FREE WORKSHOP
"Calm, Strong, and Motivated: Using Resource Tapping
to find your inner strengths"
(Please contact for date of next workshop,
or if you are interested in your group/agency
sponsoring a workshop session)
This workshop is an introduction to “Resource Tapping,” an EMDR-related technique that teaches you to quickly access and strengthen the resources that already exist within you. Unlike EMDR, which addresses the resolution of trauma and is only done by a trained clinician, Resource Tapping can be learned and practiced by virtually anyone, anywhere. Through the use of imagery and light self-tapping on your body, you can learn to evoke useful states (calm, safety, contentment, productivity) as and when needed.
For example, imagine that you have to give a speech in front of your colleagues. You’re feeling anxious and unfocused, thinking of all those expectant faces. Instead of white-knuckling it through the process, you can use Resource Tapping to call up a time when you did feel confident and safe, and strengthen that with the tapping. The effect can be remarkable, both that you can so quickly shift your mood, and that the resources are coming only from within you.
“Strong, calm and motivated” will be a safe and focused place to learn this remarkable technique. There will be time to learn and practice the technique itself, and then time to discuss the experiences and any questions that arise.
For more information on Resource Tapping, see Dr. Laurel Parnell's book, Tapping In, by clicking here.
If you are interested, please RSVP to:
Phone: (415) 835-2162
Email: martycooper@mlcooper.com
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Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression
An 8 week course teaching skills in the prevention of relapse
Jan. 25th-March 15th, 2009
8 Consecutive Sundays
9-11am
What is (MBCT)?
MBCT is a combination of mindfulness meditation practice and “thought-noticing” techniques derived from cognitive therapy. Both emphasize a stance of curiosity and acceptance, a way of watching ones own experience that helps short circuit the tendency to ruminate on depression, a tendency that gives depression its heavy, “stuck” quality.
MBCT is designed to help those who:
- Are not currently experiencing a major depressive episode.
- Have had a history of several episodes of major depression.
- Struggle with the negative thought patterns that contribute to the depressive relapse.
Research has shown that those who have experienced one major depression have a 50% chance of suffering another, with the rate increasing to 70-80% for those who have had 2 or more episodes.
MBCT was created to address this high chance of relapse that exists for those suffering from chronic major depression. Studies have shown that after the 8 week course, participants in an MBCT class suffered relapse at about half the expected rate. Click here for links concerning MBCT and its usefulness.
This class will help you:
- Learn, through direct experience, about the workings of your mind and your particular vulnerabilities to depression.
- To notice when you are getting caught in old thoughts, and practice ways of releasing yourself from these habits.
- To practice a different way of relating to yourself and the world.
- Learn to let go of the struggle or combat with oneself that contributes to and sustains depression.
- To practice acceptance of one’s self and the world, rather than judgment/despair and self-criticism.
- Learn to notice and savor the small moments of pleasure which typically are clouded by depression.
Registering
All prospective members will meet with myself for a free phone consultation, to clarify the course requirments and challenges, and to answer any questions one might have. The course is limited to 12 members.
Please call (415) 835-2162, or Nestor at (415) 933-3961.
Fees:
The course fee is $350, plus $30 materials fee (cd's and book).
Please call (415) 835-2162, or (415) 933-3961 to register or for more information.
Following you will find links to various sites which discuss or report studies on the usefulness of MBCT:
1) Here is a report on a study conducted with 145 MBCT students, showing decreased relapse in those with a history of three or more major depressions, persons reporting a greater ability to see their depression from a "decentered" (i.e., more objective) point of view:
http://www.psychiatry.ox.ac.uk/csr/mbct.html
and:
http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
2) Here are a few general articles discussing ways of understanding the usefulness of mindfulness practice:
http://www.mindfulness.net.au/publications.html
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Transforming the Wild Moods:
A support and therapy group for those with
anxiety and depression.
Mondays, 7-8:45pm, beginning late January, 2009.
About the group
Depression and anxiety feed on the triad of shame, guilt, and blame, and when unchallenged, these three emotions pull one down into the whirlpool of the wild moods. The result of this motion is the tossing out of joyful, life-full experiences that otherwise would be commonplace.
This group is intended to give members a place for support-deep support for who you are, rather than who you are supposed to be-and a place to challenge and have challenged the (usually) long-standing assumptions and beliefs about yourself that under-gird depression and anxiety. When gradually unburdened by depressing and frightening beliefs, then your life starts being one which is open to experience and deep feeling, productive work and rich relationship.
What is a therapy group ?
In a therapy group (as opposed to a work, social, or educational group), all the members become your teachers. With your group mates, and with the help of the facilitator, you focus on how the process of relating shows you where you tend to pull away from your experience and relationships, and gives you a safe place to practice staying with what’s happening right in front of you.
Depression and anxiety are both blocks, and at times defenses, to being in the joy, and sadness, of your life, creating the typically flat, alienate quality of these moods. But with a supportive, safe group of peers, you have the opportunity to risk opening up to things in yourself and in others that have otherwise drove you into isolation. The resulting shifts can be life changing.
Benefits of this group
As a member of this group, you can expect to:
- Practice clearer, more direct, and more satisfying ways of being in relationship.
- Develop a much clearer sense of how depression/anxiety impacts your relationships.
- Learn, through feedback from others, how you are really seen, as opposed to, as it were, how the wild moods see you.
- Learn how to lessen the impact of depression and anxiety on your day to day life.
- Come to see how to live a life in line with your goals and passions.
- Become more sensitive and welcoming of pleasure and simple joys, in yourself and in your relationships with others.
How to join and fees
The group will meet Mondays, from 7-8:45pm in the Inner Richmond, beginning late January, 2009. The per session fee will be $50.
If you are interested in possibly joining, or in getting more information, please call me at (415) 835-2162 so we can have a conversation about whether this might be the right group for you.
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