1. School of Education Studies, DCU IGC Conference, Waterford
The Mindful Guidance Counsellor - Living Well, Living Now: An Introduction to Mindfulness Practice
Paul King
School of Education Studies, DCU
( )
IGC Conference, Waterford
February 2015

2. F.O.F.B.O.C – Practice 1

3. Why mindfulness…for me?
…..What’s my intention for this interest

4. Aim of Workshop What is Mindfulness? (Theory & Practice)
2. Practical application of Mindfulness for daily living
3. Accessing resources & possibilities to introduce mindfulness practice as a GC.

5. What is mindfulness? Paying attention in a particular way On purpose
In the present moment
Non–judgementally
(Kabat Zinn, 1994)

6. What mindfulness is not?
Mindfulness is not what you think.
Mindfulness is not about spacing out or escaping.
Mindfulness is not simply about attention.
Mindfulness is not about having a particular kind of experience.
Mindfulness is not about becoming someone else.
Mindfulness is not about perfection.
Mindfulness is not about changing difficult thoughts or getting rid of difficult feelings.
Mindfulness is not about being religious.
Mindful awareness practices are not difficult.
Mindfulness is not just about meditation.
Mindfulness is not about stress reduction, although it can significantly reduce stress.
Mindfulness is not counselling/therapy

7. "Why are we so mean to ourselves. What did we do wrong
"Why are we so mean to ourselves? What did we do wrong? Why, if we are the best that evolution has tossed up so far, are we so abusive to ourselves? Each of us has a nagging parent implanted in our heads: ‘Don’t do that….why didn’t you… you should have… but you didn’t, on an endless tape. (My mother would say she was only telling me what a failure I was because she loved me.) If most of us ever compared our inner leitmotif, we would sue each other for plagiarism, as our internal themes are so alike.”
(Wax, Ruby (2013) Sane New World –Taming the Mind, p11)

8. Very early on you come to the realisation that nothing will ever take you away from yourself. (p.5)
All we really want is to get to the point where the past can explain nothing about us and we can get on with life. (p.21)
Real life’s staring at you every day. It’s not something you need to go looking for. (p.349)
The only truth that can never be a lie, let me tell you, is life itself – the thing that happens. (p.367)
(Ford, Richard. (1986). The Sportswriter)

9. The Monkey Business!
More Monkey Business!

11. Mindfulness of Breath – Practice 2

12. The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
                             
by Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)

13. Where are you Now? Why mindfulness?
We can often live in the past – re thinking things we cannot change or we worry about the future
This does not mean that we should not reflect on what is happened nor does it mean that we don’t plan for the future.
Introduce the word catastrophe: Mark Twain quote

14. OFTEN, we are on AUTOMATIC PILOT and we come to our senses wondering how we manage everything.
We certainly have not been AWAKE or ALERT or FULLY PRESENT in much of the routine that makes up our day
We GET THROUGH ….somehow

17. Mindful Stretching – Practice 3

19. Mindfulness – How?
Through everyday living (informal practices –see handout)
Valuing and learning from all of my experience:
-sight
-sound
-touch
-taste
-smell
Each of my senses is feeding my awareness with information from morning to night and I learn to label each new experience from previous ones.

20. Supported by formal practices (using Breath, Body, awareness of thoughts & feelings)
Formal practices strengthen the capacity to stay present and attend non judgementally to whatever is happening in my own experience

21. Teaching mindfulness to clients.
Practising mindfulness themselves in order to cultivate counselling qualities
Attempting to create a mindful encounter in counselling therapy itself.
Teaching mindfulness to clients.
Meg Barker (2013) Towards a critically informed mindful therapy,
European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 15:2, ,
(article will be ed)

23. Taking a breathing Space (STOP!) – Practice 4

24. Living Mindfully……Living Well….
“… live in the moment. … We do not own the past, with its grief and sin … we do not own the future. We own only a rag of time, this moment named the present … it is not necessary to expand the present with false imaginings and with peevishness, and the frenzy of our lives … Time is like a meal – each mouthful is separate and glorious.”
Keneally, Thomas (2002) The Office of Innocence, p. 241