Mindfulness and CBT - the Essentials

What will the event cover?

This introductory event will cover the key basics of mindfulness and mindful meditation. This will include issues such as: What is 'Mindfulness' and how can it help us in our everyday life? What evidence is there that it works and what are the practical techniques we can use straightaway to help us? We will explore how mindfulness not only helps us relax, but also how it can help us be alert to unhelpful self-critical thoughts and counter-productive behaviours. We also look at some of the myths surrounding mindfulness and find a practical, evidence-based approach which can be applied by anyone.

What is 'mindfulness'?

Mindfulness is essentially being aware directly of what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment. It can be very easy to 'lose touch' with the way our bodies are feeling and experiencing. We can become caught up in our automatic thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are sometimes driving our emotions and behaviour - often in unhelpful ways.

Is Mindfulness recognised as effective?

Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a way to treat people with low mood. Mindfulness has also been shown to be effective in addressing issues in relation to anxiety, stress, pain managment and general wellbeing. 

Mindfulness can be used to help us

• improve our self-awareness
• cope with unhelpful or upsetting thoughts
• become 'wiser' in relation to responding to our thoughts and feelings
• reduce stress and increase a sense of calmness
• generally help us be kinder, more compasionate and more forgiving towards ourselves.

What does minfulness meditation involve?

Mindfulness meditation typically involves involves sitting silently and paying attention to thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing or parts of the body, bringing your attention back whenever the mind starts to wander. This management of attention wandering lies at the heart of the more effective forms of mindfulness.

Who is facilitating the event?

Professor Patrick McGhee, FRSA, is a CBT therapist, psychologist and UK National Teaching Fellow. Educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford, he has completed CPD programmes at Harvard Business School and Ashridge. In 2017 he was a Visiting Fellow/Scholar at the universities of Cornell, Yale and MIT in the USA. He has taught, researched or practised in psychology and therapy for 30 years. His first post was a Research Fellow in Psychiatry and Psychology at St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London. He is the author of Thinking Psychologically (Palgrave) and co-editor of Accounting for Relationships (Methuen). He is an occasional columnist for the Guardian, the BBC and the Times Higher. He currently works in private practice in Greater Manchester. He has full accreditation from the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies.

Resources

A full set of slides, with extensive clickable links to free online resources, is sent free to all delegates after the event. This also includes references to key sources and further reading. Additionally, an anonymous summary of participant contributions is provided free of charge.

CPD

A CPD Certificate of Attendance confirming 1 hour CPD is available free to all delegates who attend.