Why Mindfulness?
Traditional talk therapy is powerful. Mindfulness practices are powerful. When you bring them together, something remarkable happens: you don't just understand your patterns—you develop the awareness and tools to change them.
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Present-Moment Awareness
Learn to step out of autopilot and into your life. Mindfulness helps you notice what's happening in your body, mind, and emotions as it unfolds, giving you more choice in how you respond.
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Self-Compassion Over Self-Criticism
Most of us are our own harshest critics. Mindfulness-based therapy helps you develop a kinder, more understanding relationship with yourself—which research shows is key to emotional well-being.
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Skills That Stick
These aren't just concepts to discuss in therapy—they're practical techniques you can use when anxiety spikes, when you're overwhelmed, or when you simply want to be more present with the people you love. The more you practice mindfulness skills, the easier it is to call upon them. And over time you’ll need less effort to bring in mindfulness on a daily basis making them sustainable.
Who We Are
The Mindful Wellness Center of Austin is a 501(c)3 public charity non-profit.
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Empowerment through mindfulness.
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To provide affordable holistic services to central Texas residents to help them achieve true mindful well-being.
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Everyone deserves to learn how to become more mindful.
Everyone deserves to feel a sense of ease and grace.
Everyone deserves to develop mindful coping skills to navigate the complexities of our modern world.
Everyone deserves to have access to mindful practitioners who assess and treat individuals without judgment and labels.
Our Story
As a student therapist and licensed social worker Cyndi Collen worked for four years with individual and group clients at Capital Area Counseling (CAC), a local non-profit that offered low-cost, sliding scale therapy to Austin residents. While at CAC she had the idea of forming a non-profit with a similar structure and low-cost offerings but with therapists that were using mindfulness-based therapy models.
Cyndi partnered with Laura Benton, one of the founders of Yoga Yoga in Austin, to form the Mindful Wellness Center of Austin (MWCA) with the mission of helping people build mindful presence and coping skills through a trauma-informed lens. Thanks to the generosity of Cyndi, Laura and Mehtab Benton they applied to the IRS to form a public charity non-profit and received approval fairly quickly.
2016
MWCA was launched with three volunteer board members, two volunteer therapists and four clients receiving in-person, mindfulness-based counseling for $30 a session in 2018. We had access to free shared therapy office space several hours a week and even though we did not have sufficient financial or personnel resources we were able to provide around 50 counseling sessions a year before March 2020.
2017
The pandemic required us to shift our services to Zoom and this shift enabled us to expand the number of provisionally licensed therapists as many people were requesting low-cost therapy to help them during a time when experiences of stress, anxiety, hopelessness, fear and isolation were very common.
The pandemic also inspired helpers and therapists to give back to their communities and we were able to bring on new volunteer board members that were committed to mindfulness and this commitment helped us to collaborate with counseling graduate programs by becoming a site for student therapists.
We lost access to our free office space during the pandemic but have provided training for our therapists so that we can bring mindful presence, connection and nervous system regulation into video sessions.
2020
We brought on our first paid supervisor, Linda Ramsey, LMFT, LPC and Linda has done a phenomenal job of bringing on student therapists that embrace mindfulness and are aligned with us in their passion of bringing compassion, empathy and no judgment into the therapeutic relationships with clients.
In 2024 we delivered over 3,000 counseling sessions and are committed to expanding our team of therapists so we a serve those seeking mindful wellness.
2024
Board of Directors
Jessica Pease, President
Claire Wieczorek, VP / Treasurer
Manasa Rao
Kelley Price, Secretary
Ashley McCann
Executive Director
Cyndi Collen
Assistant Practice Manager
Sophie Stewart
Meet the team here.