WHAT WE OFFER
8-Week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Programme:
MBSR is a blend of meditation, body awareness, and mindful movement: learning through practice how your body handles, and can resolve, stress.
The MBSR course originated in 1979 with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the Center for Mindfulness at UMassMemorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
What will taking an MBSR programme do for me?
Through this MBSR course, you will learn skills that can increase your ability to:
- Cope with stress, pain, and the challenges of everyday life
- Deal with disturbing events with grace and composure
- Be fully present and alive in this moment
While MBSR is not a “cure” for serious medical conditions and should not be used as a substitute for medical treatment, research indicates that mindfulness training can have a significant therapeutic effect for those experiencing stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, depression, chronic pain, migraines, heart conditions, diabetes and other ailments. In addition, participants typically report feeling more alive, more “in-tune” with themselves and others.
OTHER OFFERINGS
One-to-one mindfulness coaching
I am available for one hour coaching sessions that will introduce you to mindfulness and give you an oasis of calm in your busy life. I can also do this with a group of friends or family if that is of interest.
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Mindfulness in the Workplace
In the busy, fast paced and highly charged lives many of us lead there has never been a more pressing need to find ways to de-stress. Research shows that practicing meditation and mindfulness can be a successful route to this.
We aim to enable individuals within a group setting to begin to understand their own stress and how it impacts their life. They can then begin to learn ways to manage their stress, and their lives, in more skilful ways.
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Mindfulness for Parents
Parenting kids of any age is like being on a rollercoaster.
It can be an extremely rewarding experience, but at times, it can be extremely frustrating and challenging.
We all want to do the best we possibly can to nurture our kids, so they grow up to be healthy, happy and confident young adults, but in this age of social media, sometimes the pressures they face at school and college are unprecedented, and we, as adults are left stressed out and struggling to know how to help them.
This course will show you how using Mindfulness to support your own health and wellbeing can help strengthen your inner resources as parents, teach you ways to manage stress, and give you the tools for better communication so that you can help enrich your relationships with your kids.
This course will be the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme but the group will consist of parents which allows for parenting issues to be openly discussed. The focus will be on how we can best take care of ourselves in order that we be the best version of ourselves for those we love. It will include an all-day retreat.
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All-day silent retreat
This silent day long retreat is an opportunity to deepen your practice, or simply reconnect with it.
This day is ideal for those who have completed an 8-week MBSR programme or if you simply have a regular practice and just want to have the space to practice in silence. It will give you a chance to return back to the practices taught during the programme, as well as a few new ones.
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Weekly Drop-In Session
Every Monday From 9.45-10.45am
This drop-in session is available to anyone who would like to meditate in a group setting. Every week we cover a different topic and lightly discuss it, then use it as a focus for that week's meditation practice. The meditation is usually around 30 minutes and guided by Jo.
LEARN MOREThe importance of practice
Your body/mind is the most complex instrument in the universe. It takes time and practice to use it effectively and harmoniously.
The 8-week courses are highly experiential, and the daily practice in between the weekly session are perhaps the most important part of it. You wouldn’t expect to learn to surf by reading a book about surfboards and waves, and learning a mindfulness practice is no different than any other skill that involves both mind and body. You may know from your own experience in learning to play an instrument, or a sport, or any complex skill whatsoever, that practice is important.
For this reason, to do this course effectively, you will be expected to attempt around 45 minutes a day for practice. This may be the most difficult hurdle you face in getting started because one of the very issues you are facing may be not having enough time for all that needs to get done in a day – how are you going to find an extra 45 minutes? Previous participants have said that after a few weeks of practice, although their time to “do things” is technically 45 minutes less, there can be a feeling of having more space and time, even in the middle of a very busy day. But don’t take our word for it, why not see for yourself?