MB-EAT or Mindful Eating Conscious Living (MECL) Which Program is Best for You or Your Population?

by Char Wilkins, LCSW

I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking what is the difference between the MB-EAT program and our Mindful Eating, Conscious Living (MECL) 5-day professional training at the Chapin Mill Retreat Center in Rochester, NY, August 4-9, 2012. I have the unique qualification of having taught both the MB-EAT program and the Mindful Eating, Conscious Living training which I co-teach with Jan Chozen Bays, MD, so I feel I can speak to some of the differences which may help you decide if our training is right for you.

Jan and I see mindfulness as the base from which we work- the heart of the work.  We recognize that many professionals have extensive skills in some areas but need help with mindful eating skills, so Jan and I created this training based on Jan’s book, Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food. We have uniquely brought Jan’s deep understanding of mindfulness and meditation, her extensive work with distressed eating, and her medical background together with my individual and group therapeutic experience working with people with distressed eating patterns, MBSR and MBCT training, and meditation practice.

The professional training we offer is clearly based in a mindfulness approach that addresses thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviors associated with distressed eating, and provides practical, doable exercises and simple meditations that you can weave into your individual work or into a group program. In our training we don’t teach about calories or how to lose weight, nor do we talk about dietary plans. This is different from most trainings. We do talk about quality of food, types of food the body must have, hunger and fullness, and many other related issues. We are focused on helping people change their relationship to food, eating and their bodies. We provide you with a six-session sample curriculum, yours to adapt to your needs, and CDs that contain meditations and exercises.

MB-EAT, Jean Kristeller’s research initiative, has illuminated some important points with a focus on weight loss, one of the techniques used being mindfulness. For some professionals difficulties arose in teaching a mindfulness approach while instructing patients to reduce calories, use pedometers and assess weight loss. Professionals got confused, and patients get confused. For some people this is not a problem.  The MB-EAT program is a very structured program for groups, and many clinicians told me that they were working one-on-one and wanted the flexibility to bring mindful eating to their individual patients. This is simply a different approach and very valuable for some populations.

Jan and I feel that your own personal experience of going through this hands-on training, doing the eating and mindfulness exercises, hearing your colleagues’ responses and questions, practicing meditation, and being in a supportive community will not only enhance your learning but give you confidence to teach mindful eating to your clients. In teaching mindful eating skills you will provide patients with skills for a lifetime which they can begin again and again if need be, without the “side effects” of yoyo dieting. Additionally, in becoming mindful it spills into all aspects of their life- it becomes a way of being, rather than constantly doing or trying another fad or diet.

I hope this is helpful and will help you choose the program that is best suited to you and the population you serve

Char Wilkins, LCSW is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist who specializes in working with women who have experienced childhood abuse and trauma, and those who suffer with depression, anxiety and disordered eating. She trains professionals in the application of mindfulness in psychotherapy, advanced MBCT skills, mindful eating, and was awarded teacher certification in MBSR by the Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical School, Worcester, MA. Char serves on the Board of Directors for The Center for Mindful Eating and is the owner/director of the Center for Mindful Living, LLC in Connecticut.

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.

“Why Did I Eat That?” – Ask Someone Who Is A Mindful Eater

By Cherylynn Glaser, M.A.

Have you ever found yourself thinking “Why did I eat that?” Have you ever told yourself “You shouldn’t take that piece of candy” or “You should eat more carrots”? What about “I just meant to have a handful- but I ate the entire bag of chips!” or “I know I shouldn’t eat this but it’s a holiday and everyone else is…” What would your life be like if these questions and judgments just evaporated into (no pun intended…) thin air?

Ask someone who is a Mindful Eater.

Mindfulness principles are as old as the hills. In the olden days you planted your vegetables, you picked your fruit and you ate to live. Nowadays you buy your frozen dinners, you decide if you want fries with that and you eat to feel better. How did this happen? How did we get here? More importantly how do we fix it? How do we not buy the chocolate Easter candy that only comes out once a year? Or if we do buy the chocolate Easter candy because it only comes out once a year how do we eat only one a day… and not eat the entire box and feel guilty afterwards?

