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Achieving a Sense of Mastery Workshop

Mindfulness and contemplation supporting recovery from mental disorder

A WORKSHOP FOR PEOPLE RECOVERING FROM A MENTAL DISORDER, FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF SUCH PEOPLE AND FOR PROFESSIONALS WHO SUPPORT PEOPLE IN RECOVERY.

The next offering of the workshop, “Achieving a Sense of Mastery: Using mindfulness and contemplation to support recovery from mental disorder” will be in the autumn of 2012. The date has not yet been set.

If you would like to be on a wait list, and be notified when the date has been established, please CLICK HERE.

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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

One of the great revolutions of our time is the understanding that people who have experienced significant mental disorder can move on to live a life that is as meaningful and fulfilling as anyone else in society.The term ‘recovery’ is often used to describe this process of building a life as a full citizen of society while recognizing the particular issues that come with having experienced a significant mental disorder.

At its core, recovery involves how we think about ourselves and our lives. We feel successful in recovery when we have a sense that we can handle what is happening in our life; this could be called a sense of ‘mastery’. Mastery does not mean we know all the answers, or that everything is going well for us. Mastery does mean that we have a sense of confidence in our ability to work with whatever is happening in our life.

A sense of mastery includes three components:

  • An understanding of our situations and the factors that influence our life
  • A supportive network of people and activities
  • A flexible sense of our goals and direction for the future

In this workshop we use the inherent capability of our own mind to be ’mindful’ (non-judgmentally aware in the present moment) and ‘contemplate’ important issues in our life relevant to recovery. Easily learned mindfulness and contemplation exercises are presented. NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH MINDFULNESS OR CONTEMPLATION IS NEEDED.

The workshop is led by David Whitehorn, PhD, MSN who has more than 20 years experience working with recovery from mental disorder and 40 years experience with mindfulness and contemplation.