Educational Programs
The following educational retreat programs are offered by Mindfulness Travels. Please read this entire page for program dates, presenter bios, continuing education information, and additional details.
Mindful Movement for Self-Regulation: Evidence-Based Benefits and Clinical Applications
with Dr. Larry Cammarata
June 22 - 28, 2024: Assisi, Italy (CEs and CMEs approved)
September 20-26, 2024: Ponte de Lima, Portugal (CEs and CMEs approved)
October 4 - 10, 2024: Lefkada Island, Greece (CEs and CMEs approved)
January 11 - 18, 2025: Drake Bay, Costa Rica (CEs and CMEs approved)
October 7 - 13, 2025: Lefkada Island, Greece (CEs and CMEs approved)
Educational Organization: Mindfulness Travels
Program Content and Description
This educational program integrates the application of mindfulness, mindful movement, and body awareness skills in the treatment of psychological and psychophysiological disorders. Mindful movement is an accessible body-centered mindfulness practice that may be of particular benefit to clients and patients who are challenged by the sitting required of many mindfulness practices. Mindful movement can be used as a standalone mindfulness practice or as a complement to seated meditation. The practice of mindful movement develops the ability to regulate the mind, body, and breath, which can reduce the symptoms and suffering associated with psychological conditions such as Anxiety Disorders and Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders. We will examine mindfulness, mindful movement, and client-directed body-oriented interventions designed to facilitate self-regulation, mood stabilization, enhanced concentration, and quality of life. Five self-regulation skills that are facilitated by mindful stillness and mindful movement will be covered. The research-validated benefits of mindful movement will be reviewed, with an emphasis upon the neuroscientific, psychological, and physical benefits of the practice. Self-compassion training as a complement to mindfulness skills training will be discussed, along with the research findings associated with self-compassion. The application of mindfulness, mindful movement, and body-centered interventions in the treatment of various clinical populations will also be covered. The ethics, limitations, and boundaries of using these practices will also be reviewed. The benefits for clinicians attending the training include: (1) developing a deeper understanding of the philosophical and scientific foundations of mindfulness and mindful movement; (2) increased confidence in applying mindfulness, mindful movement, and self-compassion training in the treatment of various clinical populations; (3) integrating cognitive and experiential knowledge in a way that supports the quality of patient care; (4) increased emotional and physical resilience in the delivery of clinical services; (5) understanding clear definitions of mindfulness and mindful movement that can be conveyed to clients and patients and; (6) increased knowledge of research findings validating the efficacy of mindfulness, mindful movement, and self-compassion training.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, participants will be able to:
• Describe the essential elements that define mindfulness.
• List the key components of mindful movement.
• Identify the key elements of self-regulation and explain how they are related to mindful movement.
• Assess how the practice of mindful movement can be applied in the treatment of psychological disorders.
• List the benefits of mindful movement and body-awareness practices in the context of mindfulness-based therapy.
• Describe the status of current research in the field of mindful movement.
• Explain why mindfulness is not always sufficient to reduce distress, symptoms, and suffering.
• Explain how compassion and acceptance-based interventions such as self-compassion and loving-kindness meditation complement mindfulness-based interventions.
Target Audience
Mental health professionals, including Psychologists, Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Social Workers, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and Physicians.
Program Level
This educational program is appropriate for an Intermediate Level audience.
Continuing Education Hours
Mindful Movement for Self-Regulation is approved for 9 CE hours. This live in-person activity professional continuing education activity was sponsored by Praxis Continuing Education and Training and co-sponsored by Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, who has been approved as a provider of continuing education by the organizations listed below, maintains responsibility for the educational activity offered and for following the standards and regulations for the organizations listed below.
Praxis CET maintains responsibility for the program with the CE approvals outlined below:
Joint Accreditation: In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc and Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 9 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Nursing: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this activity for a maximum of 9 ANCC contact hours.
Physicians: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this live activity for a maximum of 9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 9 clinical continuing education credits.
NY Social Workers: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0467
NY Counselors: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0198.
NY Psychologists: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0002.
How to earn CE credits:
In order to earn CE credits, you must attend the activity in full. No partial credit will be awarded. You will be asked to sign in each day of the activity. Upon completion of the course in full, you will be provided an instruction sheet on how to access the course post activity requirements. On this form, you will receive a link to a website where you will complete an online course evaluation and attest to attending the complete activity. Upon submission, you will be able to print or download your CE Certificate of completion.
