Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT/MBSR) Eight Week Online Training – Tuesday Evenings

Mindfulness is about learning to pay attention to our thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, the body and the world around us – an awareness of “present experience with acceptance” (Germer et al, 2005).

Participants are taught to observe their habitual automatic and unhelpful cognitive reactions while at the same time learning to interact with their thoughts and emotions in a less judgemental and more compassionate way.  Mindfulness reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that you can incorporate into daily living to help break the cycle of anxiety, stress, unhappiness and exhaustion.

In MBCT programmes, participants meet together as a class, 2 hours per week for eight weeks. We start by developing an awareness of what is happening in our experience. We do this through mindfulness practices such as the body scan, mindful yoga, sitting meditation and being mindful of other activities such as walking or eating. We learn how to be with our experience as it is, instead of pushing away unwanted thoughts, emotions or other experiences.

The main “work” is done at home between classes. Participants will receive notes for each session and a copy of Mindfulness a Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, by Professor Mark Williams and Dr. Danny Penman. In the classes, there is an opportunity to talk about your experiences with the home practices, the obstacles that inevitably arise and how to deal with them skilfully.

Over the eight weeks of the program, the practices help you:

• to become familiar with the workings of your mind

• to notice the times when you are at risk of getting caught in old habits of mind that re-activate downward mood spirals, rumination and self-destructive thoughts

• to explore ways of releasing yourself from those old habits and, if you choose, enter a different way of being.

• to lower levels of emotional distress and reduce levels of stress

• to put you in touch with a different way of knowing yourself and the world

• to notice small beauties and pleasures in the world around you instead of living in your head

• to be kind to yourself instead of wishing things were different all the time, or driving yourself to meet impossible goals.

• to find a way so you don’t have to battle with yourself all the time

• to accept yourself as you are, rather than judging yourself all the time.

Research shows that Mindfulness is enormously empowering for clients with chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and gastrointestinal disorders, as well as for psychological problems such as anxiety, panic, stress and relapse prevention for clients in remission from depression or recovery from addiction.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was designed specifically to help people who are prone to recurring depression and low mood. MBCT has been adapted for working with anxiety, bi-polar, OCD and digital/online classes.

Online course commences Tuesday evenings; from 5.30pm to 7.30pm commencing 26 January – ending 16 March 2021: cost €150 euro (the normal cost for MBCT/MBSR training is €350).

Cost of online training: €150 includes 16 hours mindfulness training, notes, and resources.

“It has greatly exceeded my expectations having done mindfulness before. I feel that anything I was doing before is now completely strengthened and improved by this experience. It was a pleasure to be a part of this course and I am accrediting the course to my contentment and improving happiness”. Participant on MBSR/MBCT.