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Please contact Helen on helen.byrne@mac.com if you would like to avail of a concession. If you can offer a little more, there will be a donation box there on the day, or you can make an extra donation to Helen’s Revolut account. This allows others who may not be able to afford the day to participate. This has always been part of our ethos at The Mindfulness & Compassion Centre, that no one is excluded because they can’t afford it. We really appreciate your support in fulfilling this intention.
This Day of Mindfulness, in the lovely grounds of Marino Institute of Education (www.mie.ie), is an opportunity for us to put aside our usual busyness - or inertia - and practice mindfully being with ourselves in a supportive community and environment. Suitable for anyone who has completed an 8 week mindfulness-based course (MBSR, MBCT, MSC etc.) or who has done a day-long retreat before.
The day retreat is part of my current 8 week MBSR/MBCT programme. You are very welcome to join us and gain support for your own connection to yourself via your practice, and at the same time offer support to others. If you have 'fallen off the meditation wagon' this may be exactly what you need to kick-start a new beginning.
We will be practicing all of the practices from the 8 week MBSR/MBCT course - the body scan, sitting meditation, mindful movement, walking meditation, eating meditation, and a few others, and the invitation is to make the whole day a seamless period of practice, with no outside interruptions, as best you can. You are invited to put the phone away for the day. If you want to be really brave, you can put your phone in an envelope and put your name on it and hand it over to me for the day! I will have some envelopes and a basket for this purpose!
What to Bring:
* Please wear comfortable clothes suitable for lying down, sitting and mindful movement as well as a few layers so that we can walk outside, even if it is wet and windy! This is Ireland.
* Please bring a yoga mat for lying down and mindful movement practices, as well as a cushion or stool for sitting, if you would like. There will be plenty of chairs in the room if you would rather use a chair. I will have a few spare mats, cushions and stools, but it is best to bring your own to be sure.
* It can also be comforting - and warm - to have a blanket to put over yourself for the lying down practices. Again, I will have a few with me, but not enough to go around, so it is a great help if you could bring your own along.
* Bring a packed lunch and whatever you would like to drink - perhaps a flask of tea or coffee, as well as some water.
I am looking forward to welcoming you to this day of contemplation and mindfulness practice in leafy Marino! If you have any questions please do email me.
M.A. Mindfulness-Based Approaches (Bangor University), H.Dip. Ed., Post-Grad. Dip. Psych., Member PSI.
Helen worked as a post primary school teacher from 1980 to 2019. She worked mainly in the Community and Comprehensive school sector, in the area of learning support. She was a member of the Visiting Teacher Service to the Traveller Community from 1997-2007.
Helen trained as Systemic and Family Therapist with The Clanwilliam Institute in the ’90s, while also completing a post-graduate Diploma in Psychology. She is a member of the PSI.
Over the years, Helen took time away from teaching and worked in various education-related capacities in Australia and the U.K.. She also worked in the community and voluntary sector, spending time as a project manager for people in recovery from addiction in the Fingal Centre, an ICTU Centre for the Unemployed in Finglas, where she also spent a year as Acting Centre Director. She also worked in second chance education with the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU).
In addition to her Masters studies at Bangor University, Helen completed all trainings and supervision with senior teachers including Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of MBSR and Saki Santorelli, Melissa Blacker, Florence Meleo Meyer and Pam Erdmann at the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) at The University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where this part of the modern mindfulness movement began!
Helen trained in mindfulness supervision with the late Cindy Cooper at Bangor University and has been supervising teachers since 2015. She also trained in teaching Mindful Self Compassion with the founders of the programme, Dr Chris Germer and Dr Kristen Neff. Helen has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1997 and teaching them since 2004.
Helen was part of the team that developed the M.Sc. programme in Mindfulness-based Interventions within the School of Psychology in UCD, and she has been a senior lecturer on the programme since its inception in September 2014.
Helen and Josephine Lynch co-founded what was to grow into the Mindfulness Centre in 2008. They have been bringing international teachers to Ireland to lead CPD and retreats for Irish mindfulness teachers and teacher trainees since 2008. Through this work, she and Josephine were part of the group which spearheaded the development of the professional body for mindfulness teachers in Ireland, the MTAI (www.mtai.ie), formally established in February 2018. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only such national professional body for mindfulness teachers in the world. She is still involved with the MTAI, supports its work and adheres to its Standards for Good Practice.
Since 2015 Josephine and Helen have invited world renowned Dharma teachers to lead a 6-7 day residential retreat in Ireland every year. These include Christina Feldman, John Peacock, Akincano Weber, Bernat Font and Gerit Stöcklmair from The Bodhi College and Melissa Blacker Roshi, ex CFM UMass and now Abbott of Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester Massachusetts with her husband David Rynick Roshi. In 2024 we hope to host Christoph Köck and Jaya Rudgard, also from the faculty of The Bodhi College, for a 6 day mindfulness residential retreat in Castletown, Co Laois. The dates are 11th - 17th August.
Helen continues to deepen her personal practice and understanding of the power of living more mindfully with regular attendance at retreats and trainings led by world-renowned teachers including Christina Feldman, John Peacock, Akincano Weber, Stephen and Martine Batchelor, Christoph Köck, Jaya Rudgard and other teachers at The Bodhi College and has attended retreats led by John Teasdale, Melissa Blacker, Sharon Salzberg and the late Thich Nhat Hanh, among others. She participated in 2 x 2-year programmes in Buddhist Psychology with the Bodhi College, the first in 2012-2014, and the second ran from December 2021 until September 2023.
Helen teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction / Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness Yoga and Mindful Movement.