Disclosure Information:
There was no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Program Agenda Summary
Day 1: 8:30 to 10:00 am
Why use mindfulness?
The essential elements that define mindfulness
The key components of mindful movement
Five self-regulation skills facilitated by mindful stillness and mindful movement
Day 2: 8:30 to 10:00 am
Benefits of mindful movement and body awareness practices in mindfulness-based therapy
The application of mindful movement and mindful body awareness practices in the treatment of psychological disorders
The status of current research in the field of mindful movement: implications for treating psychological and psychophysiological disorders
Day 3: 8:30 to 10:00 am
The limitations of mindfulness: Why mindfulness is not always sufficient to reduce suffering and distress
The mental discipline dimension of mindfulness-based psychology: Effort, mindfulness, and concentration
The wisdom dimension of mindfulness-based psychology: Understanding the mind
The social-ethical dimension of mindfulness-based psychology: Restraining and cultivating the mind
Day 4: 8:30 to 10:00 am
The key components of compassion and self-compassion
Self-compassion as a complement to mindfulness practice
Self-compassion research findings: Implications for treatment of psychological disorders
Methods of facilitating mindful self-compassion
Day 5: 8:30 to 10:00 am
Mindful body awareness skills and practices
Forms of mindful movement practice
How mindfulness of posture, vocal tone, and eye contact can support the treatment process
Day 6: 8:30 to 10:00 am
Loving-Kindness Meditation as a complement to mindfulness and mindful movement practices
Tips for enhancing memorization of simple movements and integration of body awareness principles
Mindful movement and mindful body awareness in everyday life
Indicators of self-regulation through mindful movement and mindful breathing skills
Presenter Bio and Credentials
Larry Cammarata, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist who specializes in mindfulness-based therapy and education, including the science and practice of mindful movement. For over 40 years, he has undertaken study, formal training, and practice in meditation and Buddhist psychology. He is the Director of Education of Mindfulness Travels and is also the Director of Training for East Bay Mindfulness Center. Larry is an instructor of Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Qigong who has received advanced training in China and in the US. He was designated as an "Author-Expert" by IDEA for his writing, teaching, and service in the field of mid-body health, fitness, and wellness. His mindful movement work was presented at the 11th Annual International Scientific Conference of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.
Overcoming Self Doubt, Shame, and Inadequacy:
Discovering the Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary
with Dr. Ronald Siegel
Please note: Dr. Siegel’s topic will be changed for our 2025 retreats.
September 16 - 22, 2023: Ponte de Lima, Portugal (CEs and CMEs approved)
October 4 - 10, 2024: Lefkada Island, Greece (CEs and CMEs approved)
January 11 - 18, 2025: Drake Bay, Costa Rica (CEs and CMEs pending)
October 7 - 13, 2025: Lefkada Island, Greece (CEs and CMEs pending)
Educational Organization: Mindfulness Travels
Program Content and Description
“Did I sound stupid?” “Should I have sent that email?” “How do I look?” Why do we—and our clients—spend so much time feeling self-conscious and comparing ourselves to others? Why do we struggle to live up to inner ideals or outer standards, only to regularly feel not good enough or ashamed of our shortcomings? The assumption that we can find lasting happiness by being more successful, likeable, attractive, intelligent, or morally above reproach is so woven into our biology and culture that few of us notice it’s not actually true. Sure, having success or otherwise getting to think highly of ourselves feels good—it just isn't long before we hit a bump in the road, lose the feeling and are left hungry for the next boost. Particularly in the age of Facebook and Instagram, we need a way to free ourselves and our clients from the anxiety, depression, addictions, and stress-related disorders that arise from continuous self-evaluation and social comparison. This experiential, interactive workshop will zero in on how we and our clients can use mindfulness, self-compassion, and related practices to step off the self-evaluation roller coaster. We’ll explore techniques to navigate failure, rejection, and shame, while developing stronger relationships and greater comfort with vulnerability— tailoring techniques to clients with both secure and challenged attachment histories and a wide variety of disorders. Rather than imagining that we or our clients can develop a single, stable, secure self, we’ll see how working with our ever-changing parts or sub-personalities can help us relate to all experiences—pleasant and unpleasant, everyday and traumatic—as opportunities to awaken, grow and heal. You’ll learn helpful practices for savoring ordinary present moments, connecting more deeply to others, and tasting the wonderful freedom that comes from everything no longer being about us. Each day will include a mix of experiential exercises, research, theory, and opportunities to connect with fellow participants. You’ll leave with practical tools to apply in your work, while feeling refreshed and renewed personally.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, participants will be able to:
• Describe research in evolutionary psychology, illuminating the origins and dynamics of self-evaluative preoccupation
• Identify techniques to reinforce the experiential rather than narrative self
• Apply mindfulness techniques to increase affect tolerance and experiential approach
• Demonstrate applications of self-compassion to help manage difficult emotions
• Implement practices of mindfulness and self-compassion to soften the inner critic
• Identify cognitive and behavioral tools to help clients act more skillfully and freely by becoming less concerned with self-evaluation
• Identify common elements in anxiety, depression, addictions and stress-related physical disorders
• Specify the three core human motivational systems and how compassion practices serve to balance them
• Describe the distinction between empathy and compassion practices to reduce clinician fatigue and burnout
• Specify how a therapist can best choose which mindfulness and self-compassion exercises are most appropriate under different circumstances
• Describe how to use mindfulness and compassion practices to help clients integrate disavowed or split-off aspects of experience
Target Audience
Mental health professionals, including Psychologists, Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Social Workers, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and Physicians.
