Interdisciplinary Mindfulness Centre Groningen

Mission
The Interdisciplinary Mindfulness Research Centre Groningen is a project of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health. It brings together members of the University of Groningen/UMCG community interested in research on and the practice of mindfulness and meditation. The aims of the monthly meetings are twofold:

• Create a space in which meditation and mindfulness-related themes can be discussed from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective

• Have a place to practice mindfulness and meditation and discuss how mindfulness and meditation practices can be relevant and have an impact on everyday life

To achieve these aims, we organize two types of meetings that are focused on a research talk and on practice, respectively. During the research talks, on-going research will be presented. During the practice meetings, there will be time for practice and exchanges about the practice.

For whom
You are welcome to join our meetings if you are interested in research on meditation and mindfulness practices. Anyone is welcome, including faculty, PhD students, and university students.

Calendar
Tuesdays 15:45-17:00
Location: room 3219.0024 lounge 2 of the UMCG, click here for directions.

• Feb 18th - research talk: Chris May (UCG) “Discussing research ideas to examine the interpersonal effects of meditation practice” .
• Apr 21st - Research talks by students/collaborators of Maya Schroevers
• May 26th - Practice talk led by Marieke van Vugt "Meditation and reasoning: an introduction to analytical meditation".
• Jun 16th -  Research talk: Brian Ostafin "Adding an anxiety-specific element to mindfulness practice for reducing anxiety: Pilot study and investigation of mechanisms”.
  

Members:

• Chris May (Social Sciences, UCG, RUG). Dr. May is broadly interested in mind-training programs. As such, he takes great pleasure in being an educator. In addition, Dr. May conducts research on the interpersonal, affective, and cognitive effects of different meditation practices. He also contributes to the literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

• Brian Ostafin (Psychology, BSS, RUG). Dr. Ostafin’s research investigates mechanisms through which mindfulness interventions may help to alleviate psychopathology (with a focus on addiction, anxiety, and depression), including: i) automatic cognitive and affective processes, assessed with reaction time tasks, and ii) fear of uncertainty, assessed with self-report and threat conditioning tasks.

• Andrea Sangiocomo (Philosophy, RUG), has worked at the crossroads of Western early modern philosophy and science and continental metaphysics. More recently, he has been interested in comparative philosophy and ancient Buddhist thought, working especially on the Discourses of the Buddha, preserved in the Pali canon of the Theravada tradition.

• Maya Schroevers (Health Psychology, Health Sciences, UMCG). Dr. M.J. Schroevers investigates the role of mindfulness and self-compassion in the process of adaptation to a chronic somatic illness, the underlying mechanisms explaining this association, and the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions to improve the psychological functioning of people with a chronic somatic illness.

  Marieke van Vugt (Bernoulli Institute, FSE, RUG). Dr. van Vugt investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying meditation and mindfulness practices using behavioural tasks, EEG and computational modeling. She also investigates the practice of analytical meditation and monastic debate practiced by Tibetan Buddhist monks in India.

Contact us:
For general enquiries: aletta rug.nl
You can also contact one of the members of our centre directly.