From Self-Care to Community Care: How Mind-Body Medicine is Building Resilience in Indiana’s Healthcare Workforce
In the fall of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennie Voelker attended a one-hour training session that would change her life. Eskenazi Health Center, a partner of CMBM’s in Indianapolis, had been integrating mind-body medicine into their healthcare system for years. Through the partnership, CMBM trained healthcare workers across the region. That day, CMBM-trained practitioners from Eskenazi facilitated an introductory session designed to teach future therapists self-care skills during one of healthcare’s most challenging moments.
“Within minutes of the training starting, I knew this was something different…there’s something here.”
— Jennie Voelker
Over the years, CMBM’s mind-body medicine model and techniques had been thoughtfully integrated throughout the Eskenazi healthcare system, establishing a strong culture of self-care, self-awareness, and mutual support. That foundation not only shaped the environment in which Jennie first experienced the model, but also launched her journey from a participant in a single training session to a certified CMBM practitioner now bringing healing and resilience to hundreds of healthcare professionals across Indiana.
A Personal Journey Becomes a Professional Mission
Jennie, a Director at Community Health Network in Indianapolis, immediately began exploring how she could deepen her engagement with the work. She learned that Eskenazi Health had secured a grant through the Hoosier Heartland Healing Collaborative to support participation in CMBM’s trainings. After being selected for the grant, Jennie successfully advocated for three colleagues to join her, recognizing the power of learning and implementing the model as a team.
Together, they completed CMBM’s four-day Professional Training Program (PTP), which introduces participants to the science and practice of mind-body medicine through experiential self-care and Mind-Body Skills Groups. They then continued on to the Advanced Training Program (ATP) which prepares participants to integrate the model into their professional settings and to facilitate healing within their communities.
Deeply moved by the experience, Jennie felt both personally transformed and professionally empowered. “I was so impacted by it—personally and in being able to share it professionally,” she reflected. Committed to bringing the work forward, she completed the required supervision hours and became Certified in August 2023, joining CMBM’s global network of practitioners. In Fall 2024, she returned to co-lead an Advanced Training Program, completing her internship as part of the final stage of certification. What began as a commitment to self-care had evolved into a clear professional mission, and a calling to bring healing to others.
Building the Behavioral Health Academy
Today, Jennie brings everything she learned through our training into her role at Community Health Network’s Behavioral Health Academy, a program training master’s level students to become therapists in community mental health centers. Partnering with health centers and universities across Indiana, the Academy provides intensive training in evidence-based practices. At its core sits mind-body medicine, woven into the curriculum because of Jennie’s commitment to the work.
Since 2019, 283 students have graduated from the program, with approximately 70-75 new alumni each year. All are dual-licensed to treat both mental health and substance use issues, ready to serve anyone who walks through the door. Every single one has learned mind-body medicine techniques as essential self-care tools, carrying CMBM’s practices into their communities across Indiana.
Jennie has extended this reach further, offering monthly introduction workshops to hundreds of healthcare professionals and facilitating eight-week Mind-Body Skills Groups for 150+ participants. She runs these groups three to four times a year, staying faithful to the CMBM model. She meets one-on-one with participants beforehand to create safety, making clear it’s always fine to not share, to pause, or to take a break.
The impact speaks for itself: healthcare workers who are burnt out from high-levels of stress, who were considering leaving the field, stay, in large part because of the skills they learned and
practiced regularly. Others share how they’re showing up more fully for their families. Many return multiple times, each cycle bringing new awareness.
“We are in a behavioral health crisis, and there’s a huge workforce crisis. If this is a way to increase the number of people who are able to stay in the field to do the work, then it is valuable.”
— Jennie Voelker
Creating Ripples of Healing
Beyond the Academy, the healing spreads. Participants from Jennie’s groups take the mind-body skills they’ve learned back to their own work, their families, their neighborhoods. The transformation multiplies across communities.
One story stands out. A woman from New York, struggling with severe depression and suicidal ideation, came to a Mind-Body Skills Group at the Jewish Community Center in Indianapolis, at her psychiatrist’s recommendation. Skeptical at first, she discovered something in the practice, an awakening and calm, through soft-belly breathing, one of CMBM’s signature techniques. She never missed a week. When it ended, she immediately joined a second group.
The facilitator of that first group, a former Child Protective Services worker who understood trauma’s grip, built a relationship with this woman through regular check-ins, gentle reminders to use the techniques she’s learned, and creating a safe space for change to happen. One CMBM-trained practitioner opening up space for another to heal. And then the work multiplies.
A Way of Moving Through the World
For Jennie personally, mind-body medicine has become more than a practice; it’s a way of life. She craves it now. The techniques have become her way of moving through the world, keeping her present, calm, and intentional in how she moves through challenging moments. The regular practice has even helped her manage her autoimmune issues in ways she never thought possible, while the science behind the work continues to deepen her commitment.
Her advice to other educators and clinicians interested in incorporating mind-body medicine into their programs?
“You can’t share it with others without participating in the practice and feeling the impact yourself. Prior to sharing, give yourself time to experience mind-body medicine. Create a practice and be patient with yourself. Start to notice the changes, then you can genuinely share with others.”
— Jennie Voelker
The Work Continues
Jennie is committed to expanding the work even further, potentially creating retreat-style self-care programs for healthcare professionals who are struggling. She’s diving deeper into the research and science behind mind-body medicine, wanting to better articulate its measurable impact. Her organization tracks burnout scores against program participation and consistently sees reduced anxiety and increased ability to cope with stress, even after just a two-hour introductory workshop. But beyond the metrics, what drives Jennie is gratitude.
“I just feel this immense level of gratitude for everyone at CMBM who has been a part of my journey, all of our students, my colleagues, and to CMBM for continuing to move this work forward.”
— Jennie Voelker
Five minutes into that training in 2020, Jennie knew she’d found something different. Now hundreds of healthcare professionals use these same self-care techniques because of her. One person’s discovery of our model sparked meaningful change across Indiana’s healthcare community.
Learn more about Jennie’s work:
Community Health Network Mental & Behavioral Health
