Full Course Description


Week 1 | Four Foundations of Mindfulness Meditation

This training will provide a theoretical foundation and technical instruction for the practice of mindfulness meditation. This technique will serve as the basic practice for the duration of the program, and this course provides the Buddhist philosophical context to understand and effectively apply mindfulness meditation in clinical context. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain the distinctions between the four scopes of mindfulness and how they inform clinical treatment.
  2. Determine the purpose of developing mindfulness in clinical context
  3. Summarize how the unique skills and benefits cultivated during each of the four foci of mindfulness can be used to improve clinical outcomes.
  4. Evaluate how to help clients overcome common barriers to mindfulness practice

Outline

  • Introduction to the Four Foundations for Mindfulness
  • Present the psychological and health benefits of mindfulness meditation
  • Relationship between mindfulness, compulsive reactivity and self-regulation
  • Working with psychological and physical hindrances to mindfulness meditation

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/05/2017

Week 2 | Four Noble Truths: Foundations of Buddhist Psychology

This training will provide a theoretical foundation for classical Buddhist Psychology and the traditional formulaic medical model known as the Four Noble Truths:

  1. Diagnosis of human stress and dissatisfaction
  2. The etiology
  3. The prognosis
  4. The comprehensive treatment

This foundation provides the philosophical context to understand and apply contemplative methodologies in clinical context.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate the nature and cause of stress and dissatisfaction in classical Buddhist psychology
  2. Summarize how current neuroscience of stress and trauma compare and contrast to ancient Buddhist insights about the nature, cause and alleviation of human affliction.
  3. Explain the similarities between concepts of neuroplasticity and the deconditioning and final unlearning of stress-reactive affliction.
  4. Articulate the implications of mindfulness interventions in the context of a comprehensive treatment plan to inform the clinician's choice of treatment options.

Outline

  • Introduction to the Four Noble Truths
  • Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary maps of human stress and treatment
  • The relationship between the four noble truths and the four foundations of mindfulness meditation

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/05/2017

Week 3 | Introduction to Contemplative Psychotherapy: Defining Mental Illness and Optimal Health in Classic Buddhist Psychology

This training presents how mental illness and optimal health are defined and achieved in Buddhist psychology as well as what recent developments in stress research, neuroscience and learning theory reveal about the role various meditations can play in facilitating healing, neuroplasticity and psychological development.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Recognize how mental illness and optimal health are conceived in Buddhist psychology.
  2. Compare and contrast Buddhist views of suffering and health with predominant views or schools in Western medicine and psychotherapy.
  3. Summarize the neuroscience and current clinical outcome research on various forms of Buddhism meditation, and the psychological mechanism involved specific to each practice.

Outline

  • Mental illness and optimal health in Buddhist psychology
  • The classification of the variety of Buddhist meditation techniques and their use

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/12/2013

Week 4 | Buddhism: Historical and Philosophical Developments

This training introduces the historical context and development of Buddhist thought and practice as it evolves from India into East Asia and Tibet. Contextualized within the pre-Buddhist Vedic culture of India, leading expert Robert Thurman reviews the central tenants and the associated texts and ideals that define three major phases of the philosophical evolution of Buddhism, namely the Individual Vehicle of renunciation and monasticism, the Universal Vehicle of love and compassion and the Diamond Vehicle of the tantras.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Understand the cultural and historical context from which the three major phases of Buddhist philosophical thought arose.
  2. Identify the unique characteristics, philosophical tenants and associated practices of the Individual, Universal and Diamond vehicles of Buddhism

Outline

  • Survey the Historical Context of Buddhist Philosophical thought
  • Highlight the unique characteristics of the major philosophical developments in Buddhist Thought

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/19/2013

Week 5 | Mind and Mental Factors: The Basic Mind Science of Buddhist Psychology

This lecture examines the nature of mind, how it functions and leads to affliction, the relationship between mind and external reality, the mental factors that arise in the mind and how students and clients can relate to them more effectively. These insights serve as necessary precursor to applying contemplative theory and methods in psychotherapy.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate the definition of the nature of mind in classic Buddhist psychology
  2. Describe the relationship between mind and the various contents or mental factors that determine psychological experience.
  3. Evaluate the similarities and differences between how suffering is presented in Buddhism and various schools of Western psychology.

