Mindful Academy Solterreno
Continuing Education Online
Full details of all options and dates
From our strong Solterreno roots, the Mindful Academy Solterreno Teacher Training and Silent Retreats, we continue to grow as a community, attend to integrity and deepen teacher embodiment through our continuing education events and regular supervision.
The intention of the CPD Masterclass Series is to:
- co-create safe learning spaces where mindfulness teachers can come together, from around the globe, in a community of practice
- deepen our practice of listening deeply to our own experience
- speak and listen to each other with the same depth of practice
- embodying and actively practising non judgment of our present moment experiences
- Deepen core MBSR teaching competencies
“Sit with Inquiry Practice”
Weekly sessions with Dr. Sheena Burke
Since 2020 we have been coming together each week for our ‘Sit with Inquiry’ sessions and appreciating the ‘added extra’ to our personal practice when we sit together in community.
In these weekly 75 minutes sessions, a brief theme or poem is introduced, we sit together in companionable silent practice for 30 minutes and participate in inquiry on our practice.
This is an opportunity to show up as a ‘participant’ rather than ‘teacher’ and to connect with fellow MBSR teachers in personal practice and inquiry. Listening to each other’s experience and participating in inquiry also serves to deepen our relationship with the inquiry process that is central to MBSR teaching.
Contact Sheena: sheena@discoveringmindfulness.ie
The Heart & Craft of Inquiry
A 2-day masterclass for deepening inquiry and dialogue skills in MBSR teaching.
Conveying course themes through inquiry and dialogue is integral to skilful MBSR teaching. A large amount of class time is reserved for exploring participants’ experiences of the different mindfulness practices of the curriculum. A collective conversation of deep listening, compassionate curiosity and celebration of the beauty of being human together unfolds within and across each class.
Yet this key competency is also one that many MBSR teachers experience as a source of unease and challenge. Perhaps this is unsurprising as we immerse ourselves in the emergent style of teaching and move into a space of ‘not-knowing’. In this fresh, open space we let go of urges to rescue or give advice as we accompany participants on this journey of mindfulness practice. We may imagine that speaking in inquiry is like dropping a pebble into a pool of water – we do not know how far the ripples will reach.
This 2-day masterclass programme is offered to teachers of MBSR as support for deepening your learning and confidence in this core teaching competency. We will share the difficult, the delightful and the doubts. How do we meet with the uncomfortable, challenging, or unnerving in the inquiry process? What “unlearning” is needed to allow for meaningful learning to emerge for individuals and the group? Honouring the experiential, dynamic and emergent principles of MBSR teaching, we will explore in community the ‘heart and craft’ of inquiry. We will evolve our embodiment in facilitating group dialogue that is skilful and relational.
This masterclass draws on our own experiences as well as key sources and leaders in the wider MBSR research and practice field.
Contacts: sheena@
To book go to https://www.
“Teaching Mindful Movement”
A 3-part series with Monique Leverington, MBSR and Yoga Trainer
This specially designed course will support you to teach mindful movement practices that are functional, safe, supportive and trauma informed. During the training you will further your skills and learn how to create supportive and accessible classes for your communities both online and or in person. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. Humans also come with emotional and behavioural differences with varying values, opinions, attitudes and life experiences including trauma. As mindful movement teachers, becoming aware and awake to the differences means to recognise that all participants are infinitely unique.
Contact Monique: synergyyogapilates@gmail.com
“Meeting Uncertainty Together”: How may MBSR maps and metaphors serve us?
A morning of practice and inquiry led by Dr. Sheena Burke
As we continue to move through an unprecedented global pandemic with as much as 50% of the world under ‘lockdown’ periods for repeated and prolonged time periods this year, we ask the key question – what does MBSR offer in the midst of this?
In this morning session, we will practice, inquire and dialogue on recent experiences of teaching MBSR in the midst of a global pandemic. We will engage in the practice of mindfulness as heartfulness, that holds non-judgement, open mind and warm hearts at the essential core. We will also review key MBSR maps and metaphors from the wider teaching community and explore how they may serve our practice and teaching now and into the future as we move into new phases of living alongside COVID-19. This morning session is highly experiential, reflective, connective and collaborative.
Contact Sheena: sheena@discoveringmindfulness.ie
“Deepening Practice: A poly-vagal informed MBSR?
A morning of practice and inquiry led by Dr. Sheena Burke
As MBSR teachers we stand on the shoulders of many giants, from early buddhist teachings to modern day neuroscience and psychological research evidence. We may call these the ‘elders’ of our MBSR community. In this session we will explore, through practice and inquiry, poly-vagal theory as a framework that can enhance our trauma-sensitive teaching and practice in MBSR. It sits alongside the ‘Window of Tolerance’ concept in practical ways.
Poly-vagal theory was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges who proposes that engaging our social engagement system is our default strategy we use to regulate our stress responses. The social engagement system helps us to manage threat and danger in the world and involves the regulation of the muscles of the face, head and heart. We will explore the theory through experience and reflect on how this work can strengthen our skills as MBSR teachers. We will trust in emergent learning as we share the joy of mindful movement together as a neural exercise that can help us to move from stressed to calm states and bear witness to each others’ insights and experiences.
Contact Sheena: sheena@discoveringmindfulness.ie
Supervision Packages
We are also adding to existing Supervision options with Senior Teachers. Supervision offers a particular means of safeguarding you and your participants in teaching as you continue on your pathway as a mindfulness teacher. In line with international standards, individual supervision with a senior certified teacher is required to achieve our Qualified and Certified awards. Choose from the following to meet you needs as they change and grow:
- Individual Supervision & Mentoring: Tailored supervision of teaching and mentoring of personal practice and inquiry.
- Group Supervision & Mentoring*: Closed Groups, Monthly 2 hour sessions; Personal Practice & Inquiry; Teaching Practice Questions & Reflections.
- MBSR Skill-Building Package*: Teaching your first MBSRs. This package is offered to meet the requirements of the Mindful Academy Solterreno Certification Pathway. It is particularly useful for those teaching their first 3 MBSR courses with 9 hours of supervision in a combination of 4 x 45 minute individual supervision and 4 x 90 minute group supervision. It is deliberately low cost to support beginning teachers.
*Minimum of 4 participants required for each group.
