I’d be interested in hearing about other MBSR instructors’ experiences in teaching an in-house Mindfulness course, maximum 2 hrs a week, for eight weeks. No Saturday offered because this course is offered during work time at an international organization.
What can be skipped from the MBSR protocol without losing the essentials?
What to call this shorter course–certainly not MBSR–Mindfulness Tools for Living?
Manolita Farolan Doise
Hi, Manolita! I remember you well from our first course together. I really enjoy your wonderful facebook page posts. It is possible (even probable) that senior teachers from the Center would not agree, but it is my opinion that the length of the class relates to the number of people participating. The times specified in the curriculum are based on the classes of 20-30 people that they get in their courses, and discussions/sharing demands more time to include everyone. Many of my classes have been 5-8 people, and 2 hours was more than enough to include everything in the curriculum. I have done larger classes for people who had advanced congestive heart failure, and shortened the class length to 1.5 hours because their endurance was so low (we did chair yoga). I never felt like we omitted any content or intention. I mostly found that I was just less long-winded in my introductions, and some of the in-class practice sessions were trimmed in length. I think I called it something like “Stress Reduction through Mindfulness”. Attendants from your corporate setting can still be invited to future retreats with your other participants. I wish you the best in your endeavor!
Dear Julie,
Thank you so much for your very helpful reply. I’ll bear that in mind when I meet the international org staff counselor next week–the number of people has a big impact on how much time the course takes.
This made me smile, ‘I mostly found that I was just less long-winded in my introductions, and some of the in-cl ass practice sessions were trimmed in length.’
It’ll be a challenge…especially as they cannot ask their staff to do the whole-day Saturday that is part of the regular MBSR.
So nice to hear from you! Isn’t it satisfying to teach MBSR? I am taking retirement as a psychotherapist next June, but I’ll continue teaching mindfulness.
May you teach loads more!
All the best,
Manolita