Program Level
This educational program is appropriate for an intermediate-advanced level audience.
Continuing Education Hours
Overcoming Self Doubt, Shame, and Inadequacy is approved for 15 CE hours. This live in-person activity professional continuing education activity was sponsored by Praxis Continuing Education and Training and co-sponsored by Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, who has been approved as a provider of continuing education by the organizations listed below, maintains responsibility for the educational activity offered and for following the standards and regulations for the organizations listed below.
Praxis CET maintains responsibility for the program with the CE approvals outlined below:
Joint Accreditation: In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc and Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Nursing: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this activity for a maximum of 15 ANCC contact hours.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 15 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Physicians: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this live activity for a maximum of 15 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 15 clinical continuing education credits.
NY Social Workers: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0467
NY Counselors: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0198.
NY Psychologists: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0002.
How to earn CE credits:
In order to earn CE credits, you must attend the activity in full. No partial credit will be awarded. You will be asked to sign in each day of the activity. Upon completion of the course in full, you will be provided an instruction sheet on how to access the course post activity requirements. On this form, you will receive a link to a website where you will complete an online course evaluation and attest to attending the complete activity. Upon submission, you will be able to print or download your CE Certificate of completion.
Disclosure Information:
There was no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Program Agenda Summary
Day 1: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
The self-evaluation trap
It’s Darwin’s fault: The challenge of our evolutionary history
Cultivating mindfulness and self-compassion: Formal and informal practices
Day 2: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
Discovering who we really are: Understanding the narrative and experiential self
All parts are welcome: Working with the shadow and exiles
Swimming in Lake Wobegon: Awakening to the failure of success
Day 3: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
Breaking free from conspicuous consumption and other status signals
The challenges of contemporary culture: Resisting selfie-esteem
Treating self-esteem addiction
Day 4: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
Empathy fatigue and the promise of compassion
Avoiding avoidance: Working with anxiety, depression, and addictions
Tailoring the practice to the person
Day 5: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
Relationships as an antidote: How to make a connection, not an impression
The power of cognitive reappraisal: Separating the doer from the deed
You’re not that special—and other good news
Cultivating secure attachment later in life
Day 6: 4:00 to 6:30 pm
Treating self-esteem traumas: You have to feel it to heal it
Moving beyond I, me, mine: Embracing the reality of impermanence and interconnection
It’s about other people: Cultivating generosity and service
Presenter Bio and Credentials
Ronald D. Siegel, Psy.D. is Assistant Professor of Psychology, Part Time, at Harvard Medical School. He is a long time student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the Board of Directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He teaches internationally about the application of mindfulness practice in psychotherapy and other fields, and maintains a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He is author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems. Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, coeditor of and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice. Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain, and coauthor of the recent volume, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy.
The Gratitude Compass: An Expressive Arts Practice to Foster Resilience and Collaboration
with Dr. Alessandra Colfi
June 22 - 28, 2024: Assisi, Italy (CEs and CMEs approved)
Educational Organization: Mindfulness Travels
Program Content and Description
Expressive Arts Therapy involves the use of art, dance, music, poetry, movement, ritual, storytelling, and drama in a safe, non-judgmental environment. The expressive arts have been part of ancient healing practices and a bridge between the world of words and our inner life. The Expressive Arts are well suited for individual as well as group processes.