Outline

  • Definition and nature of mind in Buddhist psychology
  • Topology of the various mental factors
  • Presentation of the etiology and extinction of mental afflictions

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/21/2017

Week 6 | Karma: Psychological Causality within the Context of Dependent Origination

This lecture reviews the causal relationship between past trauma, current perceptions and actions, and future subjective experience through an interdisciplinary lens of Buddhist psychology, trauma research and neuroscience. This theory offers a framework for understanding the experience of clients in clinical context as well as empowering them to intervene in their personal process.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize how mental afflictions are caused from the perspective of Buddhist psychology.
  2. Critique interpretations of karma theory as related to clinical treatment.
  3. Adapt karma theory as intergenerational active development to a clinical case vignette.

Outline

  • Psychological causation (karma theory) and mental affliction in Buddhist psychology
  • The twelve-links of Dependent Origination
  • Empowering clients to have greater agency in their personal process

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 09/28/2017

Week 7 | Freedom and Clarity of Mind: Natural strategies to help clients find relief

This presentation will provide the basis for understanding the nature of mind and the practice of cultivating metacognitive awareness of mental functions in the psychology of mindfulness. Based on that understanding, the clinical application of metacognitive awareness practice to support metacognitive insight will be reviewed in the context of both classical mindfulness practice and current mindfulness-based contemplative psychotherapy.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate concepts of metacognitive awareness, insight, and clinical applications of training.
  2. Practice mindfulness of mind and apply it to enhancing metacognitive insight.
  3. Integrate the theory and practice of mindfulness of mind into mindfulness-based approaches to contemplative psychotherapy.

Outline

  • The mind’s natural capacity for self-awareness and its role in metacognitive insight, adaptive learning, and self-regulation.
  • Training mindful metacognition in clinical practice.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 10/05/2017

Week 8 | Selflessness

This training explores the philosophical concept of selflessness as related to the Buddha’s Third Noble Truth, clarifies inaccuracies in translation and view, discusses ego and egolessness from a inter-disciplinary, cross-cultural lens, glimpses selflessness experientially through meditation and discuss its implications for psychotherapy and healing.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain what is meant by the Buddhist psychological term selflessness (anatman) as it relates to treatment outcomes.
  2. Determine the role of selflessness within Buddhist psychology and clarify inaccurate translations that have lead to its misunderstanding.
  3. Establish how selflessness relates to self-awareness, self-regulation and behavioral change in psychotherapy.

Outline

  • The theory of selflessness within the context of the Four Noble Truths
  • Clarifying misunderstandings of selflessness and its role in healing
  • How selflessness is an empowering theory for clients and students who have rigid self-identifications

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 11/07/2013

Week 9 | The Eightfold Path and Three Disciplines

This training provides the theoretical foundation for understanding the therapeutic approach in Buddhist psychology, specifically the comprehensive treatment and extinction of mental affliction through the Eightfold Path. This course considers how clients world-view and lifestyle are important considerations in their overall health-care and transformation. Taught by expert Emily Wolf this content is based on a significant array of empirical, theoretical, and expert consensus literature.

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Objectives

  1. Summarize each of the factors that comprise the Eightfold Path and their relevance to healing and positive human development.
  2. Explain the role that outlook, attitude and life-style play in contemplative psychotherapy.

Outline

  • The Eightfold Path to psychological freedom
  • The role of the Three Disciplines of outlook, attitude and lifestyle in client self-care and transformation.

