Mindfulness for Wellbeing
Mindfulness practice is a form of meditation that helps us to become more aware of our present moment-by-moment experiences with curiosity and kindness. By practising Mindfulness regularly we can develop a greater capacity to look after ourselves.
Upcoming courses:
Mindfulness for Cancer
Mindfulness for Menopause
Mindfulness for Health
How does Mindfulness help you?
Mindfulness practice can help you to:
Develop a renewed appreciation and enjoyment of everyday life
Understand and reduce your stress reactions
Enhance your ability to take care of yourself
NCIM runs three types of Mindfulness courses at different points in the year:
Mindfulness for Cancer
Mindfulness for the Menopause
Mindfulness for Health
Mindfulness for Cancer - Free courses in Bristol
The National Centre for Integrative Medicine, Penny Brohn UK and Macmillan Cancer Support are working in partnership to offer mindfulness-based cognitive therapy courses for people living with cancer and their supporters.
The courses are funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and have been created to support people experiencing stress, anxiety or low mood following a cancer diagnosis.
These courses have been designed specifically to address your unique needs and aim to help you:
- increase your ability to be aware in the present moment
- recognise and notice your own unique pattern of stress or anxiety
- learn ways of ‘being with’ your difficult or challenging internal experiences
- develop your coping skills so that you are more able to respond wisely to difficult internal and external experiences
NEXT COURSE DATES (Now online!)
Call 0117 370 1875 to pre-register for the free course, or email enquiries@ncim.org.uk
Mindfulness for Health
BREATHWORKS™ MINDFULNESS FOR HEALTH
An 8-week course for people living with pain and illness.
This highly-acclaimed course will introduce you to a range of simple but effective practices to help you relieve the pain, stress and suffering of living with a health condition and start to enjoy life again.
Clinical research shows that mindfulness practice can enhance the body’s natural healing systems, reduce fatigue and insomnia and substantially improve emotional health and wellbeing. Developed by Vidyamala Burch out of her own experience of living with the severe pain of spinal injury, the Breathworks programme has helped thousands of people worldwide to live well with pain and illness. You will learn to:
· Bring gentleness, kindness and ease to your body, just as it is right now
· Let go of unhelpful reactive patterns and respond wisely to the challenges of your health condition
· Balance your energy so that you can get more out of life
· Develop greater self-compassion and self-care
· Start enjoying life again, whatever your state of health
Sessions will include guided mindfulness meditation, gentle movement and short home practices to bring mindfulness into your daily life.
You will receive a copy of “Mindfulness for Health” and guided audio links to help you continue your practice at home between sessions.
Date: Launching January 2021!
Venue: online
Time: TBC
Cost: TBC
Course tutor: Chris Bowles has been teaching mindfulness since 2008 and is an accredited Breathworks™ teacher who has also studied mindfulness with Bangor and Exeter universities. She has worked extensively in the NHS & privately with people suffering from pain and illness, stress, depression & anxiety.
For details and to book your place, contact enquiries@ncim.org.uk or call 0117 – 370 1875.
You will be invited to a pre-course discussion with the course tutor to make sure the course is right for you.
Mindfulness for Menopause
WELLBEING IN THE MENOPAUSE: EMBRACING THE CHANGE
A 6-week course bringing together Integrative Medicine and Mindfulness, to help you manage your health and wellbeing and make a creative transition through the Menopause.
The course will include:
Week 1: Coming back to the body: Understanding the physiology of the menopause and how mindfulness can support you.
Week 2: Developing stability and resilience: Soothing the nervous system and developing mindfulness practice to ground and stabilise yourself: Gentle movement for overall wellbeing.
Week 3: Caring for yourself: Sleep and self-care: Mindfulness practices to cultivate kindness and self-compassion.
Week 4: Making skilful choices: Letting go of unhelpful reactive patterns: Integrative treatments to increase resilience.
Week 5: Nourishing yourself: Enjoying and savouring through the senses: Nutrition and healthy living during the menopause.
Week 6: Moving forward: Ongoing maintenance and nourishment: Developing an action plan for challenging times: Future choices and follow-up activities.
The course will include a full day retreat at a peaceful location, giving you time for self-care and reflection and to deepen your mindfulness practice.
Date: 12 November – 17 December 2020
Time: 6 – 8pm
Venue: online (Zoom)
Cost: £160, £140 as a Friend of NCIM
For further enquiries or to make a booking please email enquiries@ncim.org.uk or call 0117 370 1875.
Mindfulness for Stress Reduction
The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course offers you ways to reduce the impact of stress and anxiety.
This could be stress from outside pressures, or internal pressures, or connected with chronic health problems. We will use meditations, gentle movement and self-reflections to explore how the mind has a tendency to run on ‘automatic pilot’ and what happens as we let go of this, and how we can respond to the unavoidable difficulties that come along in life.
Evidence suggests MBSR can offer support in many situations including work stress, anxiety conditions, insomnia, and in chronic physical illness where it has been found to increase the quality of life, reduce anxiety and improve mood. For some people, it can also reduce pain, symptom severity and lower blood pressure.
NEXT COURSE DATES: TBC
Mindfulness for Depression
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is orientated to those people who have a history of recurrent depression.
Our MBCT course can help you:
Recognise the early warning signs of depression and your unique pattern of depression
Develop your capacity to be with difficult experiences compassionately and wisely
Enhance your ability to take care of yourself
Develop a renewed appreciation and enjoyment of everyday life
When undertaken between episodes of depression (when well), participation and engagement with the MBCT course has the been found to reduce the chances of a further episode by over 40% for the next 12 months, similar to the benefit of maintenance antidepressants.
It has been approved by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence who have recommended it as a method of relapse prevention.
NEXT COURSE DATES: TBC
What can you expect?
NCIM Mindfulness courses are conducted in small groups of 8 to 12 people.
They usually take place over eight weeks and include weekly sessions which last 2 – 2.5 hours, and offer a full meditation retreat day as well a follow-up session once the course has finished.
You will also be encouraged to do guided home practice during the course and will be provided with some helpful materials as well as links to other resources.
Our team of Mindfulness practitioners
NCIM Mindfulness Lead is Christine Bowles. We are also supported by Dr Julia Wallond and will be recruiting associate mindfulness practitioners to the team as our range of mindfulness courses grows.
Where are courses delivered?
NCIM will be delivering courses in a range of locations around Bristol and Bath.
COVID-19: During the current crisis, we are launching our courses online!
Prices
Our Mindfulness for Cancer courses are charitably funded and offered for free.
Some of our other courses may also be free to attend, though in some instances we may invite voluntary contributions or charge for the course in order to cover our costs.
Participation in our evening courses may have a cost – to be confirmed.
Chris Bowles
Chris Bowles has been teaching mindfulness courses to a wide population in the NHS and privately since 2008.
Having completed initial training with the University of Bangor Centre for Mindfulness, she went on to accreditation with Breathworks, an organisation specialising in mindfulness for people with chronic pain and physical health conditions.
Chris is also trained in psychological therapies and has worked extensively with people experiencing stress, anxiety and depression.