Established in 2014, The Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC) is part of the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) healthcare system, a Harvard Medical School (HMS) teaching hospital. Operating under the CHA Department of Psychiatry, CMC is a research, training, and clinical center, working to integrate evidence-based mindfulness and compassion practices into primary care, mental health, and outpatient healthcare settings. Our offices are within CHA’s Malden, MA location.

Our mission is to enhance health and well-being by integrating mindfulness and compassion into healthcare with a commitment to inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity.

To cultivate mindfulness and compassion learning and practice in:

  1. Patient care

  2. Professional education and training

  3. Scientific research

  • Mindfulness and compassion are basic human capacities that support health and well-being.

  • CMC is an organization grounded in current scientific understanding of mindfulness and compassion, and the promotion of empirically-supported theory and practice.

  • CMC is committed to using mindfulness and compassion to foster an inclusive and caring community that ensures access on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity/culture, gender, sexuality, language, economic status, mental and physical ability, and literacy, recognizing that these often intersect.  

Featured News: CMC was awarded a research grant titled “Neural and physiologic effects of self-compassion on chronic pain” from the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.  This grant provides seed funding for a pilot neuroimaging study examining self-compassion training for people experiencing chronic lower back pain.