Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy - Tuesdays (MBCT- t)

Course: MINDFULNESS &; MEDITATION for wellbeing, 9-week online course

Teachers: Connie Au-Yeung & Yasmin Gunaratnam

When: TUE, 04 JUN, 09:30-11:30 BST(GMT+1)

Where: ONLINE – NINE TUESDAY MORNINGS

Time: 09:30-11:30

Additional:  Half Day Practice 13 JUL 10:00 – 14:00

About the Event

About the 9-week Course

MINDFULNESS & MEDITATION for wellbeing, working with stress, anxiety & reactivity. The course is an interactive online experience following the evidence-based Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme, suitable for those who wish to improve their general physical and mental wellbeing through cultivation of mindful awareness. Apart from the initial orientation session, each subsequent two-hour online weekly session consists of mindfulness meditation and cognitive therapy exercises designed to increase awareness of body and mind and develop capacities to step back from automatic reactivity and unhelpful habits of thinking like rumination, worry and self-criticism. If you are experiencing stress, anxiety, low moods (but currently not in an active depressive episode) or feel generally ‘dissatisfied’ with life, this course can offer you some tools to meet these everyday life challenges more skilfully. Equally, cultivation of mindful awareness enhances wellbeing by enabling us to begin to be more fully present and open to the many moments of richness and beauty that are already present but often unnoticed.

The course is not offered as a treatment for any specific physical or psychological conditions. It is not suitable for people who are currently experiencing very severe problems in these areas. It is advisable not to take this course if you have undergone bereavement, trauma or other major life events in the past six months. The course is not suitable for anyone who is currently abusing substance. You must be at least 18. The teachers offering the course are mindfulness teachers, not therapists, doctors or other mental health professionals.

This course includes:

• Meditation practices
• Short talks
• Discussion Groups
• Links to audio recordings for home use

Nine Tuesdays from 9:30am – 11:30am

Jun: 4th, 11th, 16th, 25th

Jul: 2nd, 09th, 16th, 23th, 30th

Tue MBCT with Yasmin & Connie Course info for webpage

Optional Half Day Practice from 10:00am – 2:00pm

Jul: 13th (Sat)

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

Connie Au-Yeung, MA, MBCT & Deeper Mindfulness Teacher

Connie has been practicing mindfulness since 2011 and completed teacher training with the

Mindfulness Network, Sussex Mindfulness Centre and Oxford Mindfulness Foundation. A British Hongkonger, having worked in London, Tokyo, Doha and Cairo and raising a bilingual family in Devon, Connie is passionate about bringing secular mindfulness practices to diverse and multicultural communities and seeing mindfulness cultivation as spaces for deepening connection, belonging and presence. She has a background in language teaching, medical communication and science research and holds Masters Degrees in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (University of Leicester) and Neuroscience and Developmental Biology

(University of Cambridge). She is a practitioner of insight meditation, compassion, Insight Dialogue, pilates and Qigong.

Yasmin Gunaratnam, MSc, PhD, Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher

Yasmin has over 25 years of experience of teaching and training, across the non-profit sectors and since 2008, as a university lecturer. She has long been interested in our capacity to tune in and out of the present and the amazing things that can happen when we quieten down, or make the most ordinary of things unfamiliar. The beauty of mindfulness is that this type of “falling awake” can happen through small practices that can be easily learnt: taking a conscious breath, listening closely to the sounds around us, noticing when our minds wander, or being kinder to ourselves. Exploring the connections between our inner and outer worlds has also been developed in Yasmin’s research on health, migration, loss and healing, as well as through her yoga and mindfulness teacher training (the latter at the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation and the Mindfulness Network). She is especially interested in helping to make mindfulness practices more receptive to neurodiversity and the effects of living with social injustices. Born in Sri Lanka, Yasmin has spent most of her adult life in South London before moving to Oxford.

Course Schedule

Session 0: Orientation

Tue MBCT with Yasmin & Connie

Tue, 04 Jun 09:30 – 11:30

Session 1: Automatic Pilot

Tue, 11 Jun

09:30 – 11:30

Session 2: Living in our Heads

Tue, 16 Jun

09:30 – 11:30

Session 3: Gathering the Scattered Mind

Tue, 25 Jun

09:30 – 11:30

Session 4: Recognising Reactivity

Tue, 02 Jul

09:30 – 11:30

Session 5: Gently Being with the Difficult

Tue, 09 Jul

09:30 – 11:30

Session 6: Thoughts are not Necessarily Facts

Tue, 16 Jul

09:30 – 11:30

Half Day Practice

Sat, 13 Jul

10:00 – 14:00

Session 7: How can I Best Take Care of Myself?

Tue, 23 Jul

09:30 – 11:30

Session 8: Mindfulness for Life

Tue, 30 Jul

09:30 – 11:30