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About the Pre-Course Orientation
Once your deposit has been received and as it gets closer to the start date of the course, Josephine will contact you to arrange a one to one orientation Zoom call. This is to give you a chance to meet each other, to inform you about what to expect from the course and to make sure this is a suitable time for you to participate. At the end of this conversation you can decide together whether or not to proceed. As MBSR is an intensive course and at times can be challenging, it is our ethical responsibility to set this time aside to link up and have this discussion with you.
If you decide not to go ahead during this call, your deposit will be refunded in full.
Click “Book Now” below to pay your €100 Deposit.
You will receive confirmation by email. Josephine will contact you before the course begins to to arrange the orientation .
We meet at 10am each Thursday and finish at 12:30pm. There is no class on the 16th Feb 2023.
The course is suitable for those with prior meditation experience as well as those who have none.
You are asked to make a commitment to daily home practice of around thirty to forty-five minutes per day for the duration of the course.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979 for patients living with chronic pain originally and then adapted for all kinds of stressors.
Programme Content
In this MBSR course we will explore what we mean by the term ‘stress’ and how it manifests in our lives. We will explore the ways in which mindfulness can support us in responding to the events in our lives rather than being caught up in reactivity - how can we pause in the midst of the everything that is demanding our attention and tune into what is actually happening within and around us, and thus afford ourselves the opportunity to respond in more helpful ways. The programme promotes the development of self-awareness and general well-being. Stress is part of life, we cannot avoid it. We are encouraged to acknowledge life as it is, with all its joys and sorrows, and thus live more fully, with whatever is here.
We practice different forms of mindfulness practice including sitting meditation, the body scan gentle mindful movement and walking meditation. The emphasis is on bringing mindful awareness into everyday life.
Participants will receive a programme handbook in the post to support learning and a weekly email summarising the content and practice instructions for that week, plus guided meditation recordings.
When the course finishes there are online meditation groups you can join. This support can make a big difference to keeping up practice so that when we experience stressful times in our lives it is there to support us.
Programme Aims
The programme aims to help us to:
● Use mindfulness to relate in healthier ways to chronic pain, worry and feelings of anxiety and to better manage stressful situations in both work/home life
● Become familiar with the workings of the mind, including the ways we avoid or get caught up in difficulties
● Sustain the practice of mindfulness as a self-care tool that can be integrated into our work and home life
● Explore ways of releasing ourselves from old habits of mind that increase anxiety levels
● Get in touch with a different way of knowing ourselves and the world
● Recognise the harshness of self-judgement and develop self-acceptance
● Be able to exercise greater choice in life
● Manage interpersonal relationships and conflict more effectively
● Experience improved feelings of self-worth and compassion for ourselves and for others
Programme Certification
Participants who attend the programme fully will receive a Certificate of Completion in the “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Programme” from The Mindfulness Centre, on request.
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M.A. in Teaching Mindfulness-Based Approaches, Bangor University, Wales
Josephine Lynch, M.A. Mindfulness-based Approaches (Bangor University), Lic. Ac., Dip. Herbal Medicine, has also gained the Certificate of Competence to Teach Mindfulness-Based Courses from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. She completed a two year programme with the Bodhi College in early Buddhist Psychology and its influence on contemporary practice. She is also a qualified to offer supervision to mindfulness teachers.
Josephine was among the first people to bring the teaching of mindfulness in the tradition of Jon Kabat-Zinn to Ireland and has been teaching MBSR/MBCT since 2005. She also teaches Mindful Self-Compassion and, having undergone a period of intensive supervision, and has completed all requirements to become a fully certified teacher of the Mindful Self-Compassion program as outlined by the Center for Mindful Self Compassion. Josephine was part of the team that brought the world renowned Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh to Ireland in 2012.
Josephine is one of the core team of teachers on the M.Sc. in Mindfulness-Based Interventions in UCD and had been involved in programme development and delivery since its inception in 2014.
Josephine’s background is in Mind / Body Medicine and she has worked most of her life using acupuncture, shiatsu and herbal medicine to foster mind / body wellbeing. She was involved in developing and working with Sláinte Pobal in Dublin in the 1990’s, an initiative to bring courses in health education into areas of socio economic disadvantage.
Josephine was one of the founder members of the professional body, the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (MTAI.ie) which represents mindfulness teachers in Ireland and was its first chairperson from February 2018 until October 2020. She has been organizing CPD for mindfulness teachers and teacher trainees since 2008, fostering and supporting the development of a strong community of mindfulness teachers in Ireland.
Josephine is one of the founders of The Mindfulness Centre (mindfulness.ie, 2008), and she is co-director of the 18-month Professional Mindfulness Teacher Training programme which the Centre has been running since 2015.
