Author / Teacher

Elaine Smookler

Elaine Smookler is a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) and teacher. She was a founding faculty member at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, where she taught clinical programs including MBCT and MBSR. She also taught Mindfulness throughout the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, was a founding member of the Compassionate Care team at Sick Kids hospital, and a longtime faculty member at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, where she taught her own program, “A Mindful Way through the Creative Process” and was part of the certificate program for Mindfulness Informed End-of-Life Care. Elaine has offered mindfulness training to Parole Officers, the Catholic School Board, Employee Assistance programs throughout North America and to a broad corporate audience. She is also part of the Dawn DTx Personalized Cancer Stewardship Program. Elaine is a key-note speaker, columnist, standup comedian, actor and singer. With her clients, she employs a light touch to encourage people to turn towards difficulty, confusion, and challenge as part of the greater technicolour experience of life.

elainesmookler.com

Articles by Elaine Smookler

Magazine

How Mindful Risks Can Create Lasting Change in Your Life

In order to open yourself up and stop settling for a life that keeps you small, you actually have to be somewhat outrageous. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | AUG 21, 2018

Magazine

Don’t Vacate Your Vacation

Next time your thoughts are dragging you away from your well-earned holiday, instead try relaxing into the sensory world. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | JUL 31, 2018

Mindfulness For

How to Make a Mindful Resolution

Hard-knuckling it through our New Year’s goals can strain even the best intentions. Here’s a mindful strategy for less stress and more success in keeping your resolutions. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | JUN 5, 2018

Magazine

Look on the Bright Side…?

Optimism can seem like a dead end or even a harmful delusion. But it’s not about slapping a filter over bleak reality; it’s about allowing yourself to see life’s full range of colors. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | JUN 1, 2018

Gratitude

What Does It Mean to Be Grateful?

Gratitude isn't just in our head: It takes root in our heart and in our senses, for one beautiful moment...and then the next. Here are three ways to practice gratitude, from a.m. to p.m. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | APR 26, 2018

Learn

How to Show Up When You Have Cancer

In this podcast, Patricia Rockman, director of education and clinical services for the Center for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, and Mindful columnist Elaine Smookler, both cancer survivors, talk about how mindfulness factors into the cancer experience. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | MAR 13, 2018

Magazine

Why Change is Your Greatest Ally

Changes often hurt when they first emerge, but resisting them goes against the way the world works. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | FEB 5, 2018

Eating & Body Image

Get More from Your Glass of Wine with this Mindful Drinking Exercise

You can have a drink and pay attention. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | JAN 12, 2018

Mindfulness For

How to Ride the Waves of CHANGE

The truth is: we don't know much about what "will be." Here are six mindfulness tips for going with the flow—rather than losing ourselves in the undertow. Read More

ELAINE SMOOKLER | NOV 20, 2017