Adult Mindfulness Courses
ServicesShining a light on how you live your life
Feel like it’s time to make a change in your life, but can’t seem to find a way?
If life gets so busy that we feel we just don’t have a spare moment, or it feels so flat that whatever we chose will make no difference, the kindest thing to do is to get help.
This may be the last thing on your mind and the suggestion may even anger you. This is exactly what your habits need you to feel, so they can continue to dictate your life.
Mindfulness can shine a new light on what is happening in your life. Unhelpful thoughts, habits, roles and routines are exposed. A new skilful capacity is built within you. It can give you back control of your life. It can allow you to find the real you, regardless of what life throws at you!
What does Adult Mindfulness offer?
Adult Beginners Mindfulness 8-Week Course
This is a great light touch introductory course to how Mindfulness can begin to change your life. Over 8 weeks the 90 minute sessions help you begin to see through the habits, roles and routines that make you feel that you are stuck in a rut.
MBSR/MBCT 8-Week Course
This is the ‘Gold Standard’ of Mindfulness courses, used by the NHS. The 150 minute weekly sessions explore a broad range of behaviours, habits and roles that can keep us trapped in a lifestyle that is no longer healthy for us.
1 to 1 Mindfulness Sessions
For many people group sessions are simply not an option. These sessions which will be tailored to your specific needs and will explore all of the key themes from the 8-week courses. The structure, length and timing of sessions will be built around you and your personal requirements.
Mindfulness for groups and societies
A lot of people have heard of Mindfulness, but don’t really know what it is. Having a free information session for your group or society can spark interest in setting up an 8-week course or just make a fun and light hearted event!
This clip explains how Mindfulness actually works. In an easy to understand way, it demonstrates that our brains can be very flexible.
Traditionally, people have felt that personality characteristics are fixed, such as people who are quick to anger, or people who always seem sad.
Thanks to UpRising Leadership team for sharing this clip on YouTube for all to watch.
Frequently asked questions about Mindfulness Courses
In terms of time and cost committing to an 8 week course is not a light undertaking. It signals you are serious about making a change in your life. Choosing the right course and right approach is important.
In this section are frequently asked questions which might help clarify which course and which approach is right for you. It is often best to get in touch to discuss this key decision.
Why 8 weeks - can I not do it in 4 or 6 weeks?
Mindfulness is a process, it takes time to embed in your life. It is like planting a seed, nurturing it and watching it grow. It simply cannot be rushed.
Why are Mindfulness Courses so much more expensive than an app or self-help book?
Mindfulness is classified as Clinical Psychology, in the same way as Medical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist or a Psychotherapist would be. These services, too, will have apps or self-help books that some people choose to access. If you choose to see a professional in person however, like a Psychologist or Mindfulness Coach, there are professional costs reflecting their 3 year post-graduate training and expertise.
I think I will struggle to find time to do the home practice. Does this matter?
Life can be really busy, this may be the reason you are seeking a change. Home practice however, is crucial. You will need to commit the time at home in order to get the best out of the course. We will explore together in the group strategies that work. For many, this is the most challenging aspect of the course, so you are not alone!
What happens if I miss a session or several sessions?
Life is unpredictable, things happen and people will sometimes miss a session. I recommend that you will need to attend at least 7 out of the 8 sessions to understand the content. It is a bit like reading a book, the next chapter builds upon the previous one.
I am not keen on working in groups.
Lots of people have issues with working in groups. I would welcome the opportunity to talk with you if you see this as a barrier. 1 to 1 courses are available.
My Approach
I am very much guided by you and the needs that you have. You are the expert in regard to the life that you lead and the daily experiences that you have.
My role as a Mindfulness Coach in some ways can be seen as a guide. I know the territory of life, the ups and downs, the valleys we can get drawn into and the rivers that can wash us away when in flood. However, I don’t hold the actual map of your life, but I can help guide you through your experience.
The 8 weeks is a journey of self-realisation that is personal to you. I will listen to you, hear you and illuminate your experience through your own insight. Like learning to drive, the real learning happens when you are behind the wheel. I will be beside you helping you interpret the road ahead.
