to think creatively about new responses to difficult situations."

Michael Hayes, PhD, licensed psychologist, is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral health and medicine and member of the Penn State College of Medicine faculty. He is the Founding Program Director of Penn State Cancer Institute CARE (Cancer Assistance and Resource Education) Center. Dr. Hayes is a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher through the Mindfulness Center, Brown University School of Public Health. Michael is dedicated to caring for the whole person, which involves looking beyond any diagnosis to understand each individual’s unique circumstances.

Michelle "Shelly" Ungemach, MSW, LSW, is a licensed social worker and the psychosocial program development coordinator at Penn State Health Children's Hospital. Ungemach has provided opportunities to learn and practice mindfulness meditation in the area for the past nine years. She is a qualified MBSR teacher through the University of California San Diego Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute.

Elizabeth Bhagat has been a registered Vascular Ultrasound Technologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center since 2005. As a healthcare worker, Bhagat has experienced the ways in which Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction can help with workplace stress, burnout and compassion fatigue. Additionally, as a parent of school-aged children, she appreciates the potential positive impact of Mindfulness on interpersonal relationships and family life. She is a qualified MBSR teacher through the Mindfulness Center at Brown University.