Effectiveness of a mind-body skills training program for healthcare professionals

Abstract

Context: Because of the increased use and benefits of mind-body therapies, it is important that healthcare professionals receive training in these modalities.

Objective: To determine whether healthcare professionals who attended the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's training program were incorporating mind-body skills into their professional or personal practices and whether they had a greater sense of life satisfaction.

Design: Repeated measures analysis.

Setting: Annual training programs were held in hotels and conference centers in the US.

Participants: Four hundred fifty-one healthcare professionals attended the programs from 1998 to 2001. Two hundred fifty-nine completed the one-year follow-up survey, and 307 completed the well-being survey.

Intervention: The week-long program included didactic and experiential training in biofeedback, meditation, autogenics, imagery, and movement/exercise, as well as self-expression in small groups through drawings, written exercises, and genograms.

Main outcome measures: Questionnaires on previous training and personal and professional use of mind-body approaches were administered before and one year after the program. The Existential Well-Being (EWB) scale also was administered before and immediately after the training.

Results: There was a significant increase in the personal use of mind-body skills and the number of participants who were teaching their clients to use all modalities and a significant decrease in the number of participants who were referring clients to others for training. Participants also had significantly higher life satisfaction scores after the program.

Conclusion: This professional training program was effective in promoting the personal and professional use of mind-body skills and in enhancing the personal fulfillment of trainees.