Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic

The Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic was founded in 2003 by psychologists Dr. Lynette Monteiro and Dr. Frank Musten. For 20 years it offered mindfulness programs for people diagnosed with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and various stress-related illnesses. It also served as a clinical training site for students in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Ottawa, and as a teaching clinic for master's and doctoral candidates in psychology, social work and counselling psychology.

The clinic's core offering is Mindfulness-based Symptom Management (M4), an 8-week program for people experiencing stress related to life events such as relationships, work, family, depression, anxiety and loss. Its sessions move through body awareness, understanding our perceptions of ourselves, others and the world, cultivating tolerance of distress, and transforming reactivity into "respons-ability." Participants learn the fundamentals of mindfulness practice, the mind-body connection, stress awareness and coping skills, self-care strategies, and how the Five Skillful Habits can support their values. The program belongs to a class of Second-Generation Mindfulness Interventions, which develop mindfulness in the context of clarifying values that promote health and well-being.

Alongside the 8-week program, the clinic offered practice opportunities for graduates, including monthly meetings, all-day sessions and retreats. Recorded talks by Drs. Monteiro and Musten from those retreats are shared on the clinic's site, with themes such as metta, self-compassion, the Brahma Viharas, and wisdom and compassion. The guided meditations from the program are also available in English and French, and on Insight Timer. They are meant to support ongoing practice and, alongside psychotherapy, can help with psychological challenges, physical pain and work-related stress.

Drs. Monteiro and Musten are published authors of books on mindfulness and on ethics in and of mindfulness programs, as well as of peer-reviewed research articles. They co-wrote Mindfulness Starts Here: An Eight-Week Guide to Skillful Living. The clinic has since stopped offering its group programs and its professional training in MBSM facilitation. Its meditations, talks and writings remain available.