Beth Mulligan, PA-C received her B.S. from Tufts University, her Physician Assistant training at Duke University Medical School, and has practiced medicine for twenty five years in settings such as, LA County Hospital, Inner City Clinics in Los Angeles, and private practices in the Coachella Valley.
She began studying meditation and Yoga in High School, and holds a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
She currently studies and has lived in residence at Yokoji Zen Monastery.
Beth has taught meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts privately and in a variety of settings, including The Braille Institute, The Shelter From the Storm, and The Lucy Curci Cancer Center.
In 2002 she attended Teacher Training for Health Professionals with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and brought the first Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program to the Coachella Valley, where it is taught at Eisenhower Hospital, and other locations.
This original model of this program has been featured on the Bill Moyers' PBS Series "Healing and the Mind".
"Teaching Mindfulness Based Stress reduction is the most gratifying work I have ever done", Beth says.
"For twenty five years, I have enjoyed and appreciated both the science and the art of western medical practice.
I also know it's limits and how costly it can be; I frequently listened to my patient's frustration with those issues.
I believe in an integrative appproach to health care that takes advantage of all our resources.
Because of my years of experience with meditation and Yoga, I knew that they could enhance health as well."
"When I saw the PBS special Healing and The Mind with Bill Moyers, featuring Jon Kabat-Zinn and The Stress Clinic at U Mass, I realized that he had successfully made the bridge between medicine and meditation.
I saw this as another way I could help patients. It seemed to be the perfect blend of my skills and interests, and I was eager to train with him and teach the curriculum,
which I have done.
Now the current diagnostic technology we have has allowed us to measure the positive effects of Meditation and Yoga.
They have been proved to be very helpful for many conditions in numerous studies.
Doctors are beginning to prescribe these for their patients which is very exciting to me.
What I love about teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, is we are offering simple, but deeply effective, ancient tools that people can use themselves anytime, anywhere.
They don't have to be so dependent on the medical establishment to get the help they need. People feel empowered by that."
"I have also seen it help people who are at the end of their ropes. Many people who come to the Stress Reduction Program have not seen much improvement in their physical condition despite years of medical treatment.
They come as a last resort, often skeptical about it, but willing to try something to get relief. By the time they have been in the program a few weeks, you start to see a transformation, mainly in the way they relate to their problems.
You can see it so clearly in their faces and body language as they begin to relax and smile more, and have more positive things to report.
It is not uncommon that by the sixth week, people forget that they were referred for their high blood pressure or headaches, because they have recovered a natural joy of living and that becomes their main focus.
That always make me truly happy and reinforces what Dr. Kabat-Zinn emphasizes in his classes; 'There is a lot more right with you than there is wrong with you.'"
