Department of Medicine

Preventive & Behavioral Medicine

Clinical Services

In addition to teaching and research, the Division provides evaluation and treatment services for individuals who want to make health-related lifestyle changes and/or to adapt to an illness or disability. These services are provided through the Division's Behavioral Medicine Clinic and Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program.

The Behavioral Medicine Clinic

The Behavioral Medicine Clinic offers individual, group, and family evaluation and treatment for a wide variety of behavioral, emotional and psychological concerns related to medical problems. Treatment may be focused on adjusting to a difficult diagnosis, problems related to the treatment regimen, lifestyle changes, health enhancement and disease prevention, managing pain and other symptoms, or coping with the issues involved in living with a chronic medical condition or terminal illness. Generally, short-term problem-focused therapy is offered. However, services may be extended to longer-term therapy on an individual basis when appropriate.

Services are delivered by licensed clinical psychologists, postdoctoral fellows, clinical psychology interns, nutritionists, and exercise instructors. Behavioral Medicine clinicians work in close collaboration with primary care and specialty care physicians, nurses, and other health professionals to provide integrated and comprehensive care. Although children occasionally may be seen in the context of a parental illness, treatment is generally limited to adults. Patients under the age of 18 who are in need of behavioral medicine services are followed by the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

More detailed information is available via these links:

• Access to Behavioral Medicine Clinical Services 
• Scheduling and Billing 
• Clinic Staff 
• Areas of Specialization 
• Behavioral Medicine Groups 
• Interdepartmental and Funded Programs: 
  • Asthma Co-Management Program 
  • Breast Cancer 
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation 
  • Eating and Weight Management Program 
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health 
  • Quit Smoking Program 
  • Inpatient Consultation Service 

Stress Reduction Clinic

Founded in 1979 by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the Stress Reduction Clinic (SRC) is the oldest academic medical center-based mind-body program of its kind in the United States. The work of the SRC has been featured in the Bill Moyers' PBS documentary Healing and The Mind, on NBC Dateline, on ABC's Chronicle and in various national print media. We call our approach to health and well being Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

The SRC is mind-body clinic in the form of a course taken as a complement to regular medical treatment. Participants are referred by their physicians or are self-referred. The course offers intensive training in mindfulness meditation and mindful Yoga designed to promote a calm, fluid awareness and to improve an individual's capacity to cope in healthy ways with stress, chronic pain, illness, and pressures of daily living. Published research indicates that a majority of people who complete our program report lasting decreases in both physical and psychological symptoms. Pain levels improve and people learn to cope more effectively with pain that may not go away. The majority of participants also report an increased ability to relax, greater energy and enthusiasm for life, improved self-esteem, and an increased ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations.

Since its inception, more than 13,000 people referred by more than 1,800 physicians have completed this 8-week, 10-session program. Based on relatively intensive practice in mindfulness meditation, there are now more than 200 similar programs in hospitals, medical centers, and clinics worldwide based on the UMass model.

The primary focus of the SRC is to learn how to take better care of yourself and mobilize your own inner resources for learning, growing, and optimizing mind/body health across the life span.