Please click on what interests you:
1. Online (with in-person day retreat) 8 Week Mindfulness Course January 2024
3. In-Person Mindfulness and Compassion Refresher Day Retreats 2024
4. Mindfulness Beyond the 8 Week Course Group
Online 8 Week Mindfulness Course - Calm Mind Open Heart
During these times of pronounced change and uncertainty, stability of mind and kindness of heart are perhaps even more important than ever. My participants have expressed their gratitude for having completed this course due to how it has better equipped them to meet this experience in particular and life generally with more wisdom and compassion.
Training in mindfulness, like anything needs to be consistent to bring results and that's what a structured eight week course, complete with group work and individual home practice is designed to do. It is perfect for those who are completely new and those looking to commit more to their current practice with the support of the course, the group and an instructor.
The course will provide you with the opportunity to learn a combination of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/Cognitive Therapy methods, through formal and informal practices that can be easily integrated into your daily life, including mindfulness of eating, breath, bodily sensations, sounds, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, movement and how to meet difficulty with kind awareness. The course also includes a number of other techniques and thought experiments that help support the process.
The Course will be supported by
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A weekly email and notes helping you explore and deepen you understanding of the themes covered in your weekly sessions. It will also include weekly Home Practice Guidance and Record Sheets to help you keep track of your progress.
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Online guided Audio Meditations to guide and support you in your home practice.
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Email support in between sessions with Cesare to discuss or elucidate any points emerging during your home practice.
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Certificate of completion (issued only if attendance is 75% or more)
Each of the eight sessions will cover a particular theme
1. Waking Up To Automatic Pilot
2. Living in Our Heads
3.Gathering the Scattered Mind
4. Recognising the Mind's Habits
5. Allowing and Letting Be
6.Thoughts Are Not Facts
7. Taking Care of Our Self
8. Maintaining and Deepening Practice
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Please note that this course includes a daily commitment of between 25 - 45 minutes of home practice in-between sessions based on your needs. The home practice elements are a core feature of these courses, enabling participants to become familiar with them and explore their cumulative benefits. Simply attending the taught components of these courses, although useful, wont allow for the complete experience and benefits the course is designed to provide, therefore it's important you feel that you can make the time.
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Prior to the start of the course there will be a questionnaire to assess prior experience and any physical and/or mental health needs, to be completed and returned as a prerequisite to being accepted onto the course and determine if it is right for you at this time.
Details
Venue
Online via the Zoom platform.
Times
Sessions will be between 2 and 2.5 hours and the start time will be of a Thursday evening from 7pm.
Dates
Thursdays, 18th, 25th January, 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th February, 7th March
In-Person Silent Day Retreat
Sunday 3rd March, 10:00 - 4:30pm
St. Benedict's Centre, West Malling, Kent.
Personal Investment
£275 (FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLANS available, so please do get in touch as I would like to help accommodate you)
To book your place now, please follow the PayPal link HERE
OR
You can make a bank transfer (preferred). Please email for details, thank you.
If you have any questions at all regarding the course or payment, then please do get in touch.
*If your circumstances change:
If paying via payment plan or in full, then I can offer 100% refund of total payment made up to one month before the start of the course or 50% refund of total payment made up to two weeks before the start of the course.
Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) 8 Week Course
This course is a follow on course for those who have completed and worked with the methods from a foundational 8 Week Mindfulness Course, such as MBSR, MBCT, Breathworks course, or equivalent.
This course explicitly focuses on the cultivation of compassion for self and others and is different from the way the previous courses are designed and taught. It brings together teachings, knowledge and methods from Buddhism, evolutionary and social psychology, neuroscience and compassion focused therapy and is therefore very rich in its breadth, depth and what it can touch into for the practitioner.
It provides more flexibility and freedom to plot your own journey through it, based on what you need at the time. To this end, there is a larger menu of practices and exercise for you to choose from as you go. The official course booklet is complete with extensive notes, numerous handouts, a vast menu of audio guides, plus links and references for further reading and study.
I am a registered MBCL teacher, and I have been working with the curriculum and methods as a practitioner myself, with MBCL course participants, and with clients in my private counselling practice. I have noticed tangible shifts around how we relate to ourselves, life and others in a way that was only partially in focus until meeting the course, its approach and methods. Some parts can be challenging, but as one of our trainers and co-founder of MBCL, Erik van den Brink, explained, compassion only arises when we touch into suffering, which ultimately is heart opening and therefore transformative and liberating.
