WEST HARTFORD On 43 acres in the midst of bustling West Hartford, an oasis for the mind is taking root.

Located on the campus of the Catholic Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center and officially opened this fall, The Copper Beech Institute is dedicated to mindfulness and meditation.

"We saw that there was a great need in the world to work with the kind of stress, the kind of velocity, that people are seeing in their lives," said Founder and Executive Director Brandon Nappi.

Nappi, who is also the associate retreat director for Holy Family, has long studied mindfulness after being introduced to the practice by his wife, and says the disciplines have taken off after entering the mainstream in recent years.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts, studied Zen Buddhism including examining those principles scientifically, which led to his development of the eight-week secular mindfulness-based stress reduction training in the late 1970s.

Kabat-Zinn's work and the subsequent research by others, "enabled mindfulness to really mushroom like it has," and "now the cat's out of the bag and researchers are free to experiment," Nappi said.

Copper Beech has partnered with UMass to offer the mindfulness training three times a year, and is engaging in collaboration and training across a variety of disciplines, from yoga to meditation.

"We kind of have something for everybody," Nappi said. "I wanted to create a community where people from many different backgrounds could come and create a space of compassion, stability, and greater service to the world."

A nonprofit supported by program revenue and donors, Copper Beech takes its name from the tree, which is a symbol of wisdom and solitude. There are three copper beech trees on the Holy Family's quiet, leafy campus, which houses a sculpture garden, playing fields, and a labyrinth, and Nappi said the name seemed perfect for the environment they were trying to create.

The Rev. David Cinquegrani, retreat director at Holy Family, helped to foster Copper Beech, which leases space on campus alongside Golden Thread, an art gallery that opened on campus last year.

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Copper Beech Institute Offers Mindful Retreat In West Hartford