Current Offerings:

 

Live/Online: Four Foundations of Mindfulness Retreat
This program offers a systematic training in formal mindfulness practices over the course of seven days in a retreat container, supported by teachers in the Insight Meditation Tradition. Teachings are appropriate for healthcare professionals as well as the general public. Healthcare professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients

Descripton:
The retreat offers up to nine hours of live, teacher supported instruction each day, including two small-group teacher meetings for individualized feedback, over the course of the retreat. Additionally offering downloadable materials and at-will video instructions that support intensive practice at home. 

This course is appropriate for health care professionals wishing to incorporate mindfulness professionally. After attending the course participants will:
•    Learn and deepen mindfulness practices in a formal setting; including mindfulness of sensations in the body, thoughts and emotions, and feeling tone.  
•    Know how to work with mindful movement practices as a support for embodied presence
•    Cultivate wholesome states of loving kindness and compassion, and learn how to work with these as practices in a systematic approach.
•    Learn mindfulness through a trauma-informed approach
•    Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to their ability to work with clients or patients

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Course Content

•    Instruction in formal awareness practices, including mindfulness meditation focusing on the breath, other physical sensations, feelings, emotions, and thoughts, including gentle yoga and walking meditation in order to develop embodied awareness.

•    Instruction on working with hindrances to practice, as well as qualities that can be cultivated that support practice. 

•    Q and A sessions and small group meetings with teachers about experiences and challenges

•    Information about stress, behavior, psychology, resourcing, resilience and well-being as it relates to our experience and patterns of behavior; incorporating mindfulness in daily life; components of awareness such as acceptance, loving kindness and compassion. 

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Learning Objectives: At the end of the program, participants will be better able to:

1. Discuss the difference between mindfulness and concentration as meditative practices

2. List the four foundations of mindfulness

3. List  the six ‘sense doors’ that make up present moment experience as defined in mindfulness practice

4. Explain the clinical value of practicing mindfulness using the Four Foundations 

5. Describe two different ways to practice with mindfulness of the body

6. Describe how one would 'label' experience moment to moment in mindfulness practice

7. List the three 'feeling tones'

8. Describe the clinical benefit of noticing ‘feeling tone’ in breaking unhealthy cycles and habits

9. Discuss the importance of recognizing mental experience (thoughts & emotions) as distinct from 'feeling tone'.

10. Explain how awareness/lack of awareness of mental states creates or relieves suffering

11. Discuss the importance of noticing the changing nature of experience in practice

12. Analyze a particular mental state in terms it’s wholesomeness or lack thereof

13. List the five hindrances to wholesome mental states, and how they contribute one’s suffering

14. Discuss strategies to work with ‘hindrances’ in mindfulness practice

15. Describe how mindfulness practices can promote insight in to the origins of stress and suffering

16. Discuss the benefits of personal mindfulness practice to support working with clients

17. Utilize mindfulness of breath and body practices to develop presence moment awareness, as a support for working with clients

18. Utilize mindfulness-based self-care strategies to promote professional and personal well-being, including reducing emotional exhaustion & burnout

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