Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy with Fiona O Donnell
This 8-week Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy course will be taught on-line using the Zoom platform. The group will meet every Wednesday from 5.30 -7.45pm and there will be a half day of practice on Saturday 27th February. Prior to the course Fiona will arrange an orientation phone call with you. As this is an intensive course in mindfulness and meditation it is important that you understand fully what will be involved. This call will help you to ascertain if it is the right course for you, and if it is the right time for you to do it. There is a home practice commitment of at least 40 minutes a day for the duration of the course. You will be given a handbook and guided audios to support you in your participation. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ground-breaking Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in 1979. MBCT includes elements from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and was initially designed to support people suffering from recurring depression from relapsing. Research indicates that MBCT is highly effective in preventing relapse in depression in those with 3 or more episodes, and where there is relapse the symptoms are not so severe and the episodes don’t last as long. Over the last 20 years MBCT has been adapted to meet a much broader range of needs – the ordinary stresses of everyday life, work, family and relationships (which can all be very stressful from time to time), anxiety, low mood, low self confidence, poor sleep, and so on. Mindfulness helps us to wake up to our present moment experience instead of being lost in the past, often in regret, or in the future, often in worry or obsessive planning.
Facilitator
Fiona O’Donnell
Masters in Mindfulness Based Approaches from Bangor University, Wales, UK
fiodonnellmindfulness@gmail.com
Fiona O’Donnell
Fiona O’Donnell has completed a 3 year Master’s degree in Mindfulness Based Approaches at Bangor University, Wales. She has also completed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher Training Levels 1 & 2 at Bangor University and is a trained teacher in Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) with The Centre for Mindful Self Compassion, California. Fiona has attended training in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, Oxford University. She has also completed the .b with the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MISP), Positive Neuroplasticity Professional Training with Dr Rick Hanson and Google’s ‘Search Inside Yourself’ Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Training with SIYLI. Fiona is a member of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (MTAI), the professional body for mindfulness teachers in Ireland.
Fiona has completed Level 1 training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with the Sensorimotor Institute, Colorado, USA and is registered as an MBCT Therapist on the International Access MBCT register.
Fiona is a Lecturer on the University College Dublin’s (UCD) M.Sc. in Mindfulness Based Interventions and a Teacher Trainer on The Mindfulness Centre’s Professional Diploma in Mindfulness (MBSR). She has a Masters in Applied Social Research from Trinity College Dublin and a Bachelor of Social Science from Queen’s University Belfast. Fiona is a qualified Reflexologist (ITEC/AOR) and is trained in Occupational First Aid.
Fiona offers mindfulness courses to people with low mood and anxiety, young people in addiction, alcohol and drug dependency and specializes in mindfulness in the work place and mindful self-compassion. She also teaches mindfulness 1-to-1. Fiona adheres to the Irish Good Practice Guidelines for Mindfulness Teachers and has participated in a number of intensive mindfulness retreats worldwide.
Fiona’s previous work experience includes several years in Children’s Services in Dublin’s North West Inner City, prior to working for The Atlantic Philanthropies which developed strategies and funding for Children & Youth, Education and Mental Health throughout Ireland.
“Rather than reducing my anxiety levels, this course taught me how to change the way I relate to anxiety… This course has turned my life around.”
Helena
Members of the Mindfulness Teachers Association Ireland