TABLE 3.

Mindfulness-Based Meditation Classes Aligned With Therapeutic Community Concepts

	Class	Theme	Therapeutic Community Concepts
Session I	Introduction to Mindfulness—Reawakening to Life	Reducing the tendency to operate on automatic pilot, becoming awake	MBSR as a tool for treatment Right living is being in the personal present, the here and now “To be awake is to be alive”
Session II	Perceptions and Their Effect on the Ability to Respond Creatively	The universality of the wandering mind, how thoughts influence experience, sense of community	“Keep it simple” or focusing on one thing at a time. “Letting go” Community as method
Session III	Cultivating a Sense of Wonder and Appreciation in Life Through Mindfulness	Bringing awareness to the sense of wonder developed through being present to our experience	“You get back what you put in” or focusing on participating fully in the therapeutic community
Session IV	Stress Reactivity and Opportunities for Responding Differently	Noticing how the body responds to stress, how thoughts affect stress reactions and behaviors, and how to handle stress	“Remember who you are” or remembering the basic goodness and potential of one's inner self in coping with stresses
Session V	Allowing and Letting Be—Handling Emotions with Mindfulness	Befriending one's emotions and handling them in a different way, acceptance	“It's better to understand than to be understood” or learning by listening and accepting others
Session VI	Making the Practice Your Own	Emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility for one's own mindfulness practice	“No gain without pain” or anything worth having is worth working for (De Leon, 2000; Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Segal et al., 2002)

Note. MBSR = mindfulness-based stress reduction.