THE MINDFUL MEDICINE COURSE – Complimentary Approaches to Pain Management –  Cape Town – 23-24 Oct 2015-

Full fees; R2200, Early Bird R2000

Course time : 2-8pm on day 1 and 9-5pm on day 2.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally.” – Jon Kabat Zin.

We all have experienced patients struggling with chronic pain that come to us in need of tools to manage their condition.
Complimentary medicine is becoming mainstream and many of our clients flock to dubious therapies in the management of their conditions. As health practitioners and therapists we are uniquely placed to integrate the latest complementary medicine into a scientific approach to wellness.

Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is a well-researched modality that is of great aid to our patients struggling with chronic pain and anxiety. It has been shown to be of benefit for everything from HIV progression, breast cancer, heart disease and fibromyalgia, to name a few. The pioneer of this approach is Jon Kabat-Zinn who has developed professional programs for applying meditation principles in a medical research-based approach to chronic conditions (1,2).

Vidyamala Burch (3) has furthered his work focusing on chronic pain and stress management through mindfulness and runs a successful intervention program called breathworks (she herself has chronic unrelenting back pain for the past 20 years and draws extensively from her own experience).

Let us break down what we mean by the quote above. Paying attention is the focus of awareness on breath, body sensation or pain as examples. The particular way and purpose is to create a relationship to the object of mindfulness meditation, in the case of a chronic pain patient we are asking them to be with their pain or be curious about their pain rather than fighting against it. The present moment is our anchor point; many patients are filled with fear of future pain or disability or are ruminating about the past when they were pain-free. The crux of mindfulness based stress reduction is to do all of this non-judgmentally; we are teaching our patients a valuable tool for living with their pain and giving it space in their lives.

Mindfulness is about empowering our patients to work with their stress, pain and life in a way that fosters a relationship to their lives as it is. Mindfulness is no quick fix but even just an introduction to mindful breathing and somatic integration can have lasting effects on your clients’ neurophysiology. There is much promising research that even interventions done over a short period will help. The basics of the practice are mindfulness of breath, body sensations (or body scan), mindful movement/yoga. With most body-mind therapies the first access point is the breath – rooted always in the present moment and providing easy access to our autonomic nervous system and able to influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Mindful medicine will also focus on practitioner presence and its valuable effect on treatment. There will be instruction on how to work on your own internal state as a therapist to become a biological fulcrum that your clients can orient with during treatment.

Topics Covered:
Day 1
• Integral approach to wellness
• What does the research say
• Mindful breath (practical)
• Towards mindful medicine – old/new paradigms
• Inner smile (practical)
• Epigenetics
• Body scan and dialogue (practical)
• Pain and the body
• Somatic integration (practical)
• Fascia and interoception
• Letting go into posture (practical)

Day 2:
• Awakening the mover (practical)
• Practitioner presence
• Practitioner presence (practical)
• Leading through presence (practical)
• Therapeutic applications
• Making up a practice (practical)
• Mindful movement (practical)
• Scope of practice, ethics and referral
• Full embodiment sequence (practical)
A cd with 9 guided exercises in mp4 format as well as written out transcripts  are given at the end of the course, to use with your clients.

How To Book This Course:

• Step 1: Create an account; register your details here or click on the ‘My Profile’ button on the top menu: we need your details in order to reserve your seat and email you the preliminary materials for the course – ps; please note that registering your details does not book you onto the course – you need to follow step 2 below.

• Step 2: Book your place; Once you have registered your details, come back to this DN webpage to submit your booking below and choose your payment method; to book, click on the Submit button below.

• Step 3: Choose and make your payment method below; Payment by Bank Transfer: If you wish to pay via a bank transfer, simply follow the payment details on the proforma invoice that has been emailed to you now that you have made your booking. Payment by PayPal or Credit Card: Click the “Buy Now” Paypal button above to pay via PayPal or Credit Card. You are now booked and will receive a confirmation email shortly!

View the course times:

• Day 1: 2:00pm – 8:00pm
• Day 2: 9:00am – 5:00pm