Ask someone who is a Mindful Eater

As a Mindful Eating coach I have seen many people transform their relationship with food into one of nourishment and fulfillment and free from the perils of judgment. As a person who practices mindful eating myself I have been able to change the way I look at food and helped people to do the same.

Just for a moment- given whatever your personal situation is … think about what it might be like to live a day in your life where the food you eat is experienced as fulfilling. A day in your life where you eat because you’re hungry, not because you’ve had a rough day or its “time to eat”.

Changing habits isn’t easy… but it can be done. The Mindful Eating class at UCSD is designed to help us look at food differently. It helps you move from the diets that never work to the lifestyle that does. It helps you move from why did I do that to I can do this.

We all have it within us to change. We just need the right tools and someone to help us along this path. The Mindful Eating Conscious Living Program could be your first step.

Next 4-Week Program Starts on Thursday, April 12 6-7:30 pm

Cherylynn Glaser, M.A. Mindful Eating Teacher
Cherylynn earned her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego and is currently working on obtaining her PhD. Her primary interests include eating disorders, mindful eating, bariatric surgery and obesity. She spent last summer working as a behavioral coach at a weight loss and wellness camp for children and adults where she taught mindful eating principals as well as provided individual and group therapy. She has also worked with patients who have had weight loss surgery and has co-lead post surgical therapy groups where she taught mindfulness methods. Cherylynn believes that the key components to living a healthy life include the acknowledgement, acceptance, and cultivation of the mind body connection and that mindfulness is a medium through which one can learn to nurture these.

Free Teleconference Coming Up On “The Role of the Inner Critic in Out-of-Balance Eating”

Our relationship to food is a central one that reflects our attitudes toward our environment and ourselves. As a practice Mindful Eating can bring us awareness of our actions, thoughts, feelings and motivations, and insight into the roots of health and contentment. The Center for Mindful Eating (TCME) helps professionals and institutions implement principles and practices of Mindful Eating into their professional work by offering principles of mindful eating, teleconferences, handouts, notices of mindful eating trainings and workshops by TCME board members for professionals.

One of these teleconferences, entitled “The Role of the Inner Critic in Out-of-Balance Eating” will be presented by Jan Chozen Bays, M.D., author of the book “Mindful Eating”, on Wednesday, August 31, 2011  at  2:00PST/5:00EST. Dr. Bays notes that “The Inner Critic is a voice that criticizes us from within. When it invades the realm of eating, it can cause a great deal of confusion and distress.” She  will discuss how to recognize and antidote the Inner Critic so that eating can become mindful, enjoyable and balanced again. There will be case examples and time for questions.

Jan Chozen Bays and her colleague, Char Wilkins, are co-leading a 5-day professional training in Northern California entitled “Mindful Eating, Conscious Living” on October 2-7, 2012. This highly experiential training is sponsored by the UCSD Center for Mindfulness and promises to provide a tremendous opportunity for any professional who works with the issues of food, eating and weight, to fully delve into the topic of mindful eating.

To register for this teleconference, visit the TCME website and sign up today.

The Practices of Mindful Eating & Healthy Living: New 4-Week Workshop Launched at UCSD

Following on the heels of our recent successful 2-day workshop by Jan Chozen Bays and Char Wilkins entitled Mindful Eating, Tasting Satisfaction here at UCSD, we are launching a series of 4-week (90 minute sessions) experiential workshops on mindful eating for the general public. Exploring of the intersection of mindfulness, eating, food and physical health, The Practices of Mindful Eating and Healthy Living emphasizes engagement in formal and informal mindfulness meditation practices and eating awareness exercises as a means of bringing about significant changes in behavior, eating patterns and overall health.

Rochelle Voth, Ph.D.

Led by clinical psychologist, mindful eating authority and senior UCSD Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher Rochelle Voth, Ph.D., this workshop aims to help those who want to find new ways to relate to food, eating, weight and health through the practice of mindfulness. People with previous meditation experience and those new to the practice are invited to participate. Dr. Voth teaches MBSR at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness and also will offer this workshop in her private practice called New Mindful Life. 

