Cultivating Compassionate Presence: An Intensive Retreat for Mental Health Professionals
Fri, Jul 24
|On-site event cancelled due to COVID-19
With Bill Morgan, PsyD, Susan Morgan, CNS and Chris Germer
Time & Location
Jul 24, 2020, 3:00 PM MDT – Jul 31, 2020, 10:00 AM MDT
On-site event cancelled due to COVID-19, Watch for online option!
About The Event
This on-site event at Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center is cancelled due to COVID-19. Watch for online option.
**Please note, this retreat registration is being held as a lottery. For those who wish to attend, please complete the lottery form by January 21st to be reviewed for a possible space on this retreat. For those who are invited to attend, we will email you by January 31st with a link to register and pay your deposit. If you are in need of financial assistance to attend, you will complete a scholarship application once you have been accepted and register for the retreat. If you are not accepted, you will be notified and placed on the waiting list for a possible opening.**
We are pleased to offer the 11th annual retreat for mental health professionals and caregivers at Vallecitos.
Many in our field have been studying mindfulness, compassion, and their clinical applications for years but have not found time for more intensive meditation practice. Others appreciate the opportunity to refresh their practice with like-minded colleagues. By deliberately stepping out of everyday life and into a retreat environment, the subtle habit patterns of heart and mind are more easily accessed, and awareness can begin to deepen.
This week we will study and practice a deeper interface of mindfulness, compassion and psychotherapy. Mindfulness interventions usually are aimed at stress management, reduced reactivity, and symptom reduction. These approaches fail to address the self-critical, self-defeating patterns of mind that limit the effectiveness of these applications. During this retreat we will combine the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional wellbeing. Through experiential exercises we will explore our typical responses to difficult situations that arise both in meditation and in our lives, and learn tools for becoming warm and supportive companions to ourselves.
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.
This is a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in an exquisite natural environment and work closely with leaders in the growing field of clinical mindfulness meditation and compassion. Every effort will be made by the teachers and staff to give each participant a delightful, educational retreat experience, so that you can return home with renewed enthusiasm for clinical work and for cultivating mindfulness and compassion in daily life.
20 CE units available to psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors.
COURSE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
7:30- 9:30 Course opening and overview
SATURDAY- TUESDAY & THURSDAY
9- 12 Mindfulness instruction, practice, discussion
2- 5 Didactic presentation and clinical discussion
6:30- 8:30 Clinical talk and mindfulness practice
WEDNESDAY
Silent Retreat Day: Mindfulness instruction and practice
FRIDAY
Breakfast and depart
PRICE: REGISTER on Vallecitos website
Vallecitos offers a sliding scale structure.
Prices for this retreat range from $715-$1065 (not including dana). This is a dana based retreat.
This program is sponsored by the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy:
meditationandpsychotherapy.org
CONTINUING EDUCATION 20 CE units available to psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors.
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.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Participants will utilize mindfulness and compassion practices in the service of being present and deepening therapeutic presence.
- Participants will be able to define the concept of self-compassion and identify misconceptions.
- Participants will learn to implement mindfulness and compassion-based interventions for chronic feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
- Participants will understand how the theory and practice of self-compassion relates to mindfulness.
- Participants will learn how to arouse compassion during the clinical hour to enhance empathic resonance.
- Participants will learn how to integrate simple mindfulness and self-compassion exercises into psychotherapy.