Center for Mind Body Health: June 2012 Meditation Class

This is one in a series of "Profile" posts in which different local resources will be described so that seekers will understand in advance what to expect should they decide to visit.

In this case, a commercial service is being described rather than a Temple or lay practicing group.  For a general list of nonprofit Temples and other local meditation groups, please see the TEMPLE PROFILES category.

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The Center for Mind Body Health in the heart of Clear Lake announces a meditation class beginning tomorrow night and running for four dates (Wednesday June 6, Wednesday June 13, Monday June 25, and Wednesday June 27), from 6:30 pm to 8 pm each of those four evenings.  

Center for Mind Body Health location,
screengrabbed from Googlemaps.

This is a general meditation instruction based upon the pioneering mindfulness methods of Jon Kabat-Zinn and others. 

Screengrab from the CMBH web materials.

The training is administered by Gwen Brehm, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  A short website announcement can be found here, and for further information please contact their offices per the URL above. 

This training is usually offered a couple of times per year, so if you miss this session, check back with the Center for Mind Body Health for future sessions. 

Moderator's Viewpoint.  I am including this announcement pertaining to a for-profit business on an otherwise-noncommercial blog for the following reasons:

1. I had known Gwen Brehm socially for years, knew that she offered counseling services, but had absolutely no knowledge that she had engaged in meditation training as a professional focus until learning about it more-or-less by accident late last year.  Therefore, to some degree, I can vouch for this services provider on a personal level independent of any shared interest in meditation.  I receive no financial or material benefit from re-broadcasting the announcement of Gwen's meditation class.  I was not asked to publish it.
2. Gwen's profit intention in charging a modest fee for this meditation training is minimal.  In an email to me in October 2011, she noted that, when no fee is charged for a course like this, the general public tends to interpret that the corresponding instruction is not authentic.  In other words, no fee, no perception of value.  Quite a commentary on our materialistic consumer culture, eh? 
3. It's appropriate to include general references to professional psychological services in this blog in cases where there is specific knowledge of such services.  From my discussions with a wide variety of people seeking to investigate meditation in their own lives, it has become clear to me that there is a definable segment of the population that prefers to be introduced to meditation concepts within a formal institutional setting rather than in a religious setting.  Occasionally I've heard the comments along the lines of, "I'd like to try meditation, but I don't look into it because I'm afraid of what I might find inside my own head."  These are people who may realize a greater experience of personal security and comfort if they know they are being instructed by a licensed professional.  Meditation short-courses such as the one described above are useful because they allow people to become introduced to meditation's potential without a need to make longer-term financial or participatory commitments, and without becoming potentially entangled in sectarian associations.