The practice of present moment awareness (mindfulness) is at the heart of all aspects of healthy living, as it allows us to see clearly into the choices we make, the emotional reactions we have and the things that are most important to us. Because of the universal nature of mindfulness, while this workshop is focused upon food, eating and weight, the skills gained will apply to all aspects of life, including relationships, work, and physical health.

Participants will explore the joys and sorrows held in eating and food, the disconnects and communions, and the avoidance and cravings – all of which can be opportunities for more conscious, mindful living and eating. Participants will also explore the accomplishments and challenges held in meeting the body, the acceptance and resistance, and the trust and uncertainty- which are also opportunities for more conscious, mindful well-being and health.

The first workshop begins on July 14 from 6 to 7:30 pm at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness, 5060 Shoreham Place, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92122. For more information and details, peruse our schedule and register at our website or visit New Mindful Life’s site for the schedule at that location.

For healthcare professionals who wish to learn more about teaching mindful eating, you may wish to attend a 5-day Professional Training Retreat entitled “Mindful Eating, Conscious Living” on October 2-7, 2011 at EarthRise Retreat Center in Petaluma, California. This training will also be led by Jan Chozen Bays (author of the book Mindful Eating: A guide to rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food) and experienced mindfulness teacher and trainer Char Wilkins, LCSW.

 

Mindful Eating: The Power of Mindfulness Practice for Client and Clinician

Char Wilkins, M.S.W, L.C.S.W.

Char Wilkins is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist who is trained to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness programs. Char has led several professional training retreats for the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.

By Char Wilkins
I found my way to meditation years ago out of necessity- not unlike how people come into therapy and the mindfulness-based courses I teach. Knowing how useful meditation had been in my own life, I began looking for a way to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into my psychotherapy practice for individuals and in groups. The intersection of abuse, body image and eating/food issues is insidiously woven together for many people. Each year I find myself sitting with an increasing number of women struggling with disordered eating borne out of stress and suffering.

Bringing mindfulness into working with painful and habituated coping mechanisms, whether a situational practice or an entrenched eating disorder, seemed to be an appropriate next step. Through mindful eating exercises and meditation, most of the women I see individually or in  MB-intervention programs report that food cravings lessen, they gain skills in self-regulating not only with regard to food and eating but in all areas of their lives, and they become more aware of what, how and the hunger that drives their eating or non-eating. Mindfulness isn’t a cure and it isn’t for everyone, but it can facilitate change.

There is never just one way to address any behavior that arise out of fear or ignorance, but the integration of mindfulness into a treatment plan can be useful to both therapist and client when difficulty around food/eating and body image are part of the landscape. For the healthcare professional, being fully present to the client through the lens of mindfulness provides an anchor for the clinician and a steadying presence for the client. When the pull to be directive with a client about what to do, eat or not eat arises, it’s valuable for the clinician to skillfully attend to their own feelings of anxiety, inadequacy or fear that could cloud their ability to remain fully present and non-judgmental. For the client, the introduction of mindfulness meditations and exercises offer the possibility of a skillful approach to being with difficult emotions, thoughts and behaviors, and a way to be aware of and with physical sensations in body.  Once learned, mindfulness skills are not dependent on the therapist and this helps to shift the client’s locus of control from external to internal.

When working with habituated eating patterns from a mindful stance, the goal is never weight because weight is only a symptom. Just as in meditation where relaxation is the not the goal although it is often a welcomed by-product, weight gain or loss is not the goal. Rather the focus is bringing eating into balance with other important aspects in the client’s life. Because unhealthy eating habits are often closely linked to depression and anxiety, trustworthy ways in which to develop awareness and tolerance of uncomfortable thoughts, feelings and physical sensations are an important consideration of mindful eating practices. Compassionate acceptance of what is here right now brings with it a different perspective and the possibility of choice.