Copyright : 10/19/2017

Week 10 | Meditation Teach-Back #1

Copyright : 06/26/2018

Week 11 | Neuropsychology and Contemplative Practice as it Relates to Stress and Trauma

This presentation will provide a general overview of current evolutionary and network models of the human brain, introducing neuroplasticity as the science behind mental illness, health, and treatment. Based on that overview, it will survey the role chronic stress and trauma have in the neurophysiology of a wide range of mind/body disorders including anxiety, depression, PTSD, heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer, while laying the groundwork for understanding the neuroplastic mechanisms of therapeutic practices like psychotherapy and meditation.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize how structures in the brain adapt to clients’ chronic stress and repeated traumatic experiences.
  2. Explicate the pathophysiology of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other common syndroms that clients present with in clinical session.
  3. Empower therapists that their cognitive emotional and behavioral interventions can lead to bio-chemical, functional and structural brain changes.

Outline

  • The triune brain, its main neural networks, and their response to stress-related wear and tear, versus positive neuroplasticity and integration.
  • Rethinking disease models of mental illness and treatment in light of the general pathogenic role of chronic stress and trauma in childhood and adulthood.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 10/26/2017

Week 12 | Limbic system and attachment: Resonance, Regulation, and the Mammal Brain

This presentation will elucidate the basis for stress-reduction and the neural integration of social cognition, prosocial emotion and social behavior in the integrative brain structures and networks that evolved during the mammalian transition. It will explain the evidence for the mechanisms and benefits of contemplative practices like mindfulness, compassion training, imagery, recitation, posture and breath-control in terms of the use-dependent neuroplastic growth of integrative structures and networks including the “smart vagal” social engagement system based in the brainstem.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the role of integrative structures like the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and myelinated cranial nerves in social engagement and caregiving.
  2. Articulate the benefits of contemplative practices in the therapeutic processes.
  3. Apply the neuroscience of integration and contemplative practice to understanding the efficacy of mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapies.

Outline

  • The integrative structures of the human brain and their role in stress-reduction and positive social engagement.
  • The neural mechanisms of contemplative practice in growing integrative structures and networks that reduce stress and enhance social engagement.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 11/02/2017

Week 13 | Neuroscience of Awakening: The clinical application of self-regulatory practices

This training presents the neurological correlates of mindfulness meditation, how to counter-balance the evolutionary negativity bias, and the clinical application of self-regulatory practices to establish optimal wellbeing.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain the brain regions involved and activated during mindfulness meditation and how these correlate with secure attachment or sense of safety in psychotherapy.
  2. Communicate the four parts of Hanson’s H.E.A.L model to help client’s counter-balance their negativity bias

Outline

  • Neurological correlates of mindfulness meditation
  • Defining awakening and optimal wellness from neuroscience perceptive
  • Counter-balancing the evolutionary negativity bias from stress-resilience and preventative self-care

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 10/11/2013

Week 14 | Neuroscience of Compassion: Clinical Applications for compassion-based meditation strategies

This training surveys the history, clinical research and neurological correlates of compassion-based meditation methods as well as anticipates future trends in the scientific study of meditation. The lecture is designed to provide health-care providers the confidence to justify and support the clinical application of compassion-based methods, treating less as religious practice and more as skill training for inherent human capacities for prosocial emotions.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the brain regions involved and activated during compassion practices and how these might differ from mindfulness meditation.
  2. Express how compassion is a skill that can be taught and learned in clinical setting
  3. Explain the beneficial effects of compassion training on social stress reduction and prosocial emotional functioning.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Outline

  • Neurological Correlates of Compassion
  • Compassion reconceived as a skill that can be developed

Copyright : 11/06/2015

Week 15 | Introduction to the Capstone Project

Copyright : 08/29/2018

Week 16 | Mindfulness Based Therapies: MBSR, MBCT, MBRP

This training provides a historical survey of several of the major mindfulness-based clinical interventions including mindfulness-based stress reduction MBSR, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP). The presentation identifies the psychological mechanism of change that underlie clinical applications of mindfulness to empower clinicians in effective use of these methods.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Appraise the primary modalities and unique features of mindfulness-based interventions for symptom management.
  2. Explain the mechanisms and pathways by which mindfulness-based interventions are effective in clinical practice.

