Workshop with David Elias

North Wales Border – Glyndwr University, Wrexham                            

14^th May 2011, 10.00am – 4.30pm

Mindfulness can be described as ‘cultivating present moment, non-judgemental awareness.’ It is a quality central to Buddhism which, in the last 25 years, has been developed into a number of secular and pragmatic clinical approaches for both mental and physical health.

Two key aspects of mindfulness are that it is both body-centred and attitudinal – ‘awareness with attitude’ you might call it. Bringing body-centred awareness and compassionate, non-fixing attitudes together as ‘embodied presence’ in relationship with another can be deeply affirming and potentially healing. As we become personally more practiced at this inner stance within relationships we can move towards actively facilitating a body-centred, compassionate curiosity with our clients.

The intention of this workshop is to provide an experiential taste of the potential for embodied presence to affirm and heal within all our relationships, including with our clients. It will provide opportunities for learning through meditation, exercises, investigative dialogue, information sharing and discussion. This workshop is suitable for people with no previous experience of mindfulness as well as more experienced practitioners.

David Elias works as a psychotherapist and counsellor both in private practice and in the NHS. His orientation is generally humanistic, having trained in TA and the Person-Centred Approach as well as being influenced by mindfulness. He is a trainer with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Pratcise at the University of Bangor and has taught on their Masters programme for the last 5 years. David teaches mindfulness in various group settings and one-to-one in his therapist/counsellor settings, including in the NHS. He has had a daily personal meditation practice for 19 years and is particularly interested in the overlap and integration of meditation and therapy.

 David’s first career was in wildlife conservation and He is deeply committed to environmental issues including the use of mindfulness to raise awareness about the state of our planet. As David explains “All of these activities are integrated by my personal commitment 'see more clearly and act more kindly' throughout my life.”

Cost £85.00/ concessions including students and volunteers £70.00

Please bring your own lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided.

Ffynnon Personal and Professional Development,

PO Box 246, Oswestry, SY10 1ED.

Website: www.ffynnonppd.co.uk

Email: info@ffynnonppd.co.uk

Telephone: 0560 3318946.