Mindfulness

Is stress a problem for you and do you want to deal with it seriously? This course follows the official international method developed by the founder of Mindfulness: Jon Kabat-Zinn. The course can help people who are known to experience relapses into depression, have chronic pain complaints or who are recovering from burn-out.

Mindfulness teaches you to reduce stress by training your attention span. By practising these skills daily, you will learn to be more mindful in life and develop attentiveness. This enables you to recognise and break your own thought and behavioural patterns. Mindfulness is thus a skill and a way of observing and thinking.

Please note you are required to practices for 45 minutes daily.

You will understand what Mindfulness is,

You will know the difference between ‘doing’ mode and ‘being’ mode,

You will understand how stress is created and by which factors,

You will understand what the stress response involves and what it triggers physically,

You will know the 8 factors that support the development of Mindfulness,

You will understand how thoughts work and in what ways you can change their influence,

You will have a good understanding of the aspects that contribute to a healthy lifestyle thanks to stress reduction,

You will understand how to integrate mindfulness into your daily life,

You will be able to perform the basic exercises body scan, sitting meditation, yoga, and walking meditation yourself.

The course has a 100% attendance requirement. The first lesson is mandatory and cannot be missed. If you miss 1 of the other lessons, you must do a substitute assignment. At the end of the course, you must hand in a reflection report. The course is part of electives and is worth two study credits.

You will be given a link to online exercises that you can download and use.

Make sure you can do the exercises in a quiet room where you can sit and possibly lie down. Loose, easy-fitting clothes are helpful, as are extra socks, a towel, or a blanket.

The first step before registering is the intake interview with a counsellor. Sometimes there are contra-indications on the basis of which participation is not (yet) desirable. The intake with the counsellor determines whether or not you can participate in the course.