Find out which mindfulness course is right for you
For transforming stress, anxiety, chronic illness, pain and the impacts of trauma
- Evidence based
- 8 weeks, 2.5 hrs a week and one full day
- Live online and in-person Australia-wide
- Pre-course 1-1 meeting with teacher
- Coursebook and app
- More intense home practice
If your circumstances require a discount, please be in touch.
Develop self-compassion to build your resilience
- Evidence informed
- 6 weeks, 1.5 hrs a week
- Cultivate the skills of self-compassion
- Interrupt reactivity and blame
- Live online
- Home practice
Come along if you want to explore your inner life using the lenses of mindfulness practice and Internal Family Systems
- Evidence informed
- 8 weeks, 2.5 hrs a week and one full day
- Live online Australia-wide
- Pre-course 1-1 meeting with teacher
- Coursebook and app
- Intensive home practice
Deepening Compassion
Enrol if you want to digest past wounds through mindfulness and compassion training and Internal Family Systems
- Evidence informed
- 8 weeks, 2.5 hrs a week and one full day
- Live online Australia-wide
- Pre-course 1-1 meeting with teacher
- Coursebook and app
- Intensive home practice
Urban Retreat Day
Meeting anxiety with understanding and compassion
- 9am - 1pm (AEDT)
- Refresh your motivation
- Keep practicing mindfulness
- Practice in good company
Live Online Community Mindfulness Practice
- 4.30 - 5.45 pm (AEDT)
- Sundays
- Live online
- Teacher-led
- All welcome
- Movement & stillness practice
Day of Mindfulness
- 9am - 4pm
- Sunday
- Live online & in-person
- Silent retreat day
- Movement & stillness
- For grads of MBSR/CT
- 2 nights/3 days
- Gentle yoga
- Mindfulness meditation
- Loving-kindness
- Compassion practices
- Bushwalking
- Optional extras, massage or steam treatment
- Single and shared rooms available
This retreat is suitable for people who have some experience of mindfulness meditation already
- Explore the mind you have
- Immerse ourselves in “non-doing” to restore and renew energy
- Explore and discover new insights
- Free time plus structured meditation time
- Single rooms, good vegetarian food
- Time in nature to rest, renew and explore.
Find skilful ways of dealing with stress and distress
Grow your resilience by learning how to:
-
Calm your nervous system, so you can rest
-
Listen to your emotions without being flooded by them
-
Not believe everything you think!
-
Develop stronger boundaries and more connection
-
Develop new ways of enjoying ordinary moments in life
-
Connect with your values and express them in how you live
-
Let go of habits that no longer serve you
Speak with an experienced teacher to discuss where you are at, and whether the training could help.
Understanding mindfulness
Mindfulness practice is an invitation for greater balance, choice and participation in life.
Focus and presence
Cultivate more concentration and capacity to be in the moment with what matters to you most, here and now.
Emotional calming
Reduce reactivity, learn to befriend your emotions and to express them in ways that set clear and caring boundaries.
Clarity and wisdom
See your patterns and values with more clarity so that your actions can be more beneficial to yourself and others.
Frequently asked questions
-
I've tried meditation and can't do it.
Yes, we know! Everybody has this experience when they first start mindfulness practice, and most people in your class will feel the same way. Don't worry – it won't prevent you from developing more ease and peace in your life through mindfulness training.
We all need to start with the mind we have, and if that is a busy and preoccupied mind, then that’s the perfect place to begin. Initially, mindfulness practice is about becoming familiar with your own mind and body, and exploring ways to soothe, calm, and simply explore how you tick.
Step-by-step throughout the course, you’ll be offered different ways of practicing so you can bring more of this way of being to support your mental health. By exploring the science of mindfulness, you’ll also discover why so many of us have such jumpy, 'jack-rabbit' minds and learn what you need to do to cultivate a calmer and clearer mind.
-
What's the difference between evidence-based courses and other mindfulness stuff that is out there?
Openground has 20 years of experience in helping people with serious mental and physical health challenges. and our programs spring from a long tradition of preventative and behavioural medicine which has been researched over decades. Much of the more recent mindfulness stuff has been watered down:
- using videos V being supported by a dedicated teacher
- just using an app, rather than a detailed exploration of your patterns and how to interrupt them
- focussing on "well-being" rather than acknowledging just how tough mental health problems can be.
-
What does the 8 week course involve?
Our MBSR and MBCT course is for anyone who wants to reduce work, family or health-related stress, bring a greater sense of balance and meaning to their lives, and learn how to manage challenges more skillfully.
It involves:
- an individual phone interview with your teacher
- a 2.5 hour class, once a week for eight weeks, plus one full retreat day
- body awareness training
- an exploration of your own patterns of thinking, feeling and action, and how to transform them
- brief lectures and discussions
- individual feedback and support
- good conversations about things that matter
- scientific rationale for the practice
- your commitment to daily homework practice using audio tracks and a course book.
-
Why is it important to practice?
Mindfulness is not just a good idea – it’s a practice! As with any new skill – like learning to swim, do Pilates or play golf – just hearing or reading about mindfulness can only take you so far. Experience and practice are the two things that will lead to lasting and profound changes.
For the training to make a real difference to your mental health, ask yourself if you are willing to make a commitment to undertake some formal practice each day over the eight weeks of your course. This will make all the difference to your satisfaction with the course, the benefits you experience, and your life.
Training in mindfulness will equip you with a very portable set of skills that you can practice anywhere, anytime. Give it a go and let's see what happens! -
I used a mindfulness app and it didn't do much. How is this different?
We may not like it, but real change takes time. This is why your training for stress and burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma unfolds over eight weeks plus a whole day retreat – a total of 27 hours of training, as well as your home practice.
Promises of a quick fix are always tempting. There are many apps and pre-recorded short courses about recently, that don't have the clinical evidence behind them. If you have tried these and only had minimal benefit, that makes sense.
We encourage you to do some research of your own. If you are quite stressed, or you’re facing some big challenges, you may find greater benefit in an in-depth, evidence-based program.
Change happens through practice, and evidence suggests that for clinical conditions eight weeks is an optimum time for new cognitive, emotional, neurological and behavioural changes to become embedded. Our experience is that practice develops most effectively and sustainably when there is an ongoing personal relationship with a teacher who really knows their stuff.
-
I am a health professional. How will attending a course help me in my work?
The eight week mindfulness training can assist with your capacity for listening, empathy, compassion and genuine curiosity. It can also help you see into our own patterns that can get in the way of being truly helpful.
However these programs are not a professional training program for using mindfulness with clients. We welcome you to join the course as a participant, leave your professional hat at the door, and immerse yourself in mindfulness practice. Our courses present an opportunity to learn about mindfulness from the inside out, by engaging in the group process and learning from your fellow participants.
There are good ethical and professional reasons to develop an in-depth understanding of your own personal mindfulness practice before teaching others. A sustained mindfulness practice, including completing an MBSR course and a teacher-led silent mindfulness retreat, is a pre-requisite for training to teach -
What if I need to miss a class or the Day of Mindfulness?
In some locations, there are a few courses happening simultaneously, so you could arrange to attend one of the other locations for that week. If that is not possible in your area, the course book is quite detailed in terms of covering the material each week, and you will be able to keep practicing and arrange to check in with your teacher by phone or email about your process that week.
Missing the Day of Mindfulness is also sometimes inevitable. However, this day-long retreat is held every quarter, so you can always attend next time.