The idea of “acceptance,” “non-doing” or “non-striving” often elicits feelings of agitation, frustration, inadequacy and fear of passivity from the client.  To someone used to following strict diets, excessive exercise or other regimes, cyclical binges or habituated overeating, the idea of not doing something about it can be frightening for client and clinician, even when both are aware of the merciless cycles these behaviors create. Using the principles of mindfulness and mindful eating encourages self-referral, a reduction in impulsivity and a way to steady one’s self in challenging moments.

Once trained in mindfulness meditation and mindful eating practices, a clinician might begin by introducing the concept of mindfulness through the raisin exercise or a simple breath meditation.  My colleague, Jan Chozen Bays, has simple and short, focused eating exercises in her book, Mindful Eating: a guide to rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food.  And there are more and more books, trainings and workshops that can help and support healthcare professionals in this much needed eating awareness work.

Char Wilkins and Jan Chozen Bays will be co-leading a 5-day Professional Training Retreat entitled “Mindful Eating, Conscious Living” on October 2-7, 2011 in Petaluma, CA sponsored by the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. They will also be conducting a 2-day workshop entitled “Mindful Eating: Tasting Satisfaction” on June 18-19 in San Diego.

 

Two Upcoming Mindful Eating Professional Training Opportunities at UCSD

We take our food very seriously, don’t we?

Mindfulness and its relationship to eating is a topic that always seems to engender the most enthusiasm and interest among clinicians as well as patients. Perhaps it is because we are already somewhat aware of the complex (and often troubled) relationship we have with food and eating in our own busy and stress-filled lives.

Whatever the reason, the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is working closely with two wonderful mindfulness teachers to offer two different venues for exploring this complex and multi-faceted relationship. Jan Chozen Bays, physician, Zen teacher and author of Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food and Char Wilkins,psychotherapist and highly experienced mindfulness teacher and professional trainer, are working with us as teachers for both of the following exciting offerings in the coming months:

Mindful Eating: Tasting Satisfaction
A Two-Day Workshop for Professionals
June 18-19, 2011
Alliant International University, San Diego, CA

Hosted by the Center for Integrative Psychology at AIU
“Eat when hungry, sleep when tired” is a simple, ancient Zen prescription for a satisfying and contented life. But for many people, simply eating is anything but simple. This weekend program will draw upon mindful eating-awareness exercises to help attendees develop an appreciation for ways in which they can help their patients or clients reconnect with kindness to the process of eating and to their bodies.

Mindful Eating, Conscious Living
A 5-Day Professional Retreat Training
October 2-7, 2011
EarthRise Retreat Center, Petaluma, CA

Following the very successful and popular format of combining a 5-day meditation retreat with formal professional training, this offering is intended to explore the intersection of mindfulness, eating and our relationship to food. This training will support and enhance participants’ personal meditation practice, which is the essential foundation for teaching mindful eating. It will provide practical ways of integrating mindfulness and mindful eating in working with patients, individually or in groups.

We invite you to look more closely at these two wonderful programs (or any of the others we have coming up) and consider joining us for one or both.

Seven Appetites That Yearn to be Fed: Bringing Mindfulness to Our Relationship With Food

Physician, Zen priest and mindfulness teacher Dr. Jan Chozen Bays is profiled in the Huffington Post for her work around mindful eating. Drawing on a wealth of background and training, Jan has written Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food. This brief article highlights the key aspects of Chozen Bays’ approach that is deeply informed by mindfulness and meditation practice.

The article nicely highlights Dr. Chozen Bays’ approach to understanding the relationship we have with food. She “describes seven appetites longing to be fed: the hunger of the eye, nose, mouth, stomach, cellular, mind and heart.” This is covered in the book, but as she notes in this article “ there is a world of difference between reading about mindful eating, listening to a CD about mindful eating and actually experiencing mindful eating.”

Jan and her colleague Char Wilkins, LCSW, will be presenting a 2-day professional workshop in June in San Diego entitled Mindful Eating: Tasting Satisfaction and a 5-day professional training retreat entitled Mindful Eating, Conscious Living in October 2011, both through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.