Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Retreats

Have all the changes in education added more stress to your life? Mindfulness is the quality of being fully aware of present moment experience. This experiential workshop introduces teachers to practices that cultivate mindfulness in daily living with the goal of practicing self-care in both personal and professional settings. Participants will gain insight into patterns of stress reactivity and their impact in the classroom and cultivate skills in responding to stressful situations with greater awareness to reduce the negative effects of stress reactivity. This workshop is a complement to the UCSD mindfulness in education program "Tuning In", which is already in place in some San Diego schools. Mindfulness offers both teachers and students an opportunity to build greater emotional resilience, effectively attend to distress and creatively enhance the learning process.

Objectives

In this workshop, teachers will learn how to:

Practice mindfulness strategies and techniques
Practice self-care on and off the job
Apply mindfulness and self-care in daily activities, such as eating, walking, and moving
Integrate mindfulness into interactions with students, colleagues, family, and friends
Improve ability to cope with short- and long-term stressful situations
Implement brief mindfulness practices in the classroom with students as a means of coping with anxiety, distraction and stress

Faculty

Lorraine M. Hobbs, M.A., CHom.
Senior MBSR Teacher

Lorraine M. Hobbs, M.S., CHom., received her training at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness under the supervision of Dr. Steve Hickman. She has served as clinical director of in-patient and residential treatment programs, where she worked extensively with teens and their families. Her interest in integrative medicine and in the growing research on the consequences of stress and children inspired her to create a six week Stress Reduction for Teens program at the Center for Mindfulness and to collaborate with a colleague in developing a Mindful Parent program. Her desire to reach a larger population and to teach mindfulness practice as a way of enhancing the learning process encouraged Lorraine to begin working with schools to implement a six-to-eight week mindfulness-based curriculum, where she also teaches mindfulness practices to faculty and staff. Lorraine lectures on the efficacy of MBSR and mindfulness with teens in the community. She is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher and teaches yoga throughout the city. She is a homeopathic practitioner and practices part time.

Amy Holte, PhD, MEd
Senior MBSR Teacher

Amy Holte, Ph.D.,M.Ed. has been a meditation practitioner since 1997 and has been teaching mindfulness techniques for health, stress-reduction, and well being since 1999. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin where she completed her doctoral research on meditation and the brain in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in East West Biopsychology, and a M.Ed. in Human Development and Education. Dr. Holte is the Director of Mind-Body Medicine and Team Leader of the Functional Restoration Program at The Center for Orthopedic Care in San Diego where she teaches mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and tai chi in her work with chronic pain patients.

Livia Walsh, RN, LMFT
MBSR Teacher

Livia Walsh is a nurse and licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Encinitas, California. She developed an interest and pursued training in the area of holistic/integrative health including mindfulness over her 30 plus years of professional practice. She completed the MBSR training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Omega Institute under the direction of Jon Kabat Zinn, Saki Santorelli and the senior teaching staff. Ms. Walsh also teaches MBSR at the Senior Center in Encinitas. She integrates mindfulness in her work with patients and students. In her capacity as clinical supervisor at San Diego Hospice and other institutions she has taught mindfulness-based interventions to graduate/post-graduate students and professional staffs. Ms. Walsh believes strongly in the mind-body connection and in an integrative approach to achieve and sustain optimal health and well being.