Family Mindfulness Course

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on many young people and their families, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis and all that it entails.  Sadly, with NHS resources stretched beyond capacity combined with soaring waiting times, help is not always easily accessible.

Being caught up in our worries – whether from performance pressures at school or how we will pay the next bill - can feel both overwhelming and exhausting. When living in this way we can miss out on the small aspects of life that bring us joy, and we can expend huge amounts of energy trying to control aspects of our life that feel challenging.  

Grounded in neuroscience, mindfulness and compassion give us the tools to find a path through this. 

Mindfulness is bringing our complete attention to this moment - to our own thoughts, feelings and emotions, as well as to the world around us - in a non-judgemental and balanced way.  

Self-compassion is being a good friend to ourselves.

This course is designed specifically for families and provides practical tools to help lower stress, increase resilience, appreciate life's joys and feel more balanced within life's challenges.   

It gives you the opportunity to learn together as a family so that you can look after each other. You will learn the same coping strategies in the same session at the same time. In this way, you will be able to encourage each other to create and sustain a mindful lifestyle. 

A huge body of evidence supports that mindfulness helps to lower stress and improves mental, emotional and physical well-being.  Specifically, this course will enable you and your family to 

1. Feel more empowered and better equipped to recognise and manage anxiety.

2. To become aware of your stress triggers and apply tools to counteract your stress response sooner.

3. To notice and absorb all your positive experiences, however small,  to counterbalance our natural negativity bias.

This 6-week course introduces mindfulness as well as giving you practical tools to incorporate it into everyday life.  It is an experiential course. Each session comprises of: 

1. 1x short practice and 1x longer practice for you to try out every week.

2. Information behind why they work, how to meditate and the benefits of that practice.

3. Time to reflect and ask questions about the practices taken.

4. Suggestions how to weave mindfulness into daily life.

Participants will be provided with handouts, scripts, recordings and exercises to take away to sustain practice between sessions and after the course.

Please note that to achieve the full benefits of this course, participants (parents and children) are asked to set aside at least 15 minutes per day, five days a week, to practice at home.

Testimonials from past participants

“There are so many practices that I can use and theory to back this up.  The explanations were thorough and interesting. I want to keep practising and using mindfulness every day, especially getting better at self-compassion.” (Parent)

“I joined the course because I was feeling anxious and stressed.  But I went in with an open mind to try something new.  The practices were particularly helpful, but I also now know how I can put mindfulness in the context of my daily life.” (Child)

Prices and booking

Places are £80 per family and limited.  There are 2 discounted places at £40 for anyone facing financial difficulty - please contact me for details.

Potential participants will be asked to complete an initial application form, after which I will arrange a time to chat you through the course and any questions that you have. 

Please contact me direct via meditate@mindfulnesswithjocelyn.co.uk or 07745 541 035 if you are interested in joining the course.  

Or complete my Contact Form.

Notes

1. A family includes 1x parent / carer and 1 child.  Additional family places may be available at a slightly extra charge. Please call me for details.

2. This course is primarily designed for children aged 11+ at secondary school.  The course can be adapted for younger age groups. Please contact me for dates.

3. This course can be delivered online to individual families who would prefer to learn privately by themselves.  Please contact me for prices.

4. This course can be delivered face to face, though the cost of a venue will need to be passed on.  Please contact me for prices.

5. This is an introductory mindfulness course and not a therapeutic intervention. So that I can fully support you on this course please do let me know if you have any concerns regarding mental health when you register. If this is the case I would also highly recommend that you consult your GP or other medical advisors.