The Dublin Regional Committee

Present a workshop entitled:

\"Complicated Grief & Mindfulness\"

Presenter Bio: Ms.Ursula Bates M.A. (Reg. Psychol) Group Analyst (Lond.) ICP Psychoanalytic section, Mindfulness teacher and principal clinical psychologist, is Head of Psychology at Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services Dublin. Recent publications include The CANSURVIROR Project: Meeting the Post – Treatment Cancer Survivors’ Needs HSE 2010. She is a contributing author in Palliative Medicine Elsevier 2009 and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer Wiley 2011.

Workshop Outline: Research has shown that training in mindfulness-based techniques improved mood and reduced stress in a wide variety of populations.  The standardised 8-week MBSR program is effective in reducing psychological symptoms in patients with anxiety ( Kabat-Zinn et al 1992 ) and pain ( Kabat-Zinn 1985).  Boelen who has undertaken considerable research on the factors that maintain a complicated grief reaction, noted avoidance and rumination as key factors, and the light of this he recommended the exploratory use of Mindfulness.    

In 2010 the Blackrock Hospice was awarded the Theresa Brady Fellowship by the Irish Hospice Foundation to investigate the possible benefits of Mindfulness interventions for people suffering from prolonged or complicated grief. In 2011/12 the service offered Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy groups and successfully reduced their levels of grief. This workshop aims to explore the experience of grief, case formulate and apply the mindfulness based cognitive therapy exercises of the program.

Training Level: Intermediate 

CPD certificates will be emailed to participants after attendance at the Workshop.