Outline

  • Survey the major mindfulness-based interventions
  • Examine the clinical outcome research on effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions
  • The psychological mechanisms involved in positive health outcome of mindfulness-based interventions.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 12/03/2015

Week 17 | Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

This training provides the theoretical and clinical applications of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Based on the application of functional contextualism to language and cognition, ACT incorporates many different techniques in the service of promoting psychological flexibility. Expert Jon Kaplan identifies the core processes of ACT, including: cognitive defusion, acceptance, mindfulness, perspective-taking, values, and committed action.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Compare the core processes of ACT to other mindfulness-based interventions.
  2. Summarize how ACT draws upon and differs from conventional therapies like CBT.
  3. Describe the role mindfulness meditation plays in the therapeutic process.

Outline

  • Core processes of ACT
  • Practical applications of ACT

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 01/19/2014

Week 18 | Treatment of Personality Disorders and DBT

This training provides an overview of the principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with an emphasis on the role that mindfulness skills play in the overall treatment strategy. Students will gain a general knowledge of the various components of DBT treatment and why it is considered the gold-standard of treatment for emotional disregulation disorders. Clinical examples will be offered and students will have an opportunity to discuss how DBT skills might be utilized with patients they are currently seeing.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the major components comprising DBT and how they each work to improve mental health outcomes.
  2. Compare DBT with other mindfulness-based treatment modalities and their clinical implications.
  3. Explain why DBT can be an effective intervention for Borderline Personality disorder and other disorders of emotional disregulation.

Outline

  • Overview of components of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Clinical Benefits of DBT with patients with affect deregulation and Borderline Personality Disorder

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 01/23/2014

Week 19 | Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Based Couples and Family Therapy

This presentation will introduce the interpersonal neurobiology behind the embodied social emotional intimacy of parent-child dyads, couples and families. Based on that neurobiology and the differential effects of chronic stress and trauma versus secure attachment and belonging on brain development, it explains the theory and practice behind applying mindfulness and self-compassion to reduce stress, heal trauma and promote social engagement in couples therapy and family therapy.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the brain basis of empathy and resilience in the effects of secure attachment on the development of the prefrontal cortex and limbic emotional circuits.
  2. Articulate the crucial role of healing emotional stress-reactivity and traumatic memories in developing intimate limbic resonance and empathic attunement.
  3. Evaluate the clinical application of mindfulness-based and self-compassion practices in marital and family therapy using the neuroscience of attachment and integration.

Outline

  • The neurobiology of secure vs. insecure attachment, and its impact on the capacity for empathy, resilience, and social engagement throughout the lifespan.
  • The impact of mindfulness and compassion training in reducing traumatic emotional stress-reactivity and building mature empathy and resilience.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 01/16/2014

Week 20 | Mindfulness for Youth at Risk

This training explores how mindfulness meditation can benefit teenagers in coping with stress, including how to adapt, clinically apply and make meditation accessible to young people who are living in challenging circumstances.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the unique clinical considerations of teaching mindfulness skills to an at-risk youth population
  2. Explain how mindfulness meditation can be adapted and clinically applied to an at-risk youth population.
  3. Ascertain the advantages mindfulness skills provides to conventional treatment for youth at risk.

Outline

  • Best mindfulness-based practices for youth at risk
  • Clinical considerations for applying meditation to youth at risk

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 01/28/2016

Week 21 | Living, Dying and the Problem with Hope

This training offers a cultural critique of the attitude towards and methodology of working with death and dying pervasive in modern, industrialized medicine and health-care. It offers an alternative paradigm based of mindfulness and spiritual values that can be applied in clinical context.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate the quantity versus quality of life debate within the context of death and dying and the clinical implications.
  2. Critique the limitations of conventional treatment approaches for death and dying pervasive in modern industrialized medicine.
  3. Summarize how mindfulness and other spiritually informed palliative care perspectives improve the quality of clients, family and caregiver’s experience of the death and dying process.