Expressive Arts Therapy presents 3 modes of engaging clinicians and participants, broadly speaking, into learning through:
1. theory, through presentations, stories/case studies, lectures
2. praxis or practical hands-on activities.
3. poiesis or the creative act as self-exploration, play, discovery, experimentation, symbolic narration, opening to the unknown. The emphasis is on the process and not on the final product, and a mindful moment-to-moment approach is maintained throughout the program.
The Expressive Arts process will guide participants to recognize and work with 4 main aspects of Gratitude, generating reflections and symbolic representations with hands-on art making and finding simple and effective ways to integrate the new awareness into their practice.Gratitude is a part of a wider outlook on life that involves noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of life. Recognizing and expressing gratitude for specific aspects of one’s life can result in improved mental, and even physical health in patients, caregivers, and health care professionals. The practice quickly becomes the lens through which one sees the world and attunes their behaviors. Research studies found higher gratitude scores were associated with improved mood, higher quality sleep, greater self-efficacy, and less inflammation (Mills et al., 2015). “We found that those patients who kept gratitude journals for those eight weeks showed reductions in circulating levels of several important inflammatory biomarkers, as well as an increase in heart rate variability while they wrote (Mills et al., 2015).” “Using standard psychological tests, the researchers obtained scores for gratitude and spiritual well-being. They then compared those scores with the patients’ scores for depressive symptom severity, sleep quality, fatigue, self-efficacy (belief in one’s ability to deal with a situation) and inflammatory markers. They found higher gratitude scores were associated with better mood, higher quality sleep, more self-efficacy and less inflammation (Mills et al., 2015).” A grateful heart means a healthier body and more peaceful mind. The process of manipulating art materials, creating visual stories and sharing in a supportive, safe group is well known to provide comfort, choices, stimulate self-expression, new awareness, nurturance, lower anxiety, and support understanding. Research, history, and narratives show that the human psyche needs to express itself to maintain a healthy state and to support mind and body throughout life’s experiences. Expressive Arts Therapy processes are designed to facilitate and validate self-expression and exploration with curiosity rather than judgment. Throughout the process, each participant’s story unfolds, transforms, and uncovers meaning. Each story becomes a symbolic journey as it allows for new narratives to emerge from the unconscious, uncovering new perspectives, insights. Each process is designed for introspection, awareness, creativity, and resilience through symbolic integration. Research shows that being engaged in a regular Expressive Arts practice helps one benefit at the emotional, mental, and physical levels by reducing stress, fostering psychosocial connections, building trust, and increasing care compliance. The symbolic quality of art making helps to view the changes as part of life’s journey and to create a sense of control and agency over the circumstances that lie ahead. In the presenter’s experience, oncology patients engaged with the Expressive Arts make art as kinesthetic, nurturing, experimental, intuitive, and playful media, benefiting from the creative distance facing often traumatic experiences, finding new ways to enhance their confidence, communication, acceptance, trust, agency, and resilience. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale offered at the beginning and at the end of each eight-week Expressive Arts series as a self-assessment survey shows an average improvement towards resilience from 6% to 20%. Narratives, testimonials, and active engagement of patients indicate a renewed sense of purpose, acceptance, awareness, empowerment, and connections within themselves and with others. An Expressive Arts Therapy program focused on Gratitude is a valuable modality in an integrative model of care, offering participants direct experience of the arts with research and evidence-based applications and benefits in patient-centered care, as well as for clinicians to increase awareness, fulfilment, and meaning while preventing burnout. Participants will be offered a wide variety of simple, high quality, safe, and engaging mixed-media art materials, with enough guidance to develop confidence and ease in each process, with plenty of freedom of choice and experimentation. No previous art experience is necessary to participate and enjoy the many benefits.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, participants will be able to:
• Successfully apply Expressive Arts Therapy processes to a diverse population of clients, patients, care partners, and families.
• Create personal expressions that cultivate the ability to assess experiential and narrative meaning for purposes of improving patient outcomes.
• Apply self-compassion and demonstrate its benefit for patient care.
• Create engaging, relevant, individualized reflections on gratitude to improve the prediction and assessment of higher resilience scores in their patients, clients, and team members.
• Describe and explain patients’ expressions of their emotions, needs, choices, resilience, and acceptance of their circumstances.
• Assess and utilize improvements in communication, quality of life, treatment compliance, stress management, and satisfaction for patients and/or clients.
Target Audience
Mental health professionals, including Psychologists, Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Social Workers, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and Physicians.
Program Level
This educational program is appropriate for a Beginner to Intermediate Level audience.
