About the Course

Relating to others is a fundamental aspect of our everyday lives, with family, friends, in the workplace and in our wider community. Our relationships can be a source of happiness when we feel connected to others, and a source of stress when miscommunication inevitably happens.

This eight week programme was developed as a collaborative effort between the Centre for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Metta Programs, established and guided by Gregory Kramer.

This secular programme is based on the meditation practice of Insight Dialogue and formatted in particular for those who have completed an eight-week mindfulness course. Building on the foundations of MBSR/MBCT, it enables participants to deepen their practice by bringing their experience of mindful presence more fully into relationship with others.

The online course consists of eight, two and a half hour sessions and a six-hour online retreat day.

The key learning points include:

• Develop skills for staying present when communicating online and offline
• Experience greater ease in relationships, with yourself and with others
• Deepen connection with others, including friends, family, and colleagues
• Recognise emotional and psychological patterns of reactivity in your interactions with others
• Increase relational confidence
• Work one-to-one with people, deepening your capacity for empathy

Relational mindfulness offers a bridge between our solitary meditation practice, and our relational lives. This course will teach you the meditative guidelines central to the practice of relational mindfulness and help you build skills that will support you in embodying a greater awareness in interactions with others.

We will work with carefully guided and timed contemplations, in pairs or in small groups, to enable participants to be able to observe the mental and emotional habits that are usually invisible to them in the flow of stressful, or even pleasant, communication. In this way, reactive patterns of communication become clearer, and thereby choices become available to communicate with greater skill. Ultimately our relationships can transform from a source of unhappiness to a source of enrichment, and even joy.

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Notes:

• It is a prerequisite for this course to have attended a MBSR/MBCT course, or have an established meditation practice. 

Computer Requirements:

• A PC, laptop, Macbook or tablet
• A webcam and microphone
• A stable internet connection
• A private space where you can be undisturbed
• Access to Zoom video conferencing - please note that there is no cost to download Zoom.

Resources:

• Read our blog article to learn more about the course  >> Teacher Interview <<
• If you have any questions, please see our  >> Frequently Asked Questions <<
• For international participants, please  >> Convert Timezone <<