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Page 2 Her desire to assist others with healing began in the early 1980’s as a registered nurse. Mary worked in several teaching institutions along the East Coast with critically ill patients who had complex health concerns. Many of these patients were undergoing major surgical operations or suffering from cardiac disease, chronic pain and disability. Anxiety and depression frequently added another dynamic to their physical difficulties. It was not long after that Mary became disillusioned with the typical method of treating patients. She found that when traditional medicine could not “cure” people, many felt abandoned without hope. But, it was her personal experience with a chronic pain illness that served as the catalyst for exploring complementary methods of healing. In the early 1990s, Mary enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Stress Reduction Clinic founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, where she began the Internship Program for Health Care Professionals. This was her entree into mind-body medicine. She discovered the power of meditation to jumpstart the healing process. Mary describes this moment as life altering, significant enough to shift her once-held beliefs on healing toward a new world of possibilities.
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