Mindfullness in Practice

Mindfulness in Practice – Course Information

This is an experiential mindfulness course for healthcare professionals that will expand our capacity for self-awareness and compassion and increase our potential for opening and attending to others.
This one-day course will introduce you to the practice of compassion-based mindfulness. It will offer skillful means that will help to develop mindfulness and to build the foundations for a sustained personal practice that will be useful in everyday life, both personal and professional.
These practical tools will help us to really take care of ourselves whilst offering healthcare to others. The course is primarily experiential with the invitation to be immersed in the process, with an attitude of curiosity. This means bringing a ‘beginner’s mind’, letting go of opinions, ideas and assumptions, regardless of prior experience.
You will be introduced to the history of the development of mindfulness, a full explanation of what this means and what it does not mean and an exploration of the foundational principles of living mindfully. More specifically the course will facilitate the practice of mindful dialogue that will greatly enhance the capacity of each practitioner to relate with openness and presence to patients/clients.
It has been designed to offer a clear introductory foundation in mindfulness practice. Participants will leave with a set of guided practices (audio and written) that can be used immediately in daily life. The course will offer you, the learner:

Up to date scientific evidence illustrating the value of compassion-based mindfulness practice to health and general wellbeing and to the quality of relationship

An explanation of the philosophy underpinning the practice and a wide range of relevant current literature

Guided practices and recordings that can be used for home practice

Who can attend ?

All participants are asked to take full responsibility for their own wellbeing.

This course is not suitable for anyone who has suffered a recent traumatic life event.

The course is suitable for healthcare practitioners and students of any therapeutic modality.

Participants can expect an experiential day of practice and are asked to bring an open mind.

Those who may be fasting for religious other reasons are asked to inform the tutor before the course commences.

No previous experience is required.

What will I learn ?
At the end of the course you as a participant will:

Develop an understanding the meaning of mindfulness and have an embodied experience of specific mindfulness practices,

Develop an understanding of the importance of self-compassion in the process of getting to know our minds

Recognise our capacity to be present and open to our experience, even the in more difficult moments

Be equipped with a tool bank that we can use to bring greater presence and awareness in treatment sessions

Develop an understanding of the practice of mindful dialogue, a quality that is invaluable in the therapeutic relationship

The course will define mindfulness and describe the motivation that is needed to practise it effectively. It will introduce the two aspects of mindfulness training: method and attitude. We will learn to recognise how the mind is conditioned to operate on automatic pilot – a state in which we are habitually not present but lost in the trance of thought and distraction. We will learn to investigate our experience more closely through the grounding practice of the body scan, which acts as an anchor to present moment reality. We will learn how to:

Recognise the unsettled mind

Settle the mind through breathing practices and walking/movement meditation

Ground the mind in the body through the guided body scan

Allow the mind to come to rest using the support of breath or sound

Carry the mindful awareness gained through formal practice into everyday life

Nurture self-acceptance and compassion

Nurture acceptance of others and relate to patients/clients with mindful awareness of the multiplicity of experience

Before booking
This course is not formally assessed. We recognise that the most valuable assessment is self-reflection on insights into our individual experience from the practices. Another marker is how we can open to ourselves, particularly the more painful or unwanted parts of ourselves through the self-compassion practice. Insight into this can be very useful in deepening the quality of relationship in clinical practice and in everyday life.

Reading Materials and Resources

Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine, Saki Santorelli, Bell Tower, 1999

Full Catastrophe Living: How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Piatkus, 1990

The Miracle of Mindfulness: a manual on meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rider Books, 1991

Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach, Bantam, 2003

The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions, Christopher Germer, Guildford Press, 2009

The Mindful Way Through Depression, Mark Williams, John Reasdale, Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Guildford Press, 2007 (includes CD of guided meditations

A Path with Heart, Jack Kornfield, Rider Books,1994

Everyday Blessings: The Inner World of Mindful Parenting, Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn, Hyperion, 1998

Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Shambala, 1987

Get out of your mind and into your life: the new acceptance and commitment therapy, Stephen Hayes, New Harbinger, 2005

Websites and other resources:

Mindfulness Association: (www.mindfulnessassociation.org)

Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School (www.umassmed.edu/cfm)

Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, University of Wales, Bangor, UK (www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness)

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Developments (www.mbct.com; www.mbct.co.uk)

Christopher Germer guided meditations, free download: (www.mindfulselfcompassion.org)

Kristen Neff Self-compassion: (www.selfcompassion.org/)

Paul Gilbert and the Compassionate Mind Foundation: (www.compassionatemind.co.uk)