Online - Mindfulness for Life - 2-Day Teacher Training - 08/05/2021-15/05/2021 - 09.00 - 17.00 UK TIME
Date: 08/05/2021 - 15/05/2021
Location: Online

MBCT for Life (MBCT-L) is intended as a universal taught face-to-face programme, applicable to the general population. As a recent adaptation of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (Teasdale, Segal, & Williams, 2013), MBCT-L offers mindfulness practices and cognitive-behavioural techniques in ways that are intended to be accessible to all. It guides participants in how to apply this learning in everyday life both to manage what is painful and difficult but also to cultivate qualities such as compassion and equanimity. It offers a different way of living that supports people to work with challenges, including recurring patterns of thought and behaviour that create suffering, but also to savour life and to flourish. Following the model of MBCT-D, with 2.15 hour classes and about 40 minutes of 'formal' home practice per day, MBCT-L is an in-depth programme intended to cultivate lasting and sustainable change. MBCT-L is designed for community settings, where people can come to participate in the programme over 8 weekly sessions as well as a full day of mindfulness practice, which normally takes place between sessions 6 & 7.

In future we will be developing an accompanying app and website for participants that provide home practices during the course as well as 'deepening' practices for participants to use after the course has been completed.

Over the two days of this workshop, we will first of all introduce the theoretical background and rationale for MBCT-L. We will then move on to participants teaching the MBCT-L curriculum in teach backs, with particular attention being given to the practices and exercises that are bespoke to MBCT-L's intentions and broader population. This includes a greater focus on 'befriending,' 'appreciation,' a 'vicious flower' model of what maintains distress and the skills to support greater responsiveness in thought and action. While it shares the basic structure of MBCT-D ('the warp'), its particularity ('the weft') is designed to support the broader general population in working with distress as well as with flourishing (Crane et al., 2017). Participants will have a chance, during 'teach-backs', to observe and practice teaching the elements of the programme that are not found in MBCT for Depression. 

'Having now taught the MBCT for Life programme on a few occasions in the NHS general practice in which I work, I have really enjoyed teaching it...The emphasis on appreciation and gratitude seems to be quite transformative and life enhancing.' Sheila Gill

PLEASE NOTE: This course is being delivered live online through the Zoom https://zoom.us platform. With all our courses we work hard to provide a safe environment to enable participants to fully engage with the programme. To support us with this, when engaging online we ask that you consider your environment when participating in these sessions. Where possible please use a private space where you will not be disturbed so that you and the group can achieve the highest levels of participation and confidentiality. Where you are not in a private space, to support confidentiality we ask that you use a headset or earphones rather than the speakers on your device and as much as possible have your screen facing away from the others in the room.