Full Course Description

Advanced Mindfulness Toolbox for Rewiring the Brain: Intensive Mindfulness Training for Anxiety, Depression, Pain, PTSD, and Stress-Related Symptoms

OUTLINE

MINDFULNESS AND RESEARCH:

Cutting Edge Research and Resources
- Mindfulness as a metacognitive skill
- Negative effects of a wandering mind
- Breathing reduces rumination and anxiety
- Useful (and free) web resources
- Free up-to-date mindfulness research
- Free Cutting Edge Brain Research

INTRODUCE MINDFULNESS TO YOUR CLIENTS

Expand Your Mindfulness Vocabulary
- Help clients understand mindfulness
- Find the right metaphor
- Using clients’ learning styles
Practice: Getting into the Present Moment

THE POWER OF SENSE GROUNDING

Anxiety reduction with sense grounding
- Mindfulness for transitioning between activities
- Physical grounding method of dropping into the body
- Integrates progressive muscle relaxation
- Good for spatial, visual, hands-on learning styles
Practice: Palm the Present Moment

BRAIN BASICS, METACOGNITION, AND INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY:

Emotional Regulation for Depression and Anxiety
- Balance the brain’s default survival mode
- Effects of cortisol on learning and immune system
- Visual Brain Model for clients
- The brain’s mindfulness module
- Train the brain for calm response and metacognition
- Navy Seals, arousal control & parasympathetic nervous system
- Heart rate variability & relaxation response
Practice: The Power of Breath
- Enhancing effectiveness of a breathing practice
Practice: Ask Clients the 3-Minute Question

THE BEHAVIORAL SIDE OF MINDFULNESS

Core lifestyle skills awareness training
- Sleep hygiene
- Managing sleep
- Sleep rituals and strategies
- Healthy eating/nutrition
- Caffeine, protein, neurotransmitters, and the brain
- Exercise
- Manage Technology
- How weapons of mass distraction may be rewiring the brain
Practice: Assessment of Technology and Time
- Focus the mind (useful for ADHD)
- Integrate breath with a word/image
Practice: Be the Pebble

MINDFUL LAUGHTER FOR DEPRESSION AND GRIEF:

Tools for the” terminally serious”
- Research on laughter and mood
- Biochemistry of laughter & human laughter response
- Laughter yoga and laughter in therapy
Practice: The Lightness of Laughter

THE UPLIFTING POWER OF STORYTELLING

Storytelling to overcome depression and build relationships
- Fredrickson’s Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions
- Broaden attention; find resilience
- Stories are fundamental to attachment
- Build relationships through a story of strengths
Practice: Identifying Strengths & Strengths Journal

MANAGING MOODS THROUGH ATTENTION AND SELECTIVE MEMORY

Master attention and memories
- Savoring of the present moment
Practice: Here and Now Pleasantness
- Using selective memory to savor the past and future
Practice: Savoring Success: Past, Present, and Future

HARNESSING GRATITUDE TO INCREASE POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Managing depression with gratitude
- Gratitude research
- Four psychological reasons for gratitude
- Techniques that make gratitude interpersonal and enhancing Supportive social networks
Practice: The G.L.A.D. Technique

HEALING EMOTIONAL PAIN THROUGH ACCEPTANCE, FORGIVENESS, AND COMPASSION:

Forgiveness for moving forward from trauma
- Forgiveness is a skill
- Research on compassion practice
- Changes in brain function
- Security priming for feelings of safety and trust
- Develop positive emotions and resources
Practice: Loving-Kindness Affirmation
- The Truth About Stress:
Cutting-edge mindfulness research
- APA report on ‘Stress in America’
- Biological markers of stress: telomeres and aging
- Identify and assess client stress levels
- Perceived Stress Scale
- Epstein Stress-Management Inventory
Practice: Be a Smart Stress-Avoider

MINDFULNESS FOR ADDICTIVE CRAVINGS

Emotional Regulation for Cravings
- Impulse Control and Craving Control Using Grounding
Practice: Take a Stress Pause (S-T-O-P Grounding Technique)

CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF PAIN:

Mindfulness for Chronic Pain
- Introduction to the Body Scan Practice
- Research and history
- Demonstrates how to pay attention non-judgmentally
- Powerful grounding method; applications
Practice: Surf the Body (The Body Scan)

THE POWER OF SENSE GROUNDING TRAUMA:

Constructively distance from PTSD and negativity
- Three kinds of sense grounding
Practice: Focusing on Favorites

REDUCING ANXIETY BY MINDFULLY MANAGING TRANSITIONS:

Managing transitions through movement and nature
- Process orientation vs. outcome orientation
- Attention Restoration Theory
- Effects of nature on focus, moods, & healing
- Slowing down with nature to get present
Integrated Tools-
Practice: Ground-Surfing (Mindful Walking)
Practice: Turning Down the Volume with Nature

RE-ENVISIONING AND REFOCUSING:

Working with difficult, unresolved life situations
- Metacognition as a path to insight
Practice: Bear Meditation
- Putting It All Together
Creating a mindfulness roadmap for clients:
- Bundling practices together
- Engage through learning styles
- Maintaining skills
- Follow-up and reinforcement

OBJECTIVES

Describe and define mindfulness in a more broad way for the client.
Summarize the basics lessons of Interpersonal Neurobiology and how mindfulness can rewire the brain.
Explain the effects of stress and cortisol, and how diaphragmatic breathing turns on the parasympathetic nervous system.
Demonstrate how to use stories as a way to shift awareness, enhance relationships, and recognize strengths.
Use key mindful body practices that lead to better self-care and cognitive brain function.
Describe multiple evidence-based methods for shifting attention that produce greater positive emotions moment by moment.
Discuss the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stress, and the 4-methods for reducing stress.
Examine the damaging effects of stress at cellular level and how lifestyle changes can alter these.
Demonstrate stress-reducing transition skills through movement and walking.
Describe how to use guided meditations designed to help clients to better accept, reframe and manage pain.
Use the practice of constructive distancing to help clients get a broader perspective on any situation.
Describe affirmations and methods for developing self-compassion and feelings of safety, trust, and forgiveness.