Continuing Education Hours
The Gratitude Compass: An Expressive Arts Practice to Foster Resilience and Collaboration is approved for 9 CE hours. This live in-person activity professional continuing education activity was sponsored by Praxis Continuing Education and Training and co-sponsored by Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, who has been approved as a provider of continuing education by the organizations listed below, maintains responsibility for the educational activity offered and for following the standards and regulations for the organizations listed below.
Praxis CET maintains responsibility for the program with the CE approvals outlined below:
Joint Accreditation: In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc and Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 9 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Nursing: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this activity for a maximum of 9 ANCC contact hours.
Physicians: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this live activity for a maximum of 9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 9 clinical continuing education credits.
NY Social Workers: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0467
NY Counselors: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0198.
NY Psychologists: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0002.
How to earn CE credits:
In order to earn CE credits, you must attend the activity in full. No partial credit will be awarded. You will be asked to sign in each day of the activity. Upon completion of the course in full, you will be provided an instruction sheet on how to access the course post activity requirements. On this form, you will receive a link to a website where you will complete an online course evaluation and attest to attending the complete activity. Upon submission, you will be able to print or download your CE Certificate of completion.
Disclosure Information:
There was no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Program Agenda Summary
Day 1: 5:00 – 6.30 pm
I. Introduction
II. Course description
a. mindful step by step, experiential approach
b. unconditional positive regard
c. safe space; curiosity vs judgment
d. crisis: challenge and opportunity
e. presence
f. process vs. product
g. allow; trust the process
III. Mindful self-awareness: drawing the breath; compassionate self-care tips to nurture practitioners and offer them direct experience of what they can offer patients, families, care teams.
IV. Get to know one another
Expressive Nameplates: participants will use the art supplies provided to symbolically share what each wants their group to know about them on the visible side of the plate, and then display it. Throughout the course, participants will continue to modify or add to it and display it daily.
V. Found Poem
VI. Gratitude practice with hands-on art & music.
a. Sharing in pairs: active listening / compassionate communication mode
VII. Closing circle
Day 2: 5:00 - 6.30 pm
I. Mindful attunement: painting to music
II. Flow State: what it is, how to simply create it, why it is beneficial and possible obstacles
III. Challenges patients might encounter
a. Consistency in attendance due to priority medical appointments and treatments
b. Discouragement due to judgmental inner-critic
c. Unmet need to be in control
d. Tendency to please clinicians
IV. Challenges clinicians might encounter
a. Time constraints
b. Feeling unsure abou t their creativity or artistic skills
c. Discouragement due to judgmental inner critic
d. Over-analytic thinking diminishing their therapeutic presence and trust-building
e. Enjoyment vs. hard work paradigm
f. Low expectation paradigm from ‘soft science’ vs. high expectations from techniques and hard science
V. Intro to Visual Journal: Altered Book
VI. Intro to Gratitude Compass
a. 1st aspect: North
b. Reflections
VII. Magazine Photo Collage: Witnesses
a. Gratitude and Self-Compassion practice with hands-on art & music
b. Journaling
VIII. Sharing in pairs and optional with the entire group
IX. Closing circle
Day 3: 5:00 - 6.30 pm
I. Embodiment: Mindful Meditation to Nurture a Felt Sense of Gratitude
II. Reflections on creating meaning out of personal experiences to gain insights and agency; focus on actionable areas in one’s life to build resilience and strength to be with, overcome, and/or accept unwanted experiences and circumstances.
III. Gratitude Compass
a. 2nd aspect: East
b. Prompts and Reflections
IV. Magazine Photo Collage: Past, Present, and Future, an intuitive self-assessment process
a. Journaling
V. Sharing in pairs and optional with the entire group
VI. Closing circle
Day 4: 5:00 - 6.30 pm
I. Mindful Neurographic Process: compassionate self-care tips to nurture practitioners and offer them direct experience of what they can offer patients, families, care teams.
a. Short hands-on practice
b. Focus and presence with what is happening in the here and now
c. Nurturance and self-compassion
d. Acceptance
e. Agency
II. Gratitude Compass
a. 3rd aspect: South
III. What do you see? Tissue paper collage, mixed-media painting
a. Trust and acceptance
b. Opportunity for transformation
c. Journaling
IV. Sharing in pairs and optional with the entire group focusing on changes in perception, choices, actionable items. Active listening / compassionate communication mode
V. Closing circle
Day 5: 5:00 - 6.30 pm
I. Body Scan Meditation: presence, curiosity, acceptance, self-compassion, gratitude, agency
II. Gratitude Compass:
a. 4th aspect: West
III. 5 Universal Shapes: a cultural anthropology self-assessment tool to connect visual preferences with inner, subjective states, conflicting directions and expectations, and generate prompts for:
a. Gratitude practice with hands-on art & music
b. Integration of psychic content and parts
c. Trust leading to higher compliance and patients’ satisfaction
d. Journaling
IV. Sharing in pairs and optional with the entire group, reflecting upon resolution of conflicts hindering healing and well-being. Active Listening / compassionate communication mode.
V. Closing circle
Day 6: 5:00 – 6.30 pm
I. Opening Circle – Here & Now
a. Needs
b. Choices
c. Resources
d. Resilience
e. Predicting improved patient outcomes
II. A Special Place Guided Visualization
III. Assessment of confidence in being able to invite, engage and create a safe space for clinicians to offer Expressive Arts processes to patients, families and care teams.
IV. My Life is a River with Stepping Stones: hands-on art
a. Gratitude
b. Reslience
V. ArtWalk and Art Exchanges (at least in pictures)
VI. Closing Circle
Presenter Bio and Credentials
Alessandra Colfi, PhD, holds a BA/MA in Linguistics and a Doctorate degree in Expressive Arts Therapy. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher RYT-200, Certified in Yoga for Cancer Recovery and Advanced Back Care, and a Zumba Instructor (ZIN®). She provides her Expressive Arts Therapy programs at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center working and supporting patients in their healing journeys, and assists individuals process their grief after the death a loved one at The HeartWay. Her whole person-centered, mindfulness-based approach is compassionate, uplifting, and draws from many different traditions and modalities like Meditation, MBSR, Guided Visualization and relaxation techniques, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Pranayama (breathwork), Movement, EMDR, as well as from community resources. Dr. Colfi is a member of San Diego Cancer Research Institute (SDCRI), a Faculty member and Director of the Expressive Arts Therapy Department at International University of Professional Studies; MiraCosta College Kinesiology Dept. Advisory Board Member, a member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA), National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH), Yoga Alliance, North County Cancer Fitness, Yoga Vista, Oceanside Museum of Art Artist Alliance, Allied Craftsmen of San Diego, Consciousness and Healing Initiative, Arts Health Network Canada. Dr. Colfi has been using the creative arts and their embodied therapeutic qualities for over 22 years in private and clinical settings assisting oncology patients, families, and individuals experiencing grief. Dr. Colfi has presented at professional conferences like APOS, AHIM, and CSU Symposium for Palliative Care Research and Education, and received numerous awards for her artwork and service; in 2014 she received the San Diego Cancer Research Institute Award of Excellence for contributing to improving the quality of life of cancer patients in San Diego County.
ACT as a Process-Based Intervention: An Experiential Workshop
with Dr. Steven C. Hayes
September 20-26, 2024: Ponte de Lima, Portugal (CEs and CMEs approved)
Educational Organization: Mindfulness Travels
Program Content and Description
The purpose of this workshop is to explore the psychological flexibility processes that underlie Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training (ACT). Attendees will learn to discriminate the presence or absence of these processes, in their clients and in themselves, and to formulate them into an idiographic analysis of the ways that these flexibility processes may bear out important clinical goals. Rather than teaching these goals in an intellectual way, the present workshop will emphasize experiential learning methods such as exercises and small group processes.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, participants will be able to:
● Describe the processes that underlie psychological flexibility / inflexibility
● Identify these processes in clients and in themselves
● Formulate common clinical problems using a psychological flexibility model
● Explain how the six flexibility processes can be organized into three major chunks that underlie most 3rd wave interventions
● List the needs and yearnings that underlie the psychological inflexibility processes
● Describe the state of ACT as an evidence-based treatment
● Define the essential characteristics of the therapeutic relationship from an ACT point of view
● List at least two client actions that indicate each of the flexibility / inflexibility processes during a session
● Demonstrate at least two methods to move each of the flexibility / inflexibility processes
Target Audience
Mental health professionals, including Psychologists, Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Social Workers, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and Physicians.
Program Level
This educational program is appropriate for a Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Level audience.
Continuing Education Hours
ACT as a Process-Based Intervention: An Experiential Workshop is approved for 12 CE hours. This live in-person activity professional continuing education activity was sponsored by Praxis Continuing Education and Training and co-sponsored by