Register to Learn about Mindful Eating, Conscious Living : MECL : A 5-day Professional Training

August 4-9, 2012 • Chapin Mill Retreat Center, New York

Led by experienced clinicians,
mindfulness teachers and retreat leaders,
Jan Chozen Bays, MD and Char Wilkins, LCSW

The training emphasizes experiential engagement in mindfulness meditation practices and mindful eating awareness exercises, so that the participant will be able to pass the benefit of these exercises on to clients and patients in a variety of settings. These practices and exercises are integral components of the six-session Mindful Eating program, designed by Bays and Wilkins, which provides the organizing structure for this training.

Relationships to food are complex and multi-dimensional. On the simple level, we all eat to survive. But for many individuals, families, and cultures, food is much more than simply a necessity. Food can be a key component of culture, heritage, and identity. What food and how much, for some people, is the hinge on which their self-esteem or health problems turn. Food, from ethnicity of dish to where the ingredients come from to what memories and meanings we attach to it, is a very personal topic.

Study and practice in the mental health and healthcare fields of the clinical use of mindful eating techniques is growing exponentially. And with that growth comes the demand for quality professional training to utilize these practices. In response to the need, the UCSD Center for Mindfulness offers Mindful Eating, Conscious Living: A 5-day Professional Training.

The intersection of mindfulness, eating and our relationship to food is the focus of this professional training. Inherent within that juncture are the thoughts, emotions and physical sensations that impact how we relate to food and our body in skillful and unskillful ways. By bringing awareness to and through the senses we can become more mindful of how, when, where, what, and why we eat. Participants will explore the joys and sorrows held in eating and food, the disconnects and communions, and the aversions and desires – all of which can be opportunities that facilitate moving toward a healthier relationship with food, emotions and the physical body.

This 5-day training is steeped in mindfulness practice: sitting meditation, mindful movement, mindful walking, body meditations, times of silence, and a half-day retreat. Far from single mindedness, the 5-day experience offers a multi-faceted approach to mindful eating. The program draws from Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), current research, and the combined 26 years of experience of Jan Chozen Bays, MD and Char Wilkins, LCSW, in working with a wide range of people with distressed eating patterns. The six-session Mindful Eating program, designed by Bays and Wilkins, provides the organizing structure for MECL.

Participants will learn to engage in and deliver a number of eating awareness practices as well as deepen their own mindfulness meditation and mindful eating practices and understand the impact and importance of these personal practices in the successful delivery of the curriculum. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of themselves and their patterns and the tangible skills to bring the self-reflection and meditations they themselves experiences to their clients. After completing the training attendees will be equipped to facilitate the Mindful Eating program, as well as adapt the program curriculum to the needs of their population. Attendees will receive a copy of Jan Chozen Bays’ book, Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food; two CDs with meditations and mindful eating exercises, the Mindful Eating curriculum, and relevant handouts.

This intensive, experiential program is intended for clinicians in mental health or healthcare fields and clinicians-in-training in these fields wishing to incorporate mindful eating and mindfulness-related practices into their clinical practice and/or into group work in which eating, food, and body are components. Therapists and counselors who do not specialize in eating-related disorders will also find this training useful as a way to understand, through the lens of mindfulness, the unique opportunity that eating and food provide as gateways to self-awareness and understanding for those who experience anxiety, depression, abuse, stress, and/or illness.

In honor of the significant contributions made by dietitians in sharing the work of mindfulness and mindful eating, the UCSD Center for Mindfulness is pleased to offer two $250 scholarships to attend the Mindful Eating, Conscious Living 5-Day Professional Training on August 4-9, 2012. The scholarships are available to dietitians and dietitians-in-training who need financial assistance in order to attend.

