Monday Evening 8 Week MBSR/MBCT with Erica Balfour
This 8 week programme will be delivered online via zoom and will explore what we mean by the term ‘stress’ and how it manifests in our personal lives and at work. Can mindfulness can support us in responding to the events in our lives in an authentic way? The programme promotes self-awareness, personal development and general wellbeing. We know we cannot avoid stressful experiences, as long as we are alive this is part of life. However, how we respond, how we view, how we interact with stressful events can make things potentially worse or can help us, to not only tolerate discomfort but to embrace a full life and even flourish.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in 1979. The course is suitable for those with prior meditation experience as well as those who have none. It introduces participants to different forms of mindfulness practice including sitting meditation, body awareness and gentle mindful movement. As the emphasis is on bringing mindful awareness into everyday life a commitment to daily home practice of about 45 minutes is required. At the end of the course participants should have acquired a set of practical tools that allow them to cope better with stress in the workplace and in their personal lives, through increased self-awareness, emotional and attention regulation.
The programme is suitable for anyone who encounters stress and wishes to respond to stress in life with more understanding and ease. It is not suitable if you are in the middle of an acute crisis.
There will be an individual orientation call with each participant before the start, to enable each person to ask questions and to make sure it’s the right time to partake in this highly experiential programme
Programme Aims
The practices in the programme aim to help the participant to:
● Use mindfulness techniques to relate differently to worry and feelings of anxiety and better manage stressful situations in both work and home life
● Become familiar with the workings of the mind, including the ways we avoid or get caught up in difficulties
● Sustain the practice of mindfulness as a self-care tool that can be integrated into their work and home life
● Explore ways of releasing ourselves from old habits of mind that increase anxiety levels
● Get in touch with a different way of knowing themselves and the world
● Reduce the impact of self-judgement and increase self-acceptance
● Be able to exercise greater choice in life
● Manage interpersonal conflict more effectively
● Experience improved feelings of self-worth and compassion for others
Programme Content
Participants will receive a programme handbook. The main intention of this programme is to offer experiential learning. There will be the opportunity during the training for participants to practice and experience mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques. As mindfulness training is primarily experiential in nature, the main ‘work’ of the course is done at home between classes. Participants will receive a weekly email summarising the content and practice instructions for that week plus meditation recordings. Participants are required to practice at home during the week for about 45 minutes per day.
Following the course there are ongoing weekly guided practice sessions open to everyone to join on a drop-in basis. We have found that this support can make a big difference in keeping up the practice. As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “we weave the parachute a little bit every day so that when we need it, it will actually hold us!”
Programme Certification
All participants who attend the programme fully will receive a Certificate of Completion in the “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Programme” from The Mindfulness Centre.
Testimonials
“I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude towards Erica for leading us through the 8 week MBSR program. I really felt a lot of warmth and compassion on both an individual and collective level. It was an experience that I hope will nurture my ability to be compassionate and caring towards myself and others even in stressful and less happy times. I thought the course was excellently structured and taught. The interaction with yourself and the other participants was invaluable to me at this time. I am sure the experience is very different when taught in a non remote environment but I still felt the benefits through Zoom.”
Pat – participant of online MBSR/MBCT programme
“Attending the course has been a completely new learning experience for me. Learning about myself this time, the learning that can be the most challenging of all but the learning that it is the most needed. Learning to know, support and heal myself in life. Thank you so much for guiding me through it and all your beautiful work Erica.”
“Thanks Erica for this 8 week MBSR course. I am constantly learning and it has really helped me with my practice to begin again and remembering the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness. It was really good to be part of this community at this time.”
“Thank you so much for your MBSR course. It was really wonderful and it was such a gorgeous group of people. It was great to have that support as I went through a difficult challenging time and to help me to respond better to the number hindrances that were arising in my practice.”
Facilitator
Erica Balfour
BSc (Environmental Science), Grad Dip Psychotherapy, Dip Counselling Skills, Dip in Mindfulness Based Interventions, Dip in Mindful Communication, Director of the Mindfulness Teacher's Association of Ireland.
Erica Balfour
Mindfulness Teacher, Supervisor, Course Co-ordinator for The Mindfulness Centre for Professional Training, Director of Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland.
Erica trained with the founders of The Mindfulness Centre for Professional Training in 2015 and is now a Course coordinator with the centre. She trained to teach Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). She trained also in Mindful Communication with Greenzone Institute in 2018 to lead groups. She is a supervisor and trained in MBI TAC. She is currently studying a MSc in Psychotherapy. She sits on the board for The Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland.
Mindfulness Training in the Workplace
Along with colleagues from the teaching team with The Mindfulness Centre , Erica facilitates online sessions and courses which are tailored mindfulness and compassion-based trainings using the latest researh and neuroscience designed for work places and organisations.
Therapeutic Approach
Erica has a HDip in psychotherapy and is currently undergoing a MSc in Psychotherapy and her understanding of the therapeutic relationship and developmental theory informs her mindfulness work.
Previous Experience
Erica has worked for many years in the eco-tourism industry followed by a number of years in banking. Working and understanding the culture in corporate organisations has been foundational in her application of mindfulness and compassion based intervention in the workplace.
Qualifications
BSc Hons, Environmental Science, University of Ulster
HDip Psychotherapy, University College Dublin
Certificate in Counselling, National College of Ireland
MBSR & MBCT teacher (Mindfulness Centre for Professional Training)
Supervision training
Diploma in Mindful Communication
paws.b teacher (Mindfulness in Schools Project)
Mindfulness Teaching and Training
I teach the following mindfulness courses:
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
I meet the requirements of the Good Practice Guidelines for Teaching Mindfulness-Based Courses published by the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland To view these, go to good practice guidelines
Personal Practice
I’ve had a personal meditation practice since 2010. My foundational practices are mindfulness, vipassana and compassion based and my practice is informed by embodied inquiry. I have regularly attended silent meditation retreats and I have one-to-one weekly guidance from an experienced supervisor when teaching 8 week courses.
Interests
Since childhood, Erica has found solace in nature and in particular wildflowers & trees. She is very interested in the nature of the human mind and has a particular interest in grief work and how this might play an key role in the way that we engage in social mindfulness with regards to biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. She is one of seven daughters and has three girls of her own and is very interested in how this practice can be used to support women with strong symptoms related to PMS, PMDD and perimemopause. She loves poetry, walking with her Tibetan Terrier in the woods and working with groups.