Intensive Mindfulness Training Course

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Terry Fralich, LCPC Related seminars and products

Mindfulness Center of Southern Maine

Objectives

1. Describe how clear psychoeducational descriptions of the relationship between mindfulness, neurobiology, and common disorders can be used to motivate clients to engage in treatment.
2. Communicate how a case conceptualization that draws upon neuropsychological principles can help clinicians establish realistic expectations and goals with clients.
3. Formulate treatment plans for anxiety that incorporate mindfulness strategies clients can use in and out of session to help alleviate symptoms.
4. Dissect the neurobiological underpinnings of how emotions are created, and communicate why this is important to the therapeutic process.
5. Employ mindfulness training and diaphragmatic breathing techniques that clients can use to help them manage unhealthy anger responses.
6. Construct treatment plans for depression that incorporate mindfulness interventions that can be used to interrupt rumination and automatic negative thoughts.
7. Characterize how mindfulness based stress reduction techniques can be used with clients to address prolonged periods of stress that can impact mental and physical health.
8. Consider the clinical impact of research regarding the effects of mindfulness based practices on the neuropsychological aspects of trauma.
9. Explore the clinical implications of research regarding the association between mindfulness and relationship satisfaction and outcomes.
10. Establish how barriers to implementing mindfulness can be overcome using informal techniques clients can incorporate into their daily lives.
11. Characterize how clinical tools that increase self-awareness can be used in therapy to help clients better manage their thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
12. Articulate the importance of the connection between therapist and client in contributing to positive clinical outcomes, and delineate how mindfulness may enhance the therapeutic relationship.

Outline

MASTER THE CORE SKILLS OF MINDFULNESS

Treatment Concepts

• Introduction of mindfulness to clients
• Mindfulness as self-directed neuroplasticity
• Mindfulness as a skill-based path
• Reconsolidation of neural networks through mindfulness practice

Experiential exercise: self-regulation techniques

Strengthening Therapeutic Presence

• Benefits of therapeutic presence: presence, attunement, resonance, trust
• Stabilize the mind: the foundation of focus
• Self-regulation: the foundation of settledness
• Spaciousness: the foundation of openness

Five Core Skills of Mindfulness

• Clarify, set and re-affirm intention
• Cultivate witnessing awareness: metacognition
• Stabilize attention
• Strengthen self-regulation
• Practice loving-kindness for self and others

Experiential exercise: stability of attention and awareness

Neuroscience and Mindfulness

• Effective drivers of neuroplasticity
• Interpersonal neurobiology: importance of early experiences
• Formation of mental models: core negative beliefs
• Neuroception and the operation of the brain’s survival mechanisms
• Explicit and implicit memories
• Adaptive safety strategies: negative side effects

Experiential exercise: cultivate an inner refuge

Mindfulness Practices

• Themes in beginning mindfulness practice
  • Am I focused or distracted?
  • Am I settled/grounded or tight/churning
• Mindful transitions: a practice for new clients
• Stop-breathe-reflect-choose practice
• Development of client self-talk, scripts and mantras
• Positive visualization practice
• Cultivate a new vision of self: transform core negative beliefs

TRAUMA, ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, RELATIONSHIPS, ANGER, STRESS AND SEX

Mindfulness for Trauma

• Cultivate safety and groundedness
• Retrain the dysregulated nervous system

Experiential exercise: positive visualization

Mindfulness for Anxiety

• Witness the anxious mind
• Get unstuck from anxious rumination

Experiential exercise: self-regulation practices for anxiety

Mindfulness for Depression

• Transform core negative beliefs that power depression
• Cultivate motivation and action

Experiential exercise: develop behavioural plans with the client

Mindfulness for Relationships

• Clarify intentions that work in relationships
• Transform unhealthy patterns

Experiential exercise: cultivate positive experiences/exchanges

Mindfulness for Anger

• Understand the source of anger energy
• Identify the anger storm
• Clarify the practice when anger arises

Experiential exercise: rehearsal of the Stop-Breathe-Reflect-Choose practice

Mindfulness for Stress

• Educate the client about the impact of stress
• Change the stress reaction through practice

Experiential exercise: strengthen awareness of stress response, shifting to relaxation response

Mindfulness for Sex

• Create conditions for healthy and mutually satisfying sex
• Open to the full power of sexual intimacy

Mindfulness In-Session

• Avoid compassion fatigue
• Approach each session as meditative practice
• Counsel "in the flow"

Experiential exercise: path to enjoying our work more meditation practice

Research, Limitations and the Potential Risks of Mindfulness in Treatment

• Current state of research on mindfulness
• Limits of the current research
• Mindfulness-Based treatments – potential risks and limitations
• The importance of client evaluation
• Practices beyond your training and experience

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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