Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer

(MBCT-Ca)

Teacher Training LIVE Online

This is a specialist teacher training for mindfulness-based teachers currently working or interested in working with people with cancer (or those with life threatening illness). It takes place over 8 mornings which will give participants the opportunity to bring what they learn on the course into their work with clients and patients – and within their own everyday lives.

We will explore the values, practice and approach of mindfulness and cancer based on the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer (MBCT-Ca) program, that was developed by Trish Bartley, who will be leading this training. This is a unique opportunity to develop skills, inspiration and understanding and to connect with others working in psycho-oncology, cancer support, palliative care and other community, health and education contexts. It is offered to mindfulness-based teachers, who have already undertaken some basic mindfulness-based teacher training.

Overview

Over our time together, we will explore the intention, approach and unique aspects of the MBCT-Ca programme, paying particular attention
to:

• ways of adapting the core practices as they are guided for cancer participants.
• the short practices and processes that have been created within MBCT-Ca – that are highly relevant to one-to-one work and health care support.
• ways that we can emphasise and work with kindness and self compassion in our work.
• understanding the model that underpins MBCT-Ca – and the place of the four practice movements of Intention; Coming Back; Turning Towards; and Kindness.
• exploring the teaching implications of working with this population and how we can support ourselves as teachers.

The online training will use a variety of (mostly experiential) processes including:

• practice
• dialogue and inquiry in both peer groups and the large group
• discussion and reflection in small and large groups
• presentation

The training is based around the MBCT-Ca 8-week program curriculum that has been widely used in many parts of the world for over 15 years – and has been found to have the potential to reduce anxiety and low mood and improve well-being and life enjoyment in people with cancer. 

Trish is one of the founding members of the core training team and a senior teacher at the Mindfulness Network / Centre for Mindfulness, Research and Practice, Bangor University, UK.

She has been teaching Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer since 2001 and initially developed the programme with the help of Mark Williams and John Teasdale. She has taught hundreds of cancer patients and trained and supervised many mindfulness teachers from all over the world. 

She is the author of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer (2012) which was designed to be a handbook for mindfulness-based teachers working with people with cancer. She has also written Mindfulness: A Kindly Approach to Being with Cancer (2017), which is for people with cancer to work through in their own time.

More about Trish Bartley.

• Experiencing the program as a participant, in order to appreciate the themes and approaches that differ from other Mindfulness-base programs (MBPs). 
• Understanding the rationale for different aspects of the program and experiencing the curriculum exercises that are particular to this program (eg: The Sea of Reaction, The Seed of Reality, The Blob etc)
• Learning to guide brief practices (less than one minute) in a way that is fully embodied from the outset – and understanding how to introduce these into the program and include them in home practice – whilst emphasizing their significance and accessibility.
• Appreciating ways of leading the inquiry process that include the group and builds on processes that normalize and validate participants
• Learning about time scales for offering mindfulness to people with cancer and ways of safely recruiting, orienting, and recruiting participants.

Highly recommended and optional. Unless you have plans to train in MBCT-Ca - in which case both are required.

At the end of the four days, trainees will have learned a good deal about offering an 8-week course to people with cancer through:

• Their own experience of being taught the specifics of the MBCT-Ca program, understanding the formulation, and discussing the rationale for MBCT-Ca. 
• Practicing skills and understandings based on experiential learning with their peer group, in pairs and small groups, in break out rooms
• Discussions, presentations and didactic input in the large group

Trainees will leave the training with a sound understanding of their next steps in bringing this program to people with cancer in their area / country.