MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS REDUCTION TRAINING PROGRAMME

1. Further Introductory Reading: Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life (Wherever You Go, There you are:….) Kabat-Zinn, Jon - Piatkus 1994 Full Catastrophe Living Kabat-Zinn, Jon - Piatkus 1996 The Mindful Way through Depression… freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness (with CD) Williams, Teasdale, Segal & Kabat-Zinn Guilford Press 2007 Mindfulness – a practical way to finding peace in a frantic world (with CD) Williams, Mark, Penman, Danny – Piatkus 2011 Mindfulness for Dummies (with CD) Aladina, Shamash Wiley, 2010 Informative Websites: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness http://oxfordmindfulness.org MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS REDUCTION TRAINING PROGRAMME A Brief Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally. Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) June, 2014

2. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) • Can helps us: • Get out of our heads and learn to experience the • world directly, experientially, without the relentless • commentary of our thoughts. • See our thoughts as mental events that come and • go in the mind like clouds across the sky, instead of • taking them literally. • Start living right here, in each present moment • Disengage the autopilot in our heads. • Side-step the cascade of mental events that draw • us down into depression. • Stop trying to force life to be a certain way because • we’re uncomfortable right now. • Professor Mark Williams, • Professor of Clinical Psychology • Oxford Mindfulness Centre / Dept of Psychiatry • Oxford University • ‘The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having fresh eyes’ • Marcel Proust • What are the benefits? • Two decades of published research indicate that the majority of people who complete an 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course experience: • a lasting decrease in physical and • psychological symptoms • an increased ability to relax • greater energy and enthusiasm for life • improved self-esteem • an ability to cope more effectively with both • short and long term stressful situations • Course Leader Julian Bowers BA Hons MA • Julian is a fully trained teacher of Mindfulness-Based • Stress Reduction and has completed Teacher • Development Level 1 at the CMRP, Bangor University. He • has taught the 8 Week Programme many times to a • range of mental health clinicians. Julian leads a day • seminar on MBSR/MBCT for post-graduate and doctoral • students at the School of Psychology, Birmingham • University. He is supervised at the Oxford Mindfulness • Centre, Dept. of Psychiatry, Oxford University, has • published on Mindfulness, and has worked directly • with Prof Mark Williams.