7 Night Vallecitos Retreat

"On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. 

Raise your sail and begin.” ― Gregory S. Williams

Recovering from the Full Catastrophe: 

An Intensive Retreat for Mental Health Professionals

with Bill Morgan PsyD, Susan Morgan, MSN, RN, CS, and Ron Siegel, Psy.D.

June 18- 25, 2022

Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center

Durango, CO 

Vallecitos is reopening! 

Needless to say, these have been extremely challenging few years for many of us—from which we’re just beginning to recover. Although mindfulness offers much more than stress reduction, might some peace and tranquility be welcome right now?

This intensive residential retreat, set in the wild mountains of New Mexico, will offer calming and settling practices to soothe and heal our nervous systems. We’ll explore the stressors of this past year, making room to acknowledge and release some of the ragged, unmetabolized emotions that may have accumulated.

During our time together you will learn tools to restore balance to your heart and mind. 

We will study varied meditative postures, breathing practices, exploratory exercises, and both stillness and movement techniques designed to investigate challenging emotions and integrate difficult experiences.

This course provides a safe, nurturing container in which to explore these practices with colleagues. The teaching is experience-near, focusing on the development of mindfulness and compassion practices and their relevance in our work with others, including providing accurate empathy and therapeutic presence. There will be daily mindfulness meditation instruction and three to four hours of structured practice each day, plus study modules most afternoons in combination with dyadic or small group discussion. The rest of the time we will observe silence, including during meals, to facilitate a deeper contemplative experience.

We’ll discuss how to use these practices ourselves to be more present and responsive in our personal lives and clinical work, as well as how to share them with our clients to help them work creatively with the distress of the pandemic.

Let’s gather together and support one another as a community of spiritual friends. In addition to receiving mindfulness teachings, instruction, and guided meditations, this retreat will offer ample opportunities to participate in small group discussions and explore personal practice questions.

20 CEs will be offered for psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors.

Please join us!

COST & REGISTRATION opening through Vallecitos website on Feb 1

The Tradition of Dana: Mindfulness and related teachings have traditionally been sustained by the 2,600 year-old tradition of dana, which literally means “generosity.” We follow this tradition by inviting participants to offer donations to the retreat leaders, who receive only reimbursement for travel expenses.

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CONTINUING EDUCATION (CE):

CONTACT for CE related questions: Rene Fay, rene.fay@gmail.com 

Bill and Susan Morgan are able to offer continuing education credits through the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy

Psychologists: The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy is approved by the AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Institute of Meditation and Psychotherapy maintains responsibility for the program and its content. This course offers 20 hours of credit.

Social Workers: This program is pending approval by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS for 20.0 continuing education contact hours.

Nurses:  This program carries 20 Contact Hours and meets the specifications of the MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF NURSING (244 CMR).

Licensed Mental Health Counselors: The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy is recognized by the NATIONAL BOARD FOR CERTIFIED COUNSELORS to sponsor continuing education for National Certified Counselors. We adhere to NBCC Continuing Education Guidelines. This course is approved for 20 contact hours, Provider #6048 and is applicable for Commonwealth of Massachusetts Counseling/Allied Mental Health and PDP accreditation.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Upon completion of the program, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the three core components of mindfulness practice.
2. Identify the evolutionary roots and mechanisms of compassion toward self and others.
3. Demonstrate an experiential understanding of mindfulness and compassion interventions through personal practice.
4. Specify how a therapist can best choose which mindfulness exercises are most appropriate for different arousal states.
5. Describe how to use mindful movement to release anxiety-related tension.
6. Identify how mindfulness and compassion practices can enhance emotional regulation.
7. Discuss ways to assist clients to integrate mindfulness practice in their lives, especially during uncertain times.
8. Describe the use of mindfulness and compassion practices to support parasympathetic activation and calm sympathetic activation.
9. Specify contraindications for various mindfulness and compassion practices.

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COURSE SCHEDULE:

SATURDAY

7-9 pm Welcome and Overview of Program

SUNDAY

9-12 Components of mindfulness: understanding and practicing focused attention

2:30-5 Learn how to facilitate reduction of sympathetic arousal

6:30-8:30 Understanding functions of mindfulness practice

MONDAY

9-12 Identify the evolutionary roots of compassion toward self and other.

2:30-5 Components of mindfulness: Introduction to acceptance and self-compassion practices

6:30-8:30 Clinical applications of compassion practice

TUESDAY

9-12 Practicing mindful movement to release anxiety-related tension.

2:30-5 Explore and practice how to establish the attitudinal foundations for mindfulness practice

6:30-8:30 Components of mindfulness: Understanding and practicing open monitoring

WEDNESDAY

9-12 Using mindfulness and compassion practices to enhance emotional regulation.

2:30-5 Contraindications of specific mindfulness and compassion practices for different client populations

6:30-8:30 Practicing mindfulness and compassion to increase parasympathetic and modulate sympathetic arousal

THURSDAY

9-12 Deepening practice: focused attention

2:30-5 Deepening practice: open monitoring

6:30-8:30 Deepening practice: acceptance and self compassion

FRIDAY

9-12.Exploring how a therapist can best choose which mindfulness exercises are most

appropriate for different arousal states

2:30-5 Integrating mindfulness practice into daily life during uncertain times

6:30-8:30 Summary and Closing

SATURDAY

Practice, breakfast, and depart

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ABOUT THE TEACHERS:

The teachers are board members of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, a non-profit organization in Boston, which offers seminars, courses, retreats and a certificate program for mental health professionals. They are contributing authors to Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, a best selling text in its second edition.

Bill Morgan, PsyD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Cambridge and Quincy MA. He is a founding board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and has participated in eight years of intensive retreats in the Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan schools of Buddhism during his forty years of meditation practice. He has led mindfulness retreats for mental health professionals for the past 20 years. Bill is both a personal and group meditation mentor for mental health professionals. His book, The Meditator’s Dilemma: An Innovative Approach to Overcoming Obstacles and Revitalizing Your Practice, was published by Shambhala in 2016.

Susan Morgan, CNS is a psychotherapist in Cambridge, MA. A long time Vipassana student, Susan recently completed a 4-year silent mindfulness meditation retreat along with her partner, Bill. She has co-led retreats for psychotherapists with Bill for the past 16 years. She is a meditation teacher for the IMP Certificate Program, teaches monthly intimate online meditation practice groups for psychotherapists, and consults to therapists interested in the interface of psychotherapy and meditation. Her teaching style is grounded in the practical. Lovingkindness (metta) and mindfulness of the body are integral to her teaching.

Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught for over 30 years. He is a long time student of mindfulness meditation who teaches internationally about mindfulness and psychotherapy and mind/body treatment while maintaining a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Dr. Siegel is author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems; coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain, coeditor of Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, and coauthor of a new guide for clinicians, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy.