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Meditators

Professional Training

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a training that combines the heart and self acceptance of mindfulness meditation with the clarity of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. We offer the MBCT in both an 8 week and a 3 day Intensive format for Professionals, as well as a 3 hour theoretical Introduction and a 3 hour Professional Practice as part of our Foundation Training

“I learnt the value of discipline, and that when I was kind and compassionate to myself it was easier to learn” Participant

Register for these courses at a location and date to suit you.

Who is this for?
This experiential course is for professionals who want bring the heart and clarity of mindfulness to their lives and work. It is suitable for beginner to intermediate practitioners, and no experience of mindfulness is assumed. Whether you want to embody the practice and develop your own focus, clarity, kindness to yourself and inner peace, or bring those things to your clients, the 8 week course gives an opportunity to integrate learning over time and the 3 day intensive gives you the richness of immersion.

“I’m usually 15 steps ahead, now there is less chatter, I recognise this moment is important, and I relax more” Participant

What will you learn?
Cultivating mindfulness helps you:

• be fully present, here and now
• live with full awareness in each moment
• understand how your own mind works
• be self accepting and kind to yourself
• fundamentally change your relationship with unwanted thoughts and feelings
• experience unpleasant thoughts and feelings safely
• become aware of what you’re avoiding
• become aware of thoughts/beliefs you habitually and unhelpfully identify with
• become more accepting without the assumptions and criticism that distort much of our experience, and therefore become less judgemental
• develop intimacy with yourself and others
• experience the world more directly through your senses rather than through thoughts and ideas
• increase self-awareness
• become less disrupted by and less reactive to unpleasant experiences
• have more balance and confidence
• learn how practising mindfulness requires discipline and enables discipline
• really see the distinction between you and your thoughts
• learn that everything changes; that thoughts and feelings come and go like the weather
• generate more calm and peacefulness in daily life

Register for these courses at a location and date to suit you.

"The study of mindfulness has brought me personal peace, focus in my work and greater enjoyment of the present, and Liana's course in particular has helped crystallise many of its core concepts for me. I have no hesitation in highly recommending the 8 week MBCT course run by Liana Taylor. I think everyone should do it!!"
Catherine Johnson, Physiotherapist, Private practice, Malvern, Adelaide

Learning MBCT will help you with clients to:

• cope differently with the stresses of challenging clients
• cultivate empathy, compassion, openness and curiosity
• maintain a healthy wise mind rather than getting enmeshed
• stay focused, directed and present, even when your client is not
• stay grounded and composed, even in the midst of clients’ emotional turmoil
• maintain the recognition of who is responsible for outcomes, neither becoming complacent, nor overly-attached
• observe your clients’ responses and habitual habit energies
• integrate a range of tools you can teach your clients
• show them how cultivating mindfulness can transform their life creating a sense of vitality, meaning and fulfilment.
  

How does it work?
One significant aspect of participating in the course is having the experience of the practice, and starting to embody mindfulness. We can read all we want about a song like ‘The Prayer’, or a piece of music like ‘Tubular Bells’, but we don’t know it until we experience it with our own senses.

The MBCT course is a slight variation of the MBCT therapy group adapted for the training situation. There is some variation to the exercises to make them more suitable for experiential participation and learning by therapists rather than patients with depression.

“Before I was less effective, now I have more momentum, less procrastination. I am more effective” Participant

You will participate in a number of mindfulness meditation practices, exercises, discussions and CBT exercises. You will be lead through these meditations and exercises in exactly the same way that you would instruct them to your clients.

There are regular homework and diary keeping tasks amounting to about 40 minutes a day for the duration of the 8 week course, and for the evenings of the 3 day intensive course.
You will receive a manual and set of meditation CDs.

These courses are offered in two formats (8 week or 3 day intensive) to meet your learning style. It is the same course, same manual, and meditations, offered in a different format creating a different experience.

Register for these courses at a location and date to suit you.

Gain the skills and confidence to bring mindfulness to your work and life.

“I particularly enjoyed the ethos of the group, very 'soothing' is probably the best word” Participant

For those travelling to Adelaide for an MBCT course
Adelaide Airport: is 15 mins by car, about $15 cab fare to the CBD, or to NADA.
Accommodation: NADA is a 3-4 km from the CBD, less than an hour's walk along/through the parklands.
Adelaide city is a square mile, compact and accessible.
North Terrace is probably the most accessible for public transport.
We suggest you check one of the last minute accommodation sites: www.wotif.com or www.lastminute.com for either hotels (from our finest to more moderate) or self catering apartments such as the Miller apartments and Oaks embassy.
Buses: from the city go every 15 mins down North Terrace and you can hail them at stops W1, W2, X1, Y1, Y2. Get off at stop 6 or 7 on Port Road.

Please note:
A concession price is available for holders of a Health Care card.

"I have meditated for some years but for many months I had been feeling extremely run down, anxious and thinking "oh dear, I've 'burnt out', it must be time to give up the helping game". I didn't have any spare energy for taking on any more commitments, and my ability to concentrate for very long was like limp celery! I had been at a cross roads regarding my career and spiritual path and I remember thinking I was haemorrhaging away my life energy, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

The structure of the MBCT course was ideal. The emphasis was very much self help: "here are some tools, give them a good try and see for yourself..."

The expectation of an hour a day "homework", 6 days a week for 8 weeks was initially daunting but became the basis for restoration.

There was heaps of encouragement, mutual support and fun. (The course) emphasised really connecting with what was happening with my body, in great detail, with an attitude of curiosity, non-judgement and acceptance. I found this extraordinarily helpful, and for the first time for a long while, restful and grounding.

Register for these courses at a location and date to suit you.

That the course was stretched out over 8 weeks allowed plenty of time for experimentation, ongoing evaluation and solid learning.

The experience helped me to accept that "impasse" is okay and that it is never the total picture of who I am. It has reinforced a sense of embodiment, of groundedness, and of the expansiveness of each precious moment, regardless of whether I like what is happening or not!

It has empowered me by helping to bridge my private "spiritual" life with my professional public life, an embodied metaphor for the meeting of 'East' and 'West'. As a result I am more at peace, relaxed, focussed, happy, contented and energetic.

Maintaining a practice of mindfulness at work, of thoughts and emotions, what pushes my buttons and how I can sometimes respond more appropriately to these, continues to be a protective and rewarding experience. I have gone from "burnout" to fired-up! Whenever I can, I introduce ideas and practices of mindfulness to clients and colleagues alike and enjoy seeing how such simple yet powerful ideas can be so effective. ... I thoroughly recommend the journey!"
Chris Ridley, Social Worker, Western Adelaide Palliative Care, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital