Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Retreats

Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) is a 5-day course integrating empirically supported interventions from Dr. Alan Marlatt's Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT), Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and Zindel Segal and colleagues’ Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This program was specifically created for clients in recovery from substance use disorders, and is designed to prevent relapse for those who have undergone inpatient or intensive outpatient treatment.

The MBRP curriculum integrates mindfulness meditation practices with cognitive-behavioral strategies to support clients’ recovery. The MBRP skills help participants learn to recognize and stay with discomfort (physical, cognitive and emotional) as opposed to reactively reaching for a “fix.” Combining mindfulness and relapse prevention cultivates heightened awareness of both internal and external triggers, while promoting vital lifestyle modifications for a healthy life of recovery. The MBRP program and its principles of treatment require an experiential understanding of mindfulness meditation practices. Therefore, it is essential for clinicians who facilitate MBRP groups to have their own daily mindfulness meditation practice, and endeavor to embody the principles they teach.

Training

Leading the training will be MBRP developers and clinicians Sarah Bowen, Ph.D., Neha Chawla, Ph.D. and Zayda Vallejo, M.Litt. The goal of the training is to provide a dynamic, experiential and didactic learning environment to equip participants with the necessary skills for successful delivery of the MBRP program. Using demonstration, role-play, simulated exercises, inquiry and discussion, we will cover the themes, material, and exercises included in each of the eight MBRP sessions. Throughout the training, attention will be brought to deepening the clinician’s own mindfulness practice through daily sitting and walking meditations, yoga/mindful movement and a day of silent retreat.

Registration will be limited to ensure time for personalized training in teaching MBRP practices.

Objectives

At the completion of this activity, the participants should be able to:

Demonstrate an intellectual and experiential understanding of the MBRP principles and the role of mindfulness in relapse prevention
Define and describe the integration of RPT and mindfulness techniques
Practice, lead and inquire the core MBRP exercises
Effectively lead the MBRP mindfulness meditation and mindful movement practices
Recognize and describe clinical and logistical issues that arise in leading MBRP courses
Develop and/or deepen their own mindfulness meditation practice through formal periods of practice and mindfulness as a mode of being in daily life and appreciate the necessity of personal practice for successful delivery of this treatment modality

Target Audience

This 5-day intensive workshop is intended for mental health professionals wishing to expand their practice to include MBRP and mindfulness-related practices. Those in attendance should be either licensed clinicians in a mental health field, clinicians-in-training, or interested professionals who do not intend to deliver the intervention directly but have other professional interests in the topic (i.e. researchers, administrators, etc.). All participants should have at least a modest regular meditation practice and an established practice is preferred.

Participant Guidelines

It is our experience that successful delivery of MBRP requires facilitators to have a commitment to an ongoing, daily mindfulness meditation practice. To this end we have created recommendations for acceptance to this MBRP training.

Advanced degree in mental health-related field (e.g., psychology, social work or counseling)
Prior training in Vipassana or Insight Meditation and a personal commitment to and well-established daily meditation practice
Familiarity with cognitive behavioral therapy techniques
Experience with and an understanding of models of addictive behavior
Experience facilitating group process
Prior or future attendance at a minimum of one silent, teacher-led 5-10 day residential mindfulness meditation retreat

Needs Assessment

The utilization of mindfulness in a clinical context is a burgeoning area of study and practice in the mental health field in the past few years. The number of research articles, books and popular press articles on the topic is growing exponentially each year and the demand for quality professional training in these practices and techniques is growing each year. This training has been offered in the past three years through the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, with increasing enrollments each year, as well as at other sites across the country and around the world.