Life is easier when there is a friend within.
Online Mindfulness & Self-compassion
Morning and Evening Sessions, Live Online or Face to Face
Find Inner Strengths in Difficult Times
Navigate the challenges in your life with more ease!
Offer yourself the gift of your own friendship!
Less stress... more happiness!
Everyone in your life will benefit!
Increase confidence, creativity, vitality and joy of living!
MindfulPath offers compassion-focused training courses, workshops and retreats in Mindfulness, Compassion and Self-Compassion in the Gold Coast, Sydney and Canberra in Australia, that can transform your lives. The aim is to promote greater resilience, well-being and better relationships. Our courses and workshops are conducted by highly experienced clinical psychologists and mindful self-compassion teachers: Marie Bloomfield and Marianna Lolas.
We are offering the following:
- Compassion-Focused Therapy at an introduction as well as advanced clinical skill level.
- Mindfulness and Self-Compassion based group training programs for organisations, businesses and community groups
- Individual training courses
- Intensive in Mindfulness and Self-Compassion over 2 days and 5 days workshops, specifically targeted at professionals
- Compassion-focused Self-Compassion in Nature Retreat
The aim is to support those who wish to cultivate mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion in their personal and work lives to ease stress and burnout to promote well-being and resilience.
MindfulPath presents compassion workshops targeting health professionals in Australia and internationally.
Mindfulness and Self-Compassion defined
Mindfulness means paying attention in the here-and-now, so we can develop an awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment. Self-Compassion means that we attend to ourselves with kindness and care, wanting what is in our best interest in the long term to strengthen and empower ourselves. When we add self-compassion to mindfulness we greatly increase the power of transformation and our capacity for happiness.
Compassion-based approaches involve acceptance of ourselves; meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging or criticizing ourselves or seeking the “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. By practising being in the present, we are not at the mercy of our harsh inner critic or of our wandering mind that is rehashing the unpleasant past or worrying about the future. We are more able to learn from the past to create a better future.
In the early stages of the practice, you become more able to recognize triggers or influences around you and opt-out of the auto-pilot mode, so you can break unhelpful habits and cravings; thus becoming freer, to find your own meaningful way to live. As you become more experienced, you become more discerning and able to redirect your mind in ways where you can problem-solve more effectively and enjoy life better.
Mindfulness is easy and simple. We just need to remember to do it. We can increase mindfulness and self-compassion by meditating and practising yoga, but also in every day activities by simply paying more attention in a specific way, while walking, driving, brushing our teeth or having a shower.
Mindfulness was initially introduced to the Western World by Jon Kabat-Zinn who the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Since that time, thousands of studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness and more recently of self-compassion. Numerous modified programs are targeting schools, prisons, hospitals, business, corporate sectors and beyond. In early 2000 Paul Gilbert proposed a model called Compassion-Focused Therapy or Compassion Mind Training and in 2010 Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff designed a Mindful Self-Compassion program both of which integrate the most recent neuroscience research findings in mindfulness and compassion.
Mindfulness evolving in Compassion-Based Approaches
Jon Kabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979 to treat the chronically ill. Since then Mindfulness has revolutionized behavioural medicine and psychology. In the mid-1990 Paul Gilbert in the UK was developing Compassion-Focused Therapy for individuals and Compassionate Mind Training group programs. Around 2010 Dr Kristin Neff and Dr Christopher Germer designed Mindful Self-Compassion. Those compassion-based approaches are skill-based training programs focusing on the practice of mindfulness but also on the key aspect of how we can meet our stresses and struggles with compassion.
Both Compassion-Focused Therapy and Mindful Self-Compassion aim to integrate the last 30 years of research and clinical work in mindfulness and compassion including various concepts/strategies from MBSR, MBCT, DBT, ACT and Positive Psychology. They incorporate principles and practices that are taught in other mindfulness programs teaching additional practices to improve on how we relate to ourselves to find ways to calm and soothe ourselves in times of stress to ease the threat system. They introduce practices, specifically aiming at:
- reducing harsh inner criticism,
- managing difficult emotions (emotional regulation),
- promoting resilience and self-care,
- raising motivation and confidence,
- developing positive relationships with the self and others
- increasing well-being and positive emotions.
- reducing burnout
Both approaches also introduce new meditations such as "affectionate breathing", "soothing breathing", "giving and receiving compassion", "compassionate friend", "compassionate self", "loving-kindness for ourselves", "soft-soothe-allow", "compassionate walking" and many others.
Why mindfulness and self-compassion?
Numerous studies have shown that practising mindfulness and self-compassion, even for just a few minutes per day for a few weeks, can bring a variety of physical, psychological, cognitive and social benefits.
Here are some of these benefits in many various settings:
- Good for the body: boosts the immune system’s ability to fight off illness.
- Good for emotional well-being: increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, anger, depression and pain.
- Good for the mind; gain greater clarity and peace of mind, more able to avoid mind-traps
- Good for sleep; improve the ability to relax and to increase restorative sleep
- Good for stress reduction: learn effective strategies to become more resilient
- Good for the brains: increases density of grey matter in brain regions to improve learning, memory, emotion regulation, empathy and nurturing while reducing the effect of ageing.
- Good for the heart; reduce blood pressure but also promote open-heart; appreciation, gratitude and love
- Good for learning: better able to focus, tune out distractions and improves memory and attention skills.
- Good for altruism: increase empathy and more likely to help ourselves or someone else
- Good for self-care: become more attuned to our needs and more motivated and able to meet them
- Good for relationships: more satisfaction in relationships at work and home, better social skills
- Good for people skills: better able to accept, tolerate, listen, assert self and resolve conflicts.
- Good for parents and parents-to-be: reduce pregnancy-related stress, anxiety and depression; promote better parenting skills, communication and happier relationships with children
- Good for leadership skills: ability to motivate, inspire and empower
- Good in the workplace: calmer, more flexible, more focused, more engaged, more productive.
- Good in schools: teaching mindfulness in the classroom reduces behaviour problems and aggression among students, and improves their happiness levels and ability to pay attention. Teachers trained in mindfulness also show lower blood pressure, less negative emotions and symptoms of depression, have greater compassion and empathy.
- Good for healthcare professionals: better able to deal with stress and to connect with their patients/clients, reduce burnout, while improving their general quality of life; reduce negative emotions and anxiety, and increasing positive emotions and own feelings of self-compassion. In addition provide better quality of care delivery.
- Good for losing weight: mindful eating and self-compassion encourages healthier eating habits, exercise, motivating weight loss.
- Good for the business, corporate sector: promote better performance and relationships amongst co-workers in the workplace.
- Good for reducing the effect of ageing: reduce ageing impact in the brain and heart while protecting our genes (telomere).
Mindfulness, Meditation and Self-Compassion training is for everyone from all walks of life, young or old, who wants to be more aware, to act more consciously, to live more deeply, to cultivate a more compassionate self.
What to Expect
The emphasis in Compassion-Focused Therapy/Compassion Mind Training and Mindful Self-Compassion is to learn mindfulness and self-compassion to understand ourselves better and to build emotional resources. We become stronger as we develop the capacity to be with our difficulties and with ourselves, in a mindful compassionate way enabling us to deal more effectively with challenges. In all our courses, the goal is for participants to directly experience and learn practices that evoke mindfulness and self-compassion that they can practice in their daily activities to transform their lives. The courses are based on approaches initially developed by Paul Gilbert (Compassion-Focused Therapy/Compassion Mind Training) and Chris Germer and Kristen Neff(Mindful Self-Compassion) based on the latest neuroscience research findings.
During the courses, you will learn formal and informal practices which means ways to practice mindfulness and self-compassion throughout your day for a minute or so at the time as well as the more formal mindfulness meditation which require 15-20 minutes of dedicated time.
To assist in your learning you will be provided with a manual handout and mp3 downloads to support your home practices.
Who is it for
We can all benefit from learning Compassion Mind Training and Mindful Self-Compassion. Our courses are especially popular with health professionals such as psychologists, social workers, nurses, medical practitioners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, school teachers, coaches, mindfulness/yoga teachers, counsellors, but also with other individuals who work in caring roles, helping others.
Previous experience in meditation or mindfulness is not necessary to participate in these training programs.
The hours of attendance to the courses will count toward Continuing Professional Development(CPD). The courses are advertised in the Australian Association of Social Workers(AASW) Newsletter and in the Australian Psychologist Association(APS) on the calendar of events. They are also promoted by Compassionate Mind Australia. A certificate providing the number of hours of CPD attended will be provided for professionals requiring evidence of professional development certificates(CPD) (i.e. nurses, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, doctors, psychiatrists, teachers etc.).
Scholarships for students and income-based reduction fees
MindfulPath is committed to offering mindfulness and self-compassion training programs, courses, retreats and workshops at an affordable price in the Gold Coast, Canberra and Sydney in Australia.
We believe that compassion benefits everyone. Therefore, we would like to make the courses available to everyone. We don't want finances to be an obstacle to your participation in this program. We are open to discuss income-based reduction fees. We also provide a limited number of scholarships for students in health and medical professions. If you wish to discuss this further with us, please contact us via email.
Cancellation Policy
• If you make the payment and cancel 28 days before the start of the event, you will be fully refunded minus the booking fee of $200.00.
• If you cancel 14-28 days prior to the event you will be refunded 50% of your payment.
• If you want to cancel less than 14 days before the event, you will be given a 25% refund of your payment.
• Sorry, there will be no refund 7 days prior to or during the event.