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MiCBT - Applied 8-week course in Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Professionals

Mindfulness involves paying attention to what is experienced in the present moment, with a non-judgmental and non-reactive attitude. Mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches take the view that attempting to change the content of incapacitating thoughts is less productive in the long term than learning to develop control over the processes that maintain them.

Since its inception in Western approaches in the early 1980s, mindfulness training has become mainstream. A decade of careful research has led to the recognition among CBT researchers and clinicians that integrating mindfulness training with cognitive and behavioural interventions is a potent contribution to the treatment of a wide range of disorders. Given the rapid expansion of clinical applications of mindfulness training in Australia, APS-endorsed quality training has become an important matter for clinicians as well as for postgraduate students and their supervisors.

Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive behaviour Therapy (MiCBT) is a sophisticated integration of mindfulness core principles and traditional CBT. In the services where MiCBT has been regularly implemented in the past seven years, we have noted rapid and sustained improvement in most life domains, even in very damaged clients with multiple difficulties.

The main aim of this comprehensive 8-week course is to provide clinicians with a sound understanding of MiCBT principles and the necessary skills to implement them confidently in their clinical work. No prior knowledge of mindfulness is assumed.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course content will involve practical and experiential work, and include:
- Your personal practice and professional implementation of core and advanced skills in mindfulness training
- Theoretical fundamentals of mindfulness approaches
- Incorporating the complex foundations of behaviour maintenance and extinction at the micro-level of reinforcement to improve ecological validity and therapeutic efficacy
- Engaging the client in the MiCBT treatment plan
- Skills to implement the four stages of MiCBT with patients diagnosed with most DSM-IV Axis I and Axis II disorders
- Mindfulness-based relapse prevention strategies
- Real case demonstrations on video and in a master class format will be included

SUPPORT MATERIALS & SUPERVISION
You will receive:
- A free copy of the comprehensive MiCBT practice manual, including a wide-ranging list of recent references, client handouts, therapist work forms and transcripts of the practice instruction CDs.
- Two professionally recorded 80-minute CDs for the full implementation of mindfulness training (for beginners and advanced).
- During each session, participants will also receive professional supervision to assist with their application of MiCBT skills with their specific client population, addressing issues of particular interest.