Dates: April 13 – 14, 2019; 10:00am – 4:30pm
Sliding Scale: $150 – 400. Code SB1M19.
11 CE credits available for $110, for psychologists and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors.

Description:
The premise that happiness, and freedom from suffering, is the direct reflection of the absence of negativity and ill-will in the mind is the basis of this weekend retreat. Meditation practices cultivating equanimity, goodwill, compassion, empathic joy, and kind-heartedness will alternate with didactic teachings linking these “sublime states” to the development of wisdom.

The retreat will include Dharma explanations, guided meditation, and Q&A opportunities. The non-residential structure of this retreat will provide a real-life laboratory for practicing the skills of balancing and awakening the heart in daily life.

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Care providers will be able to strengthen their personal commitment to a clear and balanced mind that is therapeutic for themselves and their clients, and expedites the therapeutic alliance. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• List at least three scientifically validated benefits of mindful practices for health care professionals that may result in improved patient care;
• Incorporate mindfulness of breath practices to develop presence moment awareness, and to calm the mind in preparation for, and when working with clients;
• Utilize, and describe to clients, two mindfulness practice that may be used to reduce stress and suffering;
• Identify three practices of cultivating mindful self-compassion to shift the functioning of the brain from contraction, reactivity, and negativity to openness and the larger perspective;
• Incorporate self-compassion practices in stressful situations, in ways that may improve patient care and reduce emotional exhaustion;
• Integrate compassion practice with clients to work with reactive mind states;
• Demonstrate how to use a self-compassion break, in ways that improve patient care and prevent compassion fatigue;
• Integrate the principles of equanimity and compassion for meeting stress, pain and burnout with kindness and wisdom;
• Describe two meditation techniques for cultivating joy, that may be used in a professional setting to reducing emotional exhaustion;
• Identify the barriers to experiencing joy, and describe to clients practices to cultivate sympathetic joy.

Continuing Education content level: Introductory