Event: 2-Day Workshop: Grounded in Light: A Weekend Therapeutic Retreat of Mindful Engagement with Nature.
Organised by the Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, EICSP, Scottish Charity, SC03899, www.eicsp.org, and Blue Morpho Body and Mind Centre, www.bluemorphocentre.co.uk
Facilitator: Caroline Brazier. Debbie Swain will be her assistant at the workshop.
Venue: Islay Room, Gillis Centre, 100 Strathearn Road, Edinburgh, EH9 1BB.
Dates: Saturday 25 - Sunday 26 April 2015.
Time: Registration: 9.30am-10am. Workshop Days: 10am-5pm.
Event Description: Engaging with nature promotes mental wellbeing. Recent research is telling us what we already knew intuitively: that taking people out of doors reduces anxiety and depression and improves mental and physical health.
This weekend retreat will offer a taster of what it is to encounter the natural world with consciousness and therapeutic intent.
It will help us to bring our attention to the ordinary in extraordinary ways.
By using methods drawn from mindfulness and ecotherapy practice, coupled with periods of silence and sharing we will create spaces in which to stop and reflect.
What does it mean to walk on the earth? What does it mean to breathe the air which is unique to this planet? What does it mean to see our surroundings illuminated by light and feel the warmth of the sun on our skin? How can we see growth and change reflected in the many conditions of the living world?
Too often we overlook the impact of these basic resources in our lives and search for answers in the conceptualisations and complications of modern life.
Encountering these everyday foundations in a conscious and respectful way enhances all that we do and directs our lives into more positive directions.
This workshop will include:
Mindfulness exercises in natural surroundings
Therapeutic exercises designed to foster and enrich encounter with natural phenomena
Development of grounding and embodiment
Space for engagement and reflection around the themes of the retreat
An introduction to ways of conceptualising therapeutic work in the outdoors and the therapeutic relationship which supports it
Opportunities to discuss ways of using ecotherapy methods in different contexts
Caroline Brazier is course leader of the Tariki Training Programme in Other-Centred Psychotherapy and the Ten Directions Programme in Ecotherapy. She is author of six books on Buddhism and psychotherapy and has published a number of articles on Buddhism and ecotherapy as well as her most recent book, Acorns Among the Grass: Adventures in Ecotherapy (Earth Books 2011). Caroline teaches internationally and has been involved in developing the application of Buddhist psychology in different fields for over twenty years.
Debbie Swain is a member of the Tariki community and assists on the Ten Directions training programme in ecotherapy and has a particular interest in developing gardens as healing spaces.
Cost: £100/£80 (Concessions).
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 0131 331 4469.
Event: Talk: Trauma, Addiction and Other-Centred Therapy.
Facilitator: Caroline Brazier.
Venue: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, 25 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5AP.
Date: Monday 27 April 2015.
Time: 10am.
Event Description: Event Description: Addictive behaviour is often rooted in experiences of trauma. When people have experienced awful things, whether as children or adults, the impulse is often to find some sort of psychological way of escaping from the pain, and one way in which this happens is through compulsive or addictive behaviours. Trauma leaves mental scars and these tend to manifest in repetitious patterns. The person may on the one hand be haunted by the traumatic incident or events, experiencing the repeating images of the scene, as is typical of PTSD, and on the other hand they may develop behavioural patterns of avoidance which may include addiction as a way of mediating painful thoughts. Other-centred approach is founded in a model of psychology which focuses on the ways in which patterns of perception and reaction condition the self-story and lead to repeating cycles of fear and flight. Its methodology has common roots with mindfulness practice and is primarily focused on observing the way that these perceptual habits can be explored and challenged through reality-checking and through finding a more positive engagement with reality in the present. Grounded in a deep acceptance of the positive potential in facing and transforming traumatic experience the method is interactive, investigative and concrete. In this talk Caroline Brazier will explore:
• Theoretical models of addiction and compulsion which underlie other-centred approach.
• An overview of other-centred and methodology for working with addictive behaviours.
The talk will include space for questions.
Cost: £15 to the public. Free to ELCA counsellors.
Contact: Meichelle Walker 0131 3378188, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Event: Individual Sessions with Caroline Brazier Brazier.
Venue: Panda Villa, 12 Kilmaurs Road, Edinburgh. EH16 5DA.
Dates: Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 April 2015
Time: 7pm-8pm, and, 8.15pm-9.15pm (Please arrive 15 minutes early).
Cost: £40.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 0131 331 4469.