Continuing education credits:

AMA: This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

APA: (Full attendance is required) The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

BBS: Course meets the qualifications for 29.0 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. (UC San Diego Provider Number PCE 683)

CDR: Commission of Dietetic Registration (Registered Dieticians)

Early-Bird Registration Fee: $895 + Room & Board

Please click here for information on our next local 4-week San Diego Group Mindful Eating Conscious Living Program starting April 12, 2012 6-7:30 PM.

“Mindful Communication” A New Minor Offered from the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht

With this post we begin an initiative on our UCSD CFM Blog of offering information about how some of our international colleagues are working in the field of mindfulness.

In September 2011, the Faculty of Communication and Journalism at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht embarked on an experiment in interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional education through launching their Mindful Communication minor. While many of our blog posts recently have focused on children and teens, 18 third and fourth-year BA students comprised this group.

Although the study is interesting on many levels, from age of students to results, the topics of the 6 individual courses may well be the aspect that most catches attention and imagination. The four lecturers, Sascha Steinfeldt, Karin Bosveld, Paula Borsboom, and Petra Hubbeling, designed the minor to be 2 blocks of 10 weeks, 7 of which are lesson weeks. MBSR, non-violent communication, and mindful perspectives on sustainability comprised the three courses in the first block. Then followed the second block with business spirituality, business case and coaching & intervision. Within these interdisciplinary and diverse lecture topics, the minor aimed to build competencies such as increased ability to apply knowledge and understanding, integrate multidisciplinary perspectives, and communicate, as well as gain awareness about self and others, increase joy and vitality, and reduce stress.

At the conclusion of the program, all graded the minor 7-10 on a 10 point scale and most said they would recommend the minor to other students. Many students reported increased wisdom and self-knowledge. Students suffering from burnout and rheumatism, and one who reported overwhelming grief over a partner’s death, all reported improvement in health, compassion, and frequency of non-judgmental thoughts. In general, there was an astonishing openness and sense of security and support in the group.  Students reported in their reflection reports that they were pleasantly surprised by this openness and the security they felt with both fellow students and lecturers.

All in all, the breadth and results of the program are remarkable and I hope that we will hear more from these educators and researchers in the future.

For more information please contact Karin and / or Sascha under:Karin Bosveld | Lecturer Journalistic Skills and English Proficiency| Institute of Communication | Department of International Communication & Media | Utrecht University of Applied sciences, Padualaan 99 – 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands | P.O box 8611 – 3503 RP Utrecht, The Netherlands | T. +31884813524| F. +31884813040 | karin.bosveld@hu.nl | www.hu.nl or Sascha Steinfeldt, senior mindfulness trainer at The Potential Project & freelance lecturer at University of applied sciences Utrecht Sascha.Steinfeldt@potentialproject.com www.potentialproject.com

Online professional training in teaching mindfulness to teens is now offered through Stressed Teens

For parents, teens, and interested parties out there, we hope you will check out Gina M. Biegel’s online classes at Stressed Teens. Gina Biegel, MA, LMFT, co-organizer of our 2012 Bridging the Heart and Minds of Youth Conference  where she will be presenting her popular workshop Mindfulness for Professionals Working with Adolescents: A Training in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program for Teens (MBSR-T), is a psychotherapist in the bay area who has adapted the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program for a teen population. For more information on Stressed Teens Training Institute online classes, please click on the course title of interest below.

The Mindful Parenting: A Course for Parents of Teens provides a two-hour course on using mindfulness in conversations and interactions with adolescents. The Mindful Teen: A Course for Teens is another two-hour course, but this time to directly teach adolescents to handle their own stress.

For professionals, Ms. Biegel offers a ten week training in her acclaimed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Teens (MBSR-T) program, course titled 10-Session Stressed Teens Intensive Training, and a 3-Session Stressed Teen Intensive Supervision for those interested in learning to lead MBSR-T groups. Two other programs are offered, a three-course Specialty Topics for Professionals and a four-hour introductory session on mindfulness work with teenagers in Mindfulness for Professionals Working with Adolescents.