Durham mindfulness event offers burnout relief for helping professionals

Abhaya Wellness is pairing guided meditation with professional networking for Durham’s therapists, social workers, educators, HR professionals and healthcare providers in a free Meditate & Mingle session on Thursday, April 16, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at 3710 University Drive in Durham’s 27707 ZIP code. The event is open to beginners and experienced meditators alike, and an optional networking period will follow the guided practice.

The format is built around a simple but telling idea: mindfulness does not have to be a solo habit. Abhaya Wellness says Meditate & Mingle is a recurring monthly gathering, with no commitment to attend every month, which gives helping professionals an easy on-ramp if they have struggled to keep a practice going between long shifts, emotional labor and packed schedules. For a field where self-care often gets treated as another item on the list, the combination of a guided sit and peer connection is the hook.

Matt O’Connor, the founder and owner/CEO of Abhaya Wellness, will lead the session. Abhaya says he has spent a decade in mental health, with a special emphasis on addiction treatment and recovery, and that he holds a master’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University. He is listed as an LCMHC, LCAS and CCS. That background fits a practice space that describes itself as a clinically owned and operated psychotherapy office in Durham focused on compassionate, evidence-based care.

The event’s appeal lands in a moment when burnout among helpers is impossible to ignore. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 46% of health workers said they felt burned out often or very often in 2022, up from 32% in 2018. The American Psychological Association defines compassion fatigue as burnout and stress-related symptoms experienced by helping professionals who work with traumatized people over time, and says secondary traumatic stress can include anxiety, intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, numbness or feeling like there is nothing left to give.

Mindfulness has been part of that conversation for decades, from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s launch of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 1979 to the current use of guided practice for stress relief, emotional regulation and sleep. In Durham, Abhaya Wellness is leaning into that tradition with a format that is as social as it is inward-facing, giving helpers a place to breathe, reset and meet others who understand the same load.