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Dates:
The course will run from 3rd September to 22nd October 2024.
Who is for?
For mindfulness teachers, teacher trainees and anyone with an interest in Buddhist Psychology and how it intersects with neuroscience and Western psychology. Alistair invites us to join with him in exploring the core text of the Buddha on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness - the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta - in the light of what we now know about the mind through neuroscience.
This text is the main teaching of the Buddha's underlying the modern mindfulness movement. It is sometimes called 'the Four Ways of Establishing Mindfulness,' or more recently some scholars are referring to it as 'the Four Fields of Mindfulness,' and it encompasses all of our experience as embodied human beings.
Draft Course Outline:
Week 1: Introduction to the Buddha's teaching on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness - the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
Week 2: Mindfulness of the body, including the neuroscience of somatic awareness
Week 3. Mindfulness of feeling tone, the affective aspect of our experience as embodied beings
Week 4. Mindfulness of mind and heart - the dopamine story
Week 5. Mindfulness of thoughts & the nature of self
Week 6. Mindfulness of the Hindrances - how we create our prison
Week 7. Mindfulness of the Awakening Factors - finding liberation
Week 8. Conclusion
If you have questions about any aspect of this course please email info@mindfulness.ie. We look forward to welcoming Alistair to lead this course and we look forward to welcoming you to join us in this exploration of the meeting of ancient wisdom and modern psychology.
Alistair is a consultant psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatry in Scotland. He has worked as a Consultant Community Psychiatrist within the National Health Service for almost thirty years.
During this time, he completed his training in Cognitive Therapy at Oxford University and graduated with a MSc in Mindfulness Based Approaches with the University of Bangor in 2011. He has also trained in Trauma-Focused CBT, Sensory-Motor Psychotherapy and Eye Movement De-Sensitisation Rationale in order to deliver care for those experiencing symptoms of trauma. Alistair works with Combat Stress, a charity providing support to UK veterans experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
His MD is on evoked potentials and his clinically researched programme was on activation patterns of the amygdala using fMRI in trauma and response to treatment.
Alistair has a long history of delivering MBCT within mental health services in and around Glasgow. He has delivered mindfulness sessions to medical staff and workshops on Mindful Approaches to Trauma in London, Dublin and at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, where Jon Kabat-Zinn founded MBSR. He is currently engaged in a series of research projects evaluating the feasibility of Mindfulness Based Approaches in a variety of settings including Oncology, Addiction and Trauma.