A DAY OF MINDFULNESS
TO  RECLAIM  JOY and REJUVENATE…RESTART…
REVITALIZE…REFRESH
YOUR  MINDFULNESS  PRACTICE

Saturday, August 20, 2011
at the
Shambhala Meditation Center
We will gather at 9:45,
begin silence at 10:00, end at 4:00.

During the day we will be enjoying periods of silent sitting
meditation and yoga and walking meditations

Please bring a lunch for your Mindful Meal.

This retreat is open to those who have some experience with meditation, especially the graduates of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction classes and/or the Mindfulness for Psychotherapists courses

$35.00 per person, pays your fee and holds your place.
Space is limited
Please register below before August 10
and mail your payment to:

Kaye H. Coker
1244 Clairmont Rd., Suite 106
Decatur, GA 3003

Contact me at 770-338-7463 for further information

Event Registration for A DAY OF MINDFULNESS -

This is a practice that can bring clarity, compassion and awareness into daily life and relationships. The meditations are done in pairs with another member of the class. Silent meditation, Loving kindness and Compassion meditations are interwoven with the listening and speaking meditations and regular re-centering in stillness.

Previous mindfulness meditation experience is required.

This class is available periodically.

This work with depression is designed to help you avoid relapse, not to treat acute depression. It is available on an individual basis or in small classses.

This is not a substitute for your therapy, but a supplement. Coordination with your therapist is part of the program.

This Mindfulness application helps to develop awareness of emotional hunger and its triggers and to cultivate an awareness of fullness or saity. Mindfulness skills can assist in learning to soothe one’s self in ways other than eating.

Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness is taught individually or in small groups over a 6-8 week period.

This is not another diet!

Eating Awareness is about self-knowledge, self-compassion, and moving beyond ingrained habits, unexamined thought processes and emotional reactivity.

Contact Mountain Heart Counseling to discuss individual instruction.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Classes meet at 1244 Clairmont Rd., Suite 106 at 5:30-7:30 on Mondays. The Retreat is on the Saturday following the 5th class, at Shambhala Meditation Center. The next course begins January 9, 2012
• The fee is $400, which includes the $100 deposit *Payment plans are available.
• Please call 770-338-7463  for information about the next Mindfulness course and to begin the registration process.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Veterans
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression
• Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness
• Interpersonal Mindfulness

The registration process for classes includes a conversation to discuss your needs and expectations and to answer any questions you may have. If you and I decide that the course is a good fit for you, fill out the information form and two questionnaires listed below. The questionnaires, which are filled out before the day of the first class and after the last class, give us information about your progress in the Mindfulness course. The DASS is a measure of depression, anxiety and stress, and the 5 Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire measures various measures of Mindfulness.

• Participant Information form
• DASS
• 5 Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

**Contact Mountain Heart Counseling for class details and information concerning corporate and workplace classes and workshops.

Mindfulness classes are for people who want to reduce their reactivity to all manner of stress and/or are dealing with chronic health problems. It is offered as a complement to medical and psychological treatment for stress-related disorders and chronic pain, not as an alternative.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction classes consist of 8 weekly 2-hour sessions. In addition to learning Mindfulness meditation, the class provides support for participants in fostering a daily Mindfulness practice, and discussion of ways to integrate Mindfulness into various aspects of every-day life. There is a silent retreat on a Saturday to help participants deepen their mindfulness practice. Participants discover ways of:

• Identifying habitual and reactive ways of handling stress and developing creative alternatives
• Using Mindfulness to process emotions with compassion and acceptance
• Fostering concentration and focus to calm and steady the mind
• Developing acceptance and compassion for oneself and others
• Using mindfulness to foster resourceful attitudes and beliefs
• Mindfulness in relationships
• Mindful eating
• Living life more fully and with more appreciation

Mindfulness is best understood through its practice. To benefit, participants are asked to commit themselves to practice mindfulness meditation from 20-45 minutes per day. Participants are coached to work with this commitment with gentleness and patience. Guided meditation CDs are included in the fee for the classes

To register for an upcoming 8-week class, please call Kaye Coker, LCSW, at 770-338-7463, or email mountainheartcounseling@gmail.com

Registration Forms

The foundation skill is Mindful Breathing

This involves merely sitting and paying attention to your breathing. Because the mind is naturally active, we have to bring our attention back to our breathing over and over. That’s why Mindfulness is a practice. Recognizing when we are engaged in thinking, snagged by stories about our thoughts, then bringing the attention back to the breathing is Mindfulness. As we learn this practice, we are allowing the development of concentration and the ability to focus on what is occurring in the present moment. Eventually we are able to note our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations as they are happening. And we can do this without judging. This is how we learn to be responsive, rather than reactive.

Another Mindfulness tool is the Body Scan

By scanning the body with the attention, starting with the toes, we learn to attend to the cues sent by the body. Many times our attention is caught by something the body is trying to communicate-maybe a pain, a position, a facial expression. There is a world of information in that flutter in the belly, the headache, the neck pain. The Body Scan allows us to pay attention, listen to what the body conveys, and to note the links with thought and emotion. These and other Mindfulness skills are taught in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, a series of 8 weekly, 90-minute classes and an all day retreat. Individual instruction is also available.

Client Information form

Checklist of Concerns

DASS

5 Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

to further define the issues for which you are seeking assistance. Please print and complete each form and bring them with you to the first appointment. If you have any difficulty with the forms, please call me so that I can mail them to you.

In addition, please review the Notice of Privacy Practices (HIPPA). I will ask that you sign a statement indicating that you have read it.

At the time of the first appointment, we discuss the issues for which you are seeking help. I will suggest ways in which we can proceed, and explain my approach to helping people so that you are so that you are fully informed and can agree to working with this approach.

Our first meeting will be an hour and a half, as we will be giving each other much basic information and planning the approach to the problems for which you are seeking help. Subsequent sessions will last one hour. I have found that the most effective therapy consists of regularly scheduled sessions, initially on a weekly basis, then less often as things begin to improve.

Changes in appointments should be made with as much advance notice as possible,as a sign of our mutual respect. Except for unpredictable emergencies, you are charged the regular fee if you miss or cancel an appointment without giving 24 hours advance notice.