Mindfulness in medicine and psychology—a first-hand taste
and clinical applications
This is a rare opportunity to learn about mindfulness from one of its founding fathers.
Dr. Kabat-Zinn will present an overview of the work he and his colleagues have been engaged in for the past thirty years, which has given rise to a range of mindfulness-based interventions in medicine and psychology, the most widespread of which are mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). He will describe relevant aspects of the history, rationale, structure, and function of MBSR and MBCT and briefly review a range of clinical outcomes as documented in a growing number of research studies.
The workshop will be primarily experiential. Mindfulness cannot be understood nor its full potential realized if it is thought of simply as a conceptually based cognitive-behavioural technique to be deployed in particular circumstances as required. Its fundamental orientation is transformational rather than therapeutic, a way of being rather than doing.
We will engage in the practices of sitting meditation, the body scan, and mindful yoga, as well as mindful eating and mindful walking, and will explore in dialogue as a group the experiential dimension of what arises for us during these formal mindfulness practices. We will also be attentive to the potential applications of our own direct experiences to the lives of our patients and clients. This workshop can serve as either an introduction to or a deepening of the meditative practices underlying MBSR and MBCT.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher. He is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (1995), and founder (in 1979) and former director of its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic.
Cost: £250 for two days
Venue: Thames Hall, The King’s Centre, Oxford
Dr. Kabat-Zinn will also be giving a free public lecture on 10 November at 6 pm in the University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology:
“The healing power of mindfulness: living as if your moments really mattered”.
