Level 1 MRE: Workshop 1: Introduction to Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness and MRE Conversion Course

Date/Time
Date(s) - 16 May 2020 00000053100Sunday 17 May 2020
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM

Location
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust: Rehab Unit

Category(ies)


Please Note: Please book here for the Workshop: https://mreworkshop1.eventbrite.co.uk

The Eventbrite booking information is being updated to reflect the content below.

For booking queries contact Sarah Wilkins at the Christie (0161 446 8236 Sarah.Wilkins@christie.nhs.uk).

Fee: £195

Times: Saturday: 09:30 Arrive/Registration 10:00 Start 17:00 Finish.  Sunday: 09:00 Arrive 09:30 Start 16:30 Finish

Overview

This workshop offers and experiential introduction to Mindful Resilience Enhancement (MRE) a trauma sensitive approach to safely and accessibly teaching mindfulness to individuals and groups. Around experiential practices (essentially a compressed version of a MRE course)  we will develop the theoretical framework we have developed that underpins teaching mindfulness safely and accessibly to most people, including those who have experienced trauma.

We believe that a trauma sensitive approach should be the default approach to teaching mindfulness, as to do otherwise risks the wellbeing of course participants as we cannot know who may be adversely affected by inappropriately intense mindfulness practices. We also consider that there is no compelling clinical rationale to offer mindfulness courses that are not trauma sensitive. While the focus that offers enables mindfulness practices to be more safely offered to people who have experienced trauma.

There is a pdf of a powerpoint available here that offers an overview of these issues – and the linked handout pdf is here.

The workshop is also a 2 day conversion course for mindfulness teachers who have completed teacher training in approaches such as Breathworks, .B, MBCT, or MBSR and who want to integrate the approaches MRE has developed into their work.

 

Further Details

The standard approaches to teaching mindfulness-based programmes tend to be based on the eight week course format of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). From the research evidence, it is clear the format of MBSR (and its adaptations like MBCT) meet the needs of many individuals.

However, there is a growing appreciation that people with previous or current experiences of trauma may struggle with the way mindfulness practices are taught within the standard curriculum of such courses.

Indeed, while cultivating mindful awareness is often an essential part of trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, if poorly matched to the person practicing them, may themselves be traumatising or re-traumatising.

In particular, body and/or breath focused, close-eyed, static and longer practice forms risk overwhelm for some people with trauma, leading to a variety of negative experiences including panic or shut-down. The experience of overwhelm can also be very shaming if the person feels they are the only one struggling in a group where everyone else appears to be benefiting from a practice (even though others may also be silently struggling).

This course will offer participants experience of a wide range of trauma sensitive approaches that are also highly accessible and safe mindfulness practices suitable for most groups whether clinical, community, corporate or educational.

 

MRE Teacher Training

Please be aware that MRE training is designed for professionals with membership of a professional body that has a code or practice or ethics to provide a framework for accountable practice. If you do not belong to a professional body or are still in training please contact us to see whether you are eligible to undertake the MRE training course beyond Level 1, Workshop 1. Those without a membership of an appropriate professional body may still be able to do the training if you can clearly demonstrate how you will be working in an accountable way when offering MRE. We will need to discuss this on an individual basis.

So although this workshop is open to any students, trainees, professionals and practitioners working in health, educational, social and complementary contexts, Workshops 2 & 3 may not be open to you if you cannot demonstrate how you would be teaching mindfulness in an accountable context.

The mindfulness-approaches you will have the opportunity to learn have been specifically developed to be integrated into both one-to-one professional practice as well as delivered as a course: they form a very safe set of approaches called Mindful Resilience Enhancement (MRE). These approaches are designed to be quickly and easily taught to clients in the session and then the client can practice them between sessions. In our experience professionals find that when their clients start to practice mindfulness it enhances the client’s responsiveness to the other interventions being offered.

This workshop is essentially a 2 day version of the model Level 1 MRE 8 week course and so provides a crucial foundation in the MRE approach. The underpinning philosophy of MRE emphasises accessibility and the incremental development of mindfulness and self-compassion. As such there is a focus on starting to cultivate mindfulness in a focused and structured way but, unlike many mindfulness based approaches, to do this initially in the context of existing daily routines. Once the principles of mindfulness and a framework of mindfulness in daily life are established there is a firm foundation to explore longer practices to further develop the capacity for mindfulness and self-compassion.

Around the experiential aspects we will explore the theoretical framework underpinning MRE and how mindfulness can be integrated into professional practice.

MRE is supported by an extensive set of free to access audio files (see www.resilience.plus) and information sheets. This ensures that you or your clients using these approaches are not burdened by additional expenses.

 

This weekend forms the first part of a professional teacher-training programme in MRE. MRE teacher-training is in 2 levels and a pathway to a competency certificate is available after each level. Level 1 MRE teacher-training focuses on teaching clients to stabilise their attention and self-soothe. Level 2 MRE teacher-training focuses on teaching clients how to turn towards difficulty they are experiencing with self-compassion.

Please see www.mre.re for further details of this approach.

 

Booking Information

For bookings please contact Sarah Wilkins at the Christie.

Tel: 0161 446 8236 (email is best though)

Email: Sarah.Wilkins@christie.nhs.uk

 

The full range of excellent training programmes offered at the Christie are available here.

Powered by Events Manager

Comments are closed.