Outline

  • Critique of modern industrialized medicine, particularly its attitude towards death and dying
  • Review the approach to death and dying from a spiritual point of view

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 02/04/2016

Week 22 | Mindfulness in Trauma Treatment

This presentation will introduce the basic neuropsychology of trauma as the extreme case of stress-reactivity and aversive conditioning, and link its treatment resistant pathology to the brain’s default negativity bias and survival wiring. Based on this neuropsychology, it will elucidate how mindfulness and self-compassion help stop stress-reactivity and promote the metacognitive insight needed to decondition reactive perception, metabolize traumatic affect, and reconsolidate traumatic memories.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain the neural mechanisms of mindfulness and self-compassion in reducing stress-reactivity and fostering the neural re-integration needed to heal trauma.
  2. Justify the clinical application of contemplative practice of mindfulness and self-compassion in the treatment of trauma using basic neuropsychology.

Outline

  • The stubborn neuropsychology of trauma, the worst case of the brain’s default negativity bias and stress-reactive survival wiring.
  • The impact of mindfulness and self-compassion in reducing stress-reactivity, fostering metacognition, and reconsolidating traumatic memories and affects.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 02/11/2016

Week 23 | Meditation Teach-Back #2

Copyright : 10/16/2018

Week 24 | Attachment, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

This training provides an overview of Interpersonal Neurobiology developed by Dan Siegel, MD, which reviews and integrates basic neuroscience, attachment theory, trauma research, affect regulation, mindfulness and psychotherapy. Specific attention is paid to the role and application of mindfulness meditation in psychotherapy to improve patients health and wellbeing.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain how mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy can both foster a more secure attachment style, using a neurodevelopmental perspective
  2. Compare the unique contributions and advantages that psychotherapy and mindfulness meditation respectively offer in promoting positive health outcomes.

Outline

  • Introduce Interpersonal Neurobiology
  • Role of mindfulness in facilitating affect regulation, secure attachment neural integration

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 11/16/2017

Week 25 | Meditation Teaching Methodology, Review

This training provides practical considerations and recommendations for professionals desiring to integrate mindfulness meditation into their clinical work. What makes a client suitable, what makes a therapist prepared and competent to teach, and what are some considerations for incorporating a meditation technique within the clinical session?

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the characteristics that make clients appropriate for mindfulness instruction in clinical setting
  2. Summarize the characteristics that make therapists competent to teach meditation in clinical setting
  3. Articulate the clinical indications for how to incorporate mindfulness meditation within a therapeutic setting.

Outline

  • Characteristics that define a suitable client and competent therapist for mindfulness instruction
  • How to incorporate mindfulness meditation into a clinical session

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 01/14/2016

Week 26 | Mindfulness Practice as Advanced Training for the Clinician

This training provides theories, practices and clinical considerations for clinicians and health-care professionals who integrate mindfulness practice into their professional work.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate the various ways mindfulness meditation may enhance the competence, effectiveness and resilience of the client.
  2. Compare the possible limitations of conventional therapeutic training with mindfulness-based training for the clinician’s presence, empathy, resilience and well-being.

Outline

  • Survey the potential benefits of mindfulness meditation for clinicians or health-care provider
  • Explore the potential limitations of conventional clinical training based exclusively on theory and research.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 02/25/2016

Week 27 | Loving-kindness Meditation

The training provides an experientially focused introduction to loving-kindness meditation in the context of training in the Four Boundless Emotions (Brahmaviharas) love, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Taught by expert Sharon Salzberg.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate to relationship between mindfulness and Four Boundless Emotions
  2. Hypothesize the role and contribution loving-kindness practice might have when applied in clinical context.

Outline

  • The Four Boundless Emotions
  • Instruction and utility of Loving-kindness meditation

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 12/05/2013

Week 28 | Self-compassion and Psychotherapy

This training provides an overview of the theory, practice, and science of self-compassion, its relationship with mindfulness meditation and how it is integrated into clinical work for the benefit of both client and health-care provider.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the nature and benefits of self-compassion practice in clinical practice.
  2. Articulate the neuropsychological mechanisms involved in self-compassion as related to clinical treatment.

Outline

  • Define self-compassion
  • Discuss the science and research of self-compassion
  • Describe the potential benefits of self-compassion for clients and clinicians

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 04/14/2016

Week 29 | Meditative Therapy

This training provides an overview of the integration of Buddhist philosophy and meditation with the Western psychoanalytic tradition. Expert Jeffrey Rubin shares his unique synthesis called Meditative Psychotherapy including three core facets: stereophonic listening, understanding meaning, and liberated intimacy and illustrate how they are clinically applied using case examples.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the distinguishing features and points of convergence between Buddhism and Psychoanalysis and their treatment implications
  2. Describe the similarities and differences between mindfulness and free association as methods of improving introspective awareness, self-analysis, and insight as it relates to clinical practice.
  3. Explain the three core facets of Meditative Psychotherapy and how they are relevant to clinical practice.

Outline

  • History of the convergence of Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
  • Overview of Meditative Psychotherapy

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 03/03/2016

Week 31 | Practicing Meditative Therapy

This training provides an overview of the practical applications, benefits and clinical considerations of Meditative Psychotherapy applied in therapeutic context.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Evaluate the clinical limitations posed by both meditation and psychotherapy when practiced in isolation.
  2. Evaluate when meditative psychotherapy could be used instead of conventional psychotherapy.

Outline

  • Clinical application of Meditative Therapy
  • Benefits and considerations for client and therapist

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 03/10/2016

Week 32 | Healing the Selfless Self / Working with Transference and Countertransference

This training provides a theoretical foundation for understanding and managing transference and countertransference issues in contemplative psychotherapy.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Articulate the nature and methods of working with client transference
  2. Evaluate how transference and counter transference issues may be managed differently within a conventional analytic versus contemplative approach.

Outline

  • Overview of Buddhist and psychoanalytic thought
  • Overview of the principals of transferences and countertransference

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 03/17/2016

Week 33 | Intersubjectivity and Interpersonal Dynamics in Buddhism and Psychotherapy

This training provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the role of intersubjectivity in Buddhism and psychoanalysis as well as how to leverage interpersonal dynamics for optimal metal health in contemplative psychotherapy.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explain the clinical implications of intersubjectivity from the perspectives of Buddhism and psychoanalysis
  2. Explain how contemplative psychotherapy leverages intersubjectivity and interpersonal dynamics for therapeutic gains.

Outline

  • Intersubjectivity in Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
  • Working skillfully with interpersonal dynamics

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 03/31/2016

Week 34 |Spiritual Bypassing

This training provides an overview of the concept of spiritual bypassing, including its underlying motivations, various presentations in clinical setting, and therapeutic methods for working with it in clinical context.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize spiritual bypassing and why it is relavent to clinical assessment and treatment
  2. Articulate some of the common presentations of spiritual bypassing in clinical context
  3. Evaluate the limitations of both spiritual and therapeutic traditions when practiced in isolation.

Outline

  • Define Spiritual Bypassing and its various presentation in clinical context
  • How to work with spiritual bypassing

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 05/05/2016

Week 35 | The Love of Space: Mindful Caregiving and the Ethics of Presence

This presentation will explain the psychology and ethics of mindful caregiving in light of attachment theory and polyvagal theory, as based on the capacity to maintain unconditionally caring presence within oneself and to sustain and share that presence with clients. Given this basis, it will illustrate the clinical application of mindfulness and compassion as trainings that help clinicians embody radical acceptance, unbiased empathy, and unconditional love, drawing on clinical case material. Taught by expert Joe Loizzo, MD, PhD this content is based on a significant array of empirical, theoretical, and expert consensus literature.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Summarize the psychology of caregiving in light of the biology of parental empathy and childrearing, based on limbic resonance and smart vagal presence.
  • Explain the impact of mindfulness and compassion training on reducing traumatic stress-reactivity and enhancing integrative networks of social engagement.

Outline

  • The psychology and ethics of mindful caregiving based on the capacity for secure attachment and fearless presence towards oneself and others.
  • The clinical impact of mindfulness and compassion training based on their building unbiased presence and unconditional love for both clinician and client.

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, Case Managers Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Addiction Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants

Copyright : 04/21/2016

Week 30: Study Time

No video lecture. Please use this time to work on your final Capstone Project.

Copyright : 12/12/2018