Leader: Pippa O'Connor & Andi Stapleton

7 Wednesday evenings | 17 April to 29 May 2024 | 7- 9pm

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(Catch-up session Sunday 15 September 2024 – 2.30pm to 5.30pm)
Costs: £280 [£225 if on low income; £155 if living off benefits]
If you are eligible for a concession, click the correct booking button and then “Concession code”. Use code “concession-225” (low income) or “concession-155” (if living off benefits). For our concessions policy please click here.
Prices include materials and practice afternoon.

We will be IN-PERSON at the Centre
ONLINE Zoom spaces are also available at the same cost.

Living through challenging times and uncertainty can place a strain on all relationships which can activate reactivity: a threat and fear cycle. This can result in increased adrenalin, cortisol, stress, confusion, shame,  miscommunication, anxiety, depression and worry.

 We can find ourselves easily reacting and being overwhelmed in relationships with loved ones, friends and in our daily lives, affecting how we relate with others, ourselves…

                                We can end up feeling alone, defended, separate and invulnerable.  

Working with the MCRT & MBCT - Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Compassion Training: we gain knowledge of how our brain works in relationships, skills on how to tend and befriend the wild mind creating a warmer, connected and spontaneous relationship with ourselves and others.

We can learn to change unhelpful habits and modify behaviours that keep us stuck, understanding that to truly love we have to let go of unhelpful defensive control. 

Fear, worry and anxiety leads to more of the same, versus compassionate presence.

This wonderful training will help you to cultivate intimacy with self and other. Cultivating, compassionate presence with loving kindness by learning helpful and skilful ways to transform your historical, default conditioning and your relationship attachment style. The relationship difficulty may be with an intimate partner, family, friend or work colleagues or just life itself!!

 MCRT training works directly with insight to bring awareness to the unhelpful patterns which keep recurring in the present. By noticing, observing and putting the spot light of compassionate presence, awareness and loving kindness to the unhelpful conditioned self, we will learn to engage with these difficult patterns, shame, self -loathing, struggles, perfectionism, unrelenting standards, fears, self-worth, angst, and confusions in intimate relationships with self and other.

Knowledge and Skills will be developed using the Mindfulness & Compassionate Mind evidenced based wisdom:

·         Allowing difficult states of mind to be present and gently, open to change.

·         Learning to let go of old patterns that keep us stuck & afraid, to let go of our past conditioning.

·         Lessening the grip of fear, control, isolation, reactivity, resistance, avoidance & aversion.

·         Engaging loving kindness, emotional intelligence, wisdom of the body and insight, opening to a heartfelt, intimate new inner and outer dialogue, to embrace all of yourself and other.

·         Looking at our attachment styles and default, conditioning patterns in intimate relationships.

·         Allowing insight to inform us for growth, about our self, other and the difficulty arising.

·         Focusing and compassionate presence training by listening to the language of the body/heart /love & intimacy.

·         Cultivate the wise mind, to step out of the emotional / past mind for transformation.

Compassionate mind training works to alleviate Trauma, PTSD, heightened anxiety, and OCD

symptomology.

The teachers - Pippa O'Connor and Andi Stapleton

Pippa O'Connor - Pippa O'Connor (BSc; MSc; PGCE & Dip) Senior Lecturer in (MBCT) Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy – Clinical Applications for 14 years at the Priory Hospital, Southgate. Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness facilitator at Tavistock & Portman Hospital & London Clinic Hospital, Harley Street. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Relationship Therapist, Addiction and Trauma/ DIP Trauma/ EMDR. Teaching mindfulness-based courses for 20 years at the North London Buddhist Centre.

Andi Stapleton

BA, MSc, Dip/MA. Psychotherapist specializing in individual and group work using MBCT Cert: private and

corporate sectors: Priory Hospital / Priory Wellness Clinic and private practice. American Coaching Association Qualification,

BA Management, Mindfulness Teacher / facilitator, MSc Business Psychology. Sports Coach / performance coach.

We ask you please to read the general information section under Mindfulness Courses to check whether this course is likely to be right for you. You can access this by clicking on Mindfulness Courses in the Courses dropdown menu at the very top of this page.

IMPORTANT

If one has an emergency and requests to change, from Live sessions to Zoom / online, we do allow this but then one must return to your live place in the mindfulness class as there is a waiting list for live spaces at the North London Buddhist Centre and your place could have gone to someone else.