Part 1 is open to any professional interested in developing their own mindfulness practice. We welcome professionals from many sectors including health and social care, counselling and psychotherapy, education and training and from voluntary, corporate and government sectors.

The twelve sessions of Part 1 provide a sound experiential and theoretical foundation for the practice of mindfulness. The experiential content is substantial; most sessions are at least 50% practice orientated. Initially the mindfulness practice elements are shorter with a number of different approaches included in an evening but towards the end of Part 1 the practice periods tend to be longer, allowing in-depth experience of specific approaches.

The theoretical content is framed within mainly psychotherapeutic and neuro-physiological contexts, as these offer bridges into the experience of most of our participants. Perspectives drawn from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are embedded into the programme as ACT offers a very practical synthesis of mindfulness and psychotherapeutic approaches as well as an excellent framework for reflection. Those working within a Person Centred Counselling framework will find deep resonances and familiarity with the mindfulness approaches experienced on the course.
The neuro-physiological perspectives help open dialogues with more biomedically minded colleagues – particularly the robust evidence of the effects of mindfulness from brain imaging studies.

The soft and hard edges we explore in Part 1 centre on your relationship to your personal mindfulness practice. This involves ongoing reflection on where the evolving soft edges are found as you integrate mindfulness into your daily life. We very deliberately refrain from offering any direction on duration or frequency of your personal practice. We do, however, actively explore your own compassionate sense of the territory between comfort or complacency and overly harsh or intensive practice. We are much more interested in the way an individual brings mindful insight into their intentions and experience of mindful practice than the judgemental narratives that can arise from a focus on measuring the time spent practicing.

The other soft and hard edge we explore is around how you reflect on and record your experiences over Part 1. We ask you to make some record, typically but not necessarily, in the form of a journal. Again, our interest is in actively exploring how you experience integrating a reflective record into your life – not the specifics of how often or in what form you do so.

Requirements for Part 1 Entry:

There are no specific requirements for enrolling on Part 1. A general requirement is to be a professional willing to experientially explore mindfulness practice.

Part 1 comprises 3 weekends in Manchester. Venue to be arranged.  The course is supported by an online site with course materials and a range of mindfulness practice recordings.

Dates:

2013:  3 weekend dates in 2013 Jan-June. Dates to be set soon.

Application Form: Please go to this page to download the application form.

Completion of Part 1 Requires:

1. 80% attendance

2. Reading or listening to the audiobook of  Fully Present by Susan Smalley & Diana Winston. 2010. De Capo Press or The Art & Science of Mindfulness by Shauna Shapiro & Linda Carslon. 2009. APA.

3. Submission of a 1-2 page reflective commentary on your learning around your own soft and hard edges associated with your experience of mindful practice and the process of recording your reflections in a journal. These reflections are submitted to the course facilitators, who in turn will submit their own reflective commentary on their learning.

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