Mindfulness and Compassion Grand Rounds at Harvard Medical School will be held about twice monthly, live online via Zoom, and is open to those within Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), and members of the CMC community. for free. Our Grand Rounds series has 3 main aims:

• Disseminate information about new cutting edge science and impactful clinical research findings

• Highlight best practices for enhancing the efficacy, accessibility, and safety of mindfulness and compassion delivery and applications for population mental health

• Provide opportunities for healthcare provider self-care and burnout prevention

Not able to attend live over Zoom?

NOTE: The recording of our 4/7/2025 program will *not* be released until the study has been published. Please plan to attend live over Zoom.

2024/25 Academic Year

Subject of lecture - The HeartSmile Training Study - A First Look: Clinical and Neural Insights from a Pilot Study of an Interoceptive Compassion Program

Date: Monday, April 7, 2025
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Alessandra Anzolin, PhD, Ven. Misan W.D. Kim, PhD, Richa Gawande, PhD, Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD

NOTE: The recording of this program will not be released until the study has been published. Please plan to attend live over Zoom.

Description: This talk will present the development and findings of a pilot study exploring the neurocardiac mechanisms of Heart-Smile Training (HST). Rooted in Mahayana Buddhism and originating in Korea, HST offers a holistic approach to enhancing mental health by cultivating interoceptive awareness as a foundation for compassion and loving-kindness.

In this study, HST was delivered as a three-day online retreat followed by four weekly sessions and was compared to a waitlist control group. The study assessed its impact on clinical outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as pre/post neurophysiological markers derived from EEG recordings.

We will share novel insights into how this compassion-focused training may influence brain activity and interoception. This was the first pilot trial conducted in English to examine HST’s effects on depression.

Presenter Bios:

Dr. Alessandra Anzolin is a neuroscientist and junior faculty member at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, specializing in pain neuroimaging, patient-clinician interactions, and non-pharmacological interventions for chronic pain. With an extensive background in biomedical engineering and brain imaging techniques such as EEG and fMRI, Dr. Anzolin leads groundbreaking projects that explore the neural mechanisms of pain processing and its social aspects in individuals with chronic pain. Her work leverages hyperscanning (simultaneous multi-brain recordings) to investigate brain-to-brain connectivity during interpersonal interactions, with the goal of enhancing patient-clinician dynamics, such as employing Theory of Mind training. Dr. Anzolin is also interested in mindfulness-based interventions and the role of interoception in mental health. In collaboration with Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), she is studying a compassion-based meditation program for patients with mild to moderate depression. Through her research, Dr. Anzolin aims to advance non-pharmacological approaches for pain and mental health, ultimately improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

Ven. Misan W.D. Kim, Ph.D., who received his doctorate from the University of Oxford, is the founding director of the Center for Contemplative Science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He developed Heart-Smile Training (HST), which he teaches in the United States, Korea, and globally. HST workshops have been conducted at institutions such as Brown University and the University of California, San Diego. Misan leads the HST program for the collaborative research project between KAIST and Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the guiding teacher of the Sangdo Meditation Center in Seoul, an engaged Buddhist community he founded in 2006. His Oxford doctoral thesis, 'The Theravadin Doctrine of Momentariness,' has been published by Halle University in Germany in 2025. He is also the author of Lectures on Theravada Buddhism and a co-author of several books, including Compassion, Happiness, and Mind.

Richa Gawande, PhD (she/her). I am interested in community conversations and community-based participatory research about the impact of stress, culture and illness on our bodies. I am also interested in ways in which listening with compassion to our bodies internally (interoception) and collectively can facilitate social change through healing, joy, and justice.  I serve as Co-Director of the Mindfulness Training for Primary Care teacher training pathway, as a Research Scientist, and a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher at CMC. I am committed to working within and towards a larger ethical research and teaching framework that is sensitive and responsive to the importance of social justice, community, story and culture.  I have a background in biology and public health and served as the CMC Research and Programs Manager from 2015-2019.  

Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD is the Founding Center Director of the CHA Center for Mindfulness and Compassion and Director of the Mindful Mental Health Service at CHA. He is Director of Addiction Research at CHA. Dr. Schuman-Olivier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth. As a board-certified addiction psychiatrist, he has been involved with research and clinical care of patients with addiction, mental illness, and chronic pain both in mental health and primary care settings. He has participated in the NIH Science of Behavior Change Initiative and NIH HEAL Initiatives. He is the principal investigator for the PARTS study, which is developing and testing novel group interventions based on an Internal Family Systems approach to trauma and PTSD. He co-developed the Mindful Behavior Change curriculum and was the principal investigator of the MINDFUL-PC project, which led the way in integrating mindfulness into primary care. He is the principal investigator of the MINDFUL-OBOT trial, a national trial of live online mindfulness training groups, which recruited people with opioid use disorder from 16 states. He is Director of the Clinical Core for the NCCIH program project grant testing synergistic integrative mind-body approaches to chronic pain treatment. In addition, he is involved in clinical trials of innovative interventions for depression, anxiety, alcohol use, and grief.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe 2 features of the HeartSmile Training curriculum that differentiates HST from other MBPs/CBPs.

2. Explain the association between interoception dysfunction and depression.

3. Identify clinical and neural effects of interoceptive compassion training on depression, anxiety and interoceptive processing.

Continuing Education Information

• For those seeking continuing education credit, the link to a feedback form will be sent during the live lecture in the Zoom chat. This must be filled out to receive CE; credits are processed at the end of the academic year in late June 2025 for the entire Grand Rounds series. CE certificates are issued a month or so after that time. Although these sessions are recorded, we can only offer CE to those who attend live over Zoom.

• The Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Harvard Medical School designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

• Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This program offers 1.0 continuing education credits.

• Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5444. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program offers 1.0 continuing education credits and is also applicable for Commonwealth of Massachusetts Counseling/Allied Mental Health accreditation for 1.0 credits.

• As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Harvard Medical School is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1 clinical continuing education credit.

• An attendance attestation form will be shared during each event in the Zoom chat, before the Q&A session.

Coming Up

April 21: Pico Iyler

May 5: Gloria Yeh

May 19: Simon Goldberg

June 2: Details coming soon!

Previous Speakers

Sign up to get the link to the recordings here

Discovering the Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Shame with Mindfulness and Compassion

Date: Monday, May 16, 2022
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Ronald D. Siegel

The Zen of Therapy: Bringing Mindfulness to Psychiatry

Date: Monday, May 2nd, 2022
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Mark Epstein

Social Justice in Clinical Practice: A Liberation Health Frame for Healthcare Providers

Date: Monday, April 4th, 2022
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Dawn Belkin Martinez

From Trauma to Liberation: A Journey to Self-Compassion

Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: La Sarmiento

The Biopsychosocial Impact of Art on the Neurobiology of Stress: An Awareness-Based Approach to Healing Intergenerational Trauma

Date: Monday, October 4th, 2021
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Sará King

Interpersonal Neurobiology: The Social Brain and the Embodied Relational Mind

Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Dan Siegel

Mindfulness (-Based Cognitive Therapy) for Life: Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World

Distinguished Harvard Medical School Lecture

Date: Monday, June 21, 2021
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Willem Kuyken

Mindfulness and Behavior Change: New Findings from 5 Years of Mindfulness Training in Primary Care Research

Date: Monday, June 7, 2021
Time: 1-2pm (ET)
Presenter: Dr. Zev Schuman-Olivier