How It Works
Arrange a free 1 to 1
It would be good to talk. You can find out about me and get a sense if I am the sort of person you would like to work with. We can discuss the challenges that you are currently facing and whether Mindfulness is the right option for you at this time.
Choose an 8-week course
There are 2 main 8-week courses available and decisions over group work or 1 to 1. It would be sensible to talk through these options to ensure that the course and format you choose will benefit you the most.
Setting an Intention
People who benefit most from Mindfulness have a clear reason why they have come to Mindfulness. Ironically many people don’t specifically know what this is when they begin, they just know that change is needed. A conversation will enable us to explore where your intentions might lie.
Adult Beginners Mindfulness 8 Week Course
Light touch introductory course to Mindfulness with weekly sessions lasting 90 mins and home practice of 30 mins a day. All materials included in the price.
£175
More Details
Adult Beginners Mindfulness Course
- 8 Weeks
- 90 mins sessions
- 20 mins daily home practice
- £175 (including all course materials)
This 8 week light touch introduction to Mindfulness will shed new light on how you live your life. Each of the 90 minute weekly group sessions follow a specific theme, for example, ‘Waking Up to the Autopilot’ in week one. A participant commented how frightening it was that she did so many things on autopilot such as driving, eating and watching TV. She also noted that she was not even fully present for conversations with her loved ones, which really shocked her.
We explore these weekly themes through simple observational exercises in class. Then, over the next seven days we do similar in our day-to-day lives. This makes the learning very personal and very relevant to how you live your life.
It also gives you a personalised insight into the sources of stress in your life and how you currently react to these. It exposes roles that we unwittingly play for others and identifies habits that have become so deeply ingrained we cannot see them anymore. Mindfulness allows us to step back and see our lives from a different perspective. In the final weeks of the course we develop our ability to make more skillful choices as to what is best for us in this moment and in the long-term. Crucially, we will have also developed our capacity to act upon this new awareness.
Week 1 – Waking up to the Autopilot
Week 2 – Bringing Curiosity to our Experience
Week 3 – Mindfulness in Daily Life
Week 4 – Stepping back from Thoughts and Worries
Week 5 – Exploring Difficulty: Building Resilience
Week 6 – Relating to Ourselves and Others
Week 7 – Developing Balance in our Lives
Week 8 – Mindfulness and the Rest of your Life
MBSR / MBCT 8 Week Course
A combination of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) to provide insight into you life. Weekly 150 minute sessions with 45 mins daily homework. All materials included in the price, including the all-day retreat.
£250
More Details
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) / Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Course
• 8 weeks
• 150 minute sessions
• 45 minute daily home practice
• £250 (including all course materials)
These courses have been regarded as the ‘Gold Standard’ of Mindfulness since MBSR was introduced in 1990 and MBCT in 2004. They explore the material covered in the Mindfulness Realisation Course in greater depth and require an increased commitment to home practice of an hour a day, six days a week. In many ways it is like a gym membership. If you only go once a week, your fitness will not change a lot.
We explore in depth our compulsion to live in our heads in the ‘doing mode’, always planning what we must do next, before we have even finished what we are doing now. It is almost as if we are frightened to ever stop, yet we yearn for the pace of life to slow down. This is one of the paradoxes which Mindfulness brings our attention to.
The course teaches us to cultivate the ‘being mode’: bringing our full awareness physically, emotionally and attitudinally to what we are doing right now. To start with this sounds a bit odd, but as participants find out, it allows us to enjoy the richness of life’s experiences. We see our relationships through new eyes. It gives us space to be more creative in our decision making. It helps us intuitively know what is best for us right now. It can begin a process of change.
Week 1 – Awareness of the Autopilot
Week 2 – Living in Our Heads
Week 3 – Gathering a Scattered Mind
Week 4 – Recognising Aversion
Week 5 – Allowing / Letting be
Week 6 – Thoughts are not Facts
Week 7 – How Can I Best Take Care of Myself
Week 8 – Maintaining and Extending New Learning
Societies and Organisations Taster Session
It can always be fun and interesting to find out more about something that most of your group know little about. In a 60-90 minute session we can explore what Mindfulness is together and if individuals or the group want to engage further, this can be discussed too.
Free
More Details
Every society and organisation is different, so please get in touch and we can plan what is the next best step to meet your needs together.