SMART Program
Chronic stress contributes to many health conditions. The Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) Program teaches participants many different self-care practices to reduce the negative health effects of stress including:
- Mind-body approaches such as meditation, mindfulness, breathing techniques, and gentle yoga
- Cognitive skills to change habitual thought patterns and emotional reactions away from stress-based thinking to more adaptive responses
- Tools to promote recuperative sleep, a healthy diet, and physical activity
Regular practice of the skills taught in this program can enhance your well-being, improve your sleep and mood, and reduce physical symptoms such as pain and gastrointestinal distress that are exacerbated by stress. See the page on Mind-Body Medicine for a list of health conditions that these approaches can help with.
The SMART Program meets online as a group in the evening once a week for 1.5 hours for 8 weeks. Each week, participants experience a different guided meditation and learn other tools to enhance resiliency to stress. Program participants also receive a workbook that includes exercises that are completed during program sessions as well as between sessions.
The SMART Program at UC Davis is taught by Dr. Michelle Dossett, a certified SMART teacher and meditation and yoga instructor with over 12 years of experience in teaching these tools to patients and health care professionals. The SMART Program was developed at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
To sign up for the next SMART Program please email: hs-pointwestclinic@ucdavis.edu. The Program is offered quarterly. To secure a place, signing up at least two weeks in advance is highly recommended. The cost of this program is $375 and includes a copy of the SMART Program workbook and access to recorded guided meditations. To ensure this program is a good fit for all participants, we kindly request that you schedule an integrative medicine consultation prior to enrolling.
SMART Program recorded section (Login Required)
To access recordings of guided meditations for the SMART Program, you will need the user name and password provided to you during the first session of the class.