Rita Harvey Counselling​ & Super​vision
Minerva Talking Therapies Ltd
Mindfulness
I offer Mindfulness as part of my therapeutic approach to counselling/therapy clients and to individuals who want to develop their wellbeing. To start off your mindfulness practice you can join one of my courses "Calm Your Mind", and attend any Free Taster Sessions to see whether it is for you.
Mindfulness has been developed using some elements of meditation practice and has become a discipline on its own. Mindfulness combines techniques of breathing, focussing and paying attention to the present moment. Several studies have shown that it helps with mental health, improves concentration and is used clinically for a variety of complaints.
Mindfulness is used for anxiety, depression, lack of concentration, chronic pain; these are are just examples. There are entire forms of therapy that use Mindfulness and the benefits have been reported by research.
However everybody can use mindfulness and enjoy its benefits: often people report of being calmer, more relaxed, more resilient to stress and generally happier.
Calm Your Mind - 8 Weeks Mindfulness Course
Do you find that you think a lot but you get stuck in unproductive thoughts?
Do you find that you are constantly thinking about the past, or worrying about the future?
Is your concentration or your work suffering because you seem to "lose time" getting lost in your head?
Is stress an issue? Do you tend to be anxious, or to think negatively?
All the above are common experiences, shared by many. We live in a an anxiety-producing time and we are constantly bombarded by messages from everywhere - our phones, work demands, family, and our minds.
Mindfulness is a mind-body based approach that helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful experiences.
It's been known for millennia that the way we think and the way we handle how we feel plays a big part in mental health. Taking a mindfulness course can give people more insight into their emotions, boost their attention and concentration and improve relationships.
Mindfulness exercises are ways of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga. Mindfulness training helps us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings so that instead of being overwhelmed by them, we're better able to manage them.
I offer a beginners course for people who have little or no experience of mindfulness or meditation and want to build these skills in a relaxed atmosphere and with like-minded people to increase their well-being.
During the course we will also discuss ways of applying mindfulness and other approaches to relieve stress, anxiety and improve our ways of coping with life and relax. Although this is not a strict "therapy group", I use my experience as a therapist to facilitate people in finding new and more fulfilling, healthy ways of being with others and with oneself.
The group work is interactive, fun and informative. I work with small groups for blocks of eight weeks. All you need is to be open minded, be prepared to practice the skills in class and in your own time, and be confident and patient that results will come. I teach small groups because it is important that everyone has as much opportunity as possible to interact and learn with others.
I will be running free taster sessions in April 2017 for this course so that we can meet and discuss things in more details.
I have daytime and evening classes and if numbers allow, I will offer also similar weekend courses, so it is worth you telling me if you could only come then.
Here you can watch a mindfulness exercise I did online for a presentation on #TATuesdays on the 16/9/14. I was interviewed by John Wilson on using Mindfulness for Therapists and we did a little exercise involving all the audience - about 100 people.
This is just a little example of a mindfulness practice. You will experience many more and more complex ones during my course.