OR 2-Day Intensive Training: Mindfulness Certification Course

Credits

Speaker

Richard Sears, PsyD, PhD, MBA, ABPP Related seminars and products

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Richard W. Sears, PsyD, Ph.D., MBA, ABPP, has given hundreds of workshops on ACT all around the world. He is a board-certified clinical psychologist in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he runs a private therapy and consultation practice, and is Director of the Center for Clinical Mindfulness & Meditation. He holds several academic appointments, including the Department of Clinical Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences with the UC College of Medicine. Dr. Sears is also a psychologist contractor with the Cincinnati VA Medical Center and with Alliance Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Sears is the author of over a dozen books, including ACT with Anxiety; The CBT & Mindfulness Toolbox and Mindfulness: Living Through Challenges and Enriching Your Life. He is also a sixth-degree black belt in Ninjutsu and once served as a personal protection agent for the Dalai Lama of Tibet. He has a PhD in Buddhist Studies, and received ordination in three traditions, as well as recognition as a Zen master.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Richard Sears maintains a private practice and has employment relationships with the University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. He receives compensation as a consultant. Dr. Sears receives royalties as a published author. He receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Richard Sears is the founder and director of the Center for Clinical Mindfulness and Meditation and is a member of the American Board of Professional Psychology, the Academy of the American Board of Clinical Psychology, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences. He is a peer reviewer for Mindfulness and a book reviewer for John Wiley & Sons, Inc, and Routledge.

Additional Info

Please note: There will be a lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

Objectives

1. Describe how clear psychoeducational descriptions of the relationship between mindfulness, neurobiology, and common disorders can be used to motivate clients to engage in treatment.
2. Communicate how a case conceptualization that draws upon neuropsychological principles can help clinicians establish realistic expectations and goals with clients.
3. Formulate treatment plans for anxiety that incorporate mindfulness strategies clients can use in and out of session to help alleviate symptoms.
4. Dissect the neurobiological underpinnings of how emotions are created, and communicate why this is important to the therapeutic process.
5. Employ mindfulness training and diaphragmatic breathing techniques that clients can use to help them manage unhealthy anger responses.
6. Construct treatment plans for depression that incorporate mindfulness interventions that can be used to interrupt rumination and automatic negative thoughts.
7. Characterize how mindfulness based stress reduction techniques can be used with clients to address prolonged periods of stress that can impact mental and physical health.
8. Consider the clinical impact of research regarding the effects of mindfulness based practices on the neuropsychological aspects of trauma.
9. Explore the clinical implications of research regarding the association between mindfulness and relationship satisfaction and outcomes.
10. Establish how barriers to implementing mindfulness can be overcome using informal techniques clients can incorporate into their daily lives.
11. Characterize how clinical tools that increase self-awareness can be used in therapy to help clients better manage their thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
12. Articulate the importance of the connection between therapist and client in contributing to positive clinical outcomes, and delineate how mindfulness may enhance the therapeutic relationship.

Outline

MASTER THE CORE SKILLS OF MINDFULNESS

Treatment Concepts

• Introduction of mindfulness to clients
• Mindfulness as self-directed neuroplasticity
• Mindfulness as a skill-based path
• Reconsolidation of neural networks through mindfulness practice
• Experiential exercise: self-regulation techniques

• Benefits of therapeutic presence: presence, attunement, resonance, trust
• Stabilize the mind: the foundation of focus
• Self-regulation: the foundation of settledness
• Spaciousness: the foundation of openness

• Clarify, set and re-affirm intention
• Cultivate witnessing awareness: metacognition
• Stabilize attention
• Strengthen self-regulation
• Practice loving-kindness for self and others
• Experiential exercise: stability of attention and awareness

• Effective drivers of neuroplasticity
• Interpersonal neurobiology: importance of early experiences
• Formation of mental models: core negative beliefs
• Neuroception and the operation of the brain’s survival mechanisms
• Explicit and implicit memories
• Adaptive safety strategies: negative side effects
• Experiential exercise: cultivate an inner refuge

• Themes in beginning mindfulness practice
  • Am I focused or distracted?
  • Am I settled/grounded or tight/churning?
• Mindful transitions: a practice for new clients
• Stop-breathe-reflect-choose practice
• Development of client self-talk, scripts and mantras
• Positive visualization practice
• Cultivate a new vision of self: transform core negative beliefs

TRAUMA, ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, RELATIONSHIPS, ANGER, STRESS AND SEX

Mindfulness for Trauma

• Cultivate safety and groundedness
• Retrain the dysregulated nervous system
• Experiential exercise: positive visualization

• Witness the anxious mind
• Get unstuck from anxious rumination
• Experiential exercise: self-regulation practices for anxiety

• Transform core negative beliefs that power depression
• Cultivate motivation and action
• Experiential exercise: develop behavioral plans with the client

• Clarify intentions that work in relationships
• Transform unhealthy patterns
• Experiential exercise: cultivate positive experiences/exchanges

• Understand the source of anger energy
• Identify the anger storm
• Clarify the practice when anger arises
• Experiential exercise: rehearsal of the Stop-Breathe-Reflect-Choose practice

• Educate the client about the impact of stress
• Change the stress reaction through practice
• Experiential exercise: strengthen awareness of stress response, shifting to relaxation response

• Create conditions for healthy and mutually satisfying sex
• Open to the full power of sexual intimacy

• Avoid compassion fatigue
• Approach each session as meditative practice
• Counsel “in the flow”
• Experiential exercise: path to enjoying our work more meditation practice

• Current state of research on mindfulness
• Limits of the current research
• Mindfulness-based treatments – potential risks and limitations
• The importance of client evaluation
• Practices beyond your training and experience

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

Location

1000 NE Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon 97232, United States
(503) 281-6111
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