Tag: Mindfulness Courses

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

8-week course (1 hour session per week).

For the ruminating mind…

Learn how to be the observer of your thoughts and not the thought itself. Build awareness and attention training so you become the witness of your mind and your mind looses its hold on you.

Overview

The aim of the MBCT program is to help participants make a radical shift in their relationship to thoughts, feelings, and body sensations

All it takes is simple habits like brushing your teeth, implementing MBCT practices into your life can improve your well-being and make positive lasting changes to your life.

MBCT will help you to:

• Recognise patterns in the mind, low mood and body cues which can help you to prevent anxiety, stress and depression.
• Respond and not react to triggers and emotions.
• To anchor yourself in the present moment appreciating and having more pleasure and gratitude for the small things in life, allowing yourself to step off the trap of being caught in the rush before the busy pace of life takes control of all.
• Helps with the fear of the future or the replay of the past and find more peace in the present with acceptance and non judgment.
• To go from ‘doing’ mode to being ‘mode’. Often we try to fix and solve our problems which can accelerate a ruminating mind which can spiral out of control. These fears can prevent us from living the life we want to live. Training ourselves to work from the ‘being’ mode can help us to experience the world with more presence and life. Offering more peace of mind and clarity.
• Take yourself off the battlefield with your thoughts and emotions. Often we try to suppress strong emotions and feelings which doesn’t help. Learning to have the courage to experience our pain helps to let these sensations, worries and emotions come and go. We become the observer of our thoughts and not the thoughts themselves and this awareness is extremely powerful. This promotes a sense of self-compassion and kindness.

Both the research data and our clinical experience suggest to us that only when people learn to take a different stance in relation to the “battleground” of their thoughts and feelings will they be able in the future to recognise difficult situations early and deal with them skillfully. Taking this different stance involves sampling a different mode of mind from which we normally inhibit, and which much therapy also inhibts. It involves replacing the old mode of fixing and repairing problems with a new mode of allowing things to be just as they are, in order to see more clearly how best to respond. (p.93)

Segal, Z, Williams, M and Teasdale J. (2018)
Mindfulness – Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. (Second Edition) The Guilford Press.

This course is in line with BAMBA (British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches), it is included in the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and used by NHS (National Health Service UK). The course was created and taught as clinical psychologists Zindel Segal PhD, Mark Williams DPhil and John Teasdale PhD intended, which is approved and followed by the Mindfulness Founder Jon Kabatt-Zinn PhD.

For more information on this please contact me.

Let’s create something tailor made for you, your needs and your lifestyle!

Perhaps you are experienced with Mindfulness or perhaps you do not yet feel ready to
undertake the 8-week course. Together we will come up with a plan to integrate Mindfulness
into your life and find meditations that can suit your needs and improve the quality of your life.

Overview

The aim of this program is to help young people learn how to manage the radical shifts in their life-long relationship to thoughts, feelings, and body sensations

Just like they learn to brush their teeth to maintain dental hygiene, implementing Mindfulness practices helps them improve their well-being and make positive lasting changes to their lives.

Children (Aged 3+) 

During this Course, children will learn what we call “Paying Attention on Purpose”. 

Children learn this concept and what it means.  

• Learning to pay attention on purpose to their breath, body, sounds, senses and objects. 
• Body Cues: Children learn to notice where and how they feel emotions on the body and that everyone is different. They learn a vocabulary to explain their emotions and body cues.  
• Breathing Space: Children identify their coping strategies to calm themselves and anchor in the present moment. They identify the coping strategies that work for them. They learn that their breathing space is unique to them and we are all different. This gives them compassion for themselves and others. 
• Respond and Not React: Children learn the difference between responding and reacting to strong emotions and things that have upset them. They learn to use their body cues and breathing space to instill this concept in them for life. 

Leading Minds is a program created for Primary Schools and is for children 8+. 

Children learn Mindfulness such as

• Paying Attention on Purpose,
• Breathing Space
• How to Respond and Not React.

They learn meditations, breathing exercises and games which they can teach to their peers. Once they have become skilled in their own practice and teach for a while they become the school’s Mindfulness Leaders who teach the younger children.

They run clubs at lunchtime, teach breathing exercises to their classes or are paired with children who could benefit from learning Mindfulness. The club run by the children at lunch time has been an overwhelming success.

The younger children are completely engaged by the Mindfulness leaders and a Mindfulness vocabulary and technique has been spread around the school.

The Mindfulness Leaders from The British School of Milan spoke to an Education Committee at BSM in 2023 who were impressed by their knowledge, compassion and genuine feedback about what it was like to be a teacher. The Principal of The British School in Paris sent them each a handwritten letter by name.

For more information on this please contact me.