Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction – Elana Rosenbaum

Course Description

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction – Elana Rosenbaum

• Give your clients the skill to live in the present moment, and put stress and pain behind them!
• Learn from a -master taught by Jon Kabat Zinn
• What is your passion as a therapist? Explore, rediscover & transform lives starting NOW!

I remember working as a psychotherapist in a non-profit HMO, seeing clients after clients. They were anxious, panic-attack prone or just unable to cope with stress. They had seen physicians, with little success. I was of no help, stuck in a rut treating symptoms and focusing on what was wrong rather than treating them as an individual and reinforcing what was right.

Desperate to find something better for myself and my clients, I walked into a meditation class at lunchtime, with the most amazing, dynamic and confident teacher. After one session I was more energetic, better able to cope and found myself more attentive with my clients.

The caring and dynamic instructor was Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

That was 30 years ago and since then, along with the help of Jon Kabat-Zinn, I have been able to transform my life and my practice, using these very principles I watched grow out of that yoga class back in Worcester, Mass. I become an instructor alongside Jon, I started my own practice and I was beginning to see incredible treatment outcomes with my clients. I was feeling energetic and confident in myself and my clinical work.

Then in 1995 I was diagnosed with cancer. I put Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to the test and experienced first-hand how to handle the pain and stress of chemotherapy and all that goes with a stem cell transplant.

My personal and clinical experience, with this evidenced-based approach led to the development Mindfulness-Based intervention for bone marrow transplants at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Emory University, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction changed my life and has changed the life of many of my clients. I want to share these strategies with you. This work will transform the psychic and physical pain in your client’s lives.

1. Present the core beliefs of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as they relate to clinical treatment.
2. Implement various mindfulness practices utilized to decrease stress and improve symptomology, including a body scan, sitting meditation, walking meditation and yoga practices.
3. Teach clients how to integrate specific informal mindfulness interventions into their daily lives to alleviate symptoms and improve level of functioning.
4. Articulate the effectiveness of MBSR techniques in treating pain, stress, anxiety and panic in clients.
5. Appraise the applicability of neuroscience research to stress reduction and ascertain its clinical implications.
6. Determine specific adaptations of MBSR practices that can be utilized to treat symptoms of anxiety, depression, addiction and trauma.

Foundational Principles of MBSR

• History of MBSR
• Theoretical Foundation for MBSR
• The Psycho-educational Format of MBSR
• Ethical and Moral Principles
• The Mind/Body Connection
• MBSR as Adjunct to Medicine and Psychotherapy

The MBSR Curriculum-Goals and Objectives

• Core Skills in MBSR
  • Clarifying, Setting and Reaffirming Intention
  • Cultivating a Witnessing Awareness
  • Stabilizing Attention
  • Strengthening Self-regulation
  • Stress Management and Symptom Control
  • Affect Regulation
    • Cultivating Loving-Kindness and Acceptance
  • Use of Homework

Establishing and Communicating Mindfulness in MBSR

• Formal Mindfulness Practices in MBSR
  • The Body Scan
  • Sitting Meditation
  • Mindful Movement/Yoga
  • Walking Meditation
  • Sensory Awareness
  • Loving-Kindness Meditation
• Informal Mindfulness Practices in MBSR
  • Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Activities
  • Establishing Mindfulness Cues for Daily Life
  • Use of S.T.O.P.
  • The Three Minute Breathing Space
• Communication Tools in MBSR
  • Inter-personal Mindfulness
  • Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
  • Akido
  • The Process of Inquiry

Clinical Issues in MBSR

• Benefits and Contraindications
• Overcoming Anxiety
• Working with Depression, Negative Cognitions and Ruminations
• Working with Pain and Stress-Related Symptoms
• Working with Addictions: Affect Regulation and Impulse Control
• Interface with Psychotherapy
• Adaptations to Client-Specific Settings, Populations and Conditions

Evidence-Based Research on MBSR

• Effect on Physical Conditions
• Effect on Mental Functioning and Conditions
• Effect on Emotional Functioning and Conditions
• Neuroscience Research – Effect of MBSR on the Brain