It is a privilege to be able to share this course and mindful compassion journey with as many mindfulness graduates as possible (whether you began your journey and training with me or elsewhere with someone else), because I know, like me, it will help deepen your practice of compassion and benefit your life and that of others.
The personal investment will be £275 for the course and an additional £20 for the official course booklet, complete with all notes, handouts, audio guide links and extensive references.
Details
Venue
Online via the Zoom platform.
Times
Sessions will be between 2 and 2.5 hours and the start time will be of a Thursday evening from 7pm.
Dates
September 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th and the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th October.
In-Person Silent Day Retreat
Sunday 20th October, 10:00 - 4:30pm
St. Benedict's Centre, West Malling, Kent.
Personal Investment
£275 (FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLANS available, so please do get in touch as I would like to help accommodate you)
To book your place now, please follow the PayPal link HERE (Bank transfer is preferred when possible to avoid the PayPal fees.)
OR
You can make a bank transfer (preferred). Please email for details, thank you.
If you have any questions at all regarding the course or payment, then please do get in touch.
*If your circumstances change:
If paying via payment plan or in full, then I can offer 100% refund of total payment made up to one month before the start of the course or 50% refund of total payment made up to two weeks before the start of the course.
In-Person Mindfulness and Compassion Refresher Day Retreats 2024
I am excited to continue these in-person Mindfulness and Compassion Refresher Day Retreats in 2024 for graduates of mindfulness and compassion courses.
These days are offered as a way to help us maintain and deepen our practice with the support of like minded people, the group energy of fellow practitioners and guidance.
We will continue our series of 2024 Mindfulness and Compassion Refresher Days with a day on cultivating Kind Awareness and Compassion, through remembering to recognise and rest in the BEING mode of mind and abiding in its non-judgemental kind presence via a number of mindfulness meditation practices.
We will also explore practices to help cultivate LOVING KINDNESS and COMPASSION for ourself and others, drawing from the Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) curriculum, which will be a good taster for those new to MBCL and a nice refresher for those familiar with it.
All in all we will see how Awareness plus Loving Kindness and Compassion practices help support each other.
The day will include group practice, inquiry, time to explore the beautiful grounds of St. Benedict's Centre and a period of silence.
Cultivating Kind Awareness and Compassion Mindfulness Refresher Day
Where
St. Benedict's Centre, Swan Street, West Malling, Kent, ME19 6JX
When
Sunday 28th April, 10:00am - 16:00pm
Refreshments
Teas, coffee and biscuits will be provided, but please bring a yoga mat, blanket and warm clothes, thank you.
Lunch
We will enjoy a bring and share lunch together.
(all food welcome but please label non vegan/vegetarian dishes, thank you)
Personal Investment
£60 (If it's helpful, you can pay £30 now to reserve your space and £30 before the day itself)
Payment
Please get in touch for bank details if you need them and/or email me to confirm your payment/booking once you have made payment, thank you.
Our last Mindfulness Refresher Day was very popular and spaces are limited, so please do not hesitate to book your space if you would like to attend, thank you.
I look forward to practising Kind Awareness and Compassion for self and others with you soon in the season of Spring!
Further 2024 Mindfulness Refresher Day Dates for your diaries
Sunday 21st July
Sunday 1st December
(More information to follow)
Mindfulness Beyond the 8 Week Course
Beyond the 8 Week Course Group
Many people have benefited from completing a Mindfulness course and the contemplative practices at the heart of them. However, in addition to those practices the course also included other helpful content, a useful structure, support from like minded participants and regular contact with a qualified and experienced mindfulness teacher. When the course ends, so too do the supports that helped guide, inspire and nurture one's practice during those weeks, often making it challenging to sustain practice and its daily benefits.
If that sounds familiar, then you are in good company because it is a common experience. In one way it is to be expected, as the 8 week course is only an introduction to a mindful way of being.
John Kabat-Zinn, the father of modern day mindfulness said, "Week 8 is the rest of your life!", so this group, under the guidance of Psychotherapist and Mindfulness Teacher Cesare Saguato, is designed to help further support you in your mindfulness journey after week 8 and beyond. It does so in the following ways:
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Inspiring and informative mindfulness posts in your facebook news feed
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Like minded community support through sharing and discussion
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Info about upcoming online and in-person Courses and Retreats
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Info about other mindfulness based opportunities from trusted providers
If you would like to join the Beyond the 8 Week Course group, then please see here, thank you.
If you have any questions or suggestions, then please do get in touch as we will be happy to hear from you!
Looking forward to connecting, sharing this space and practising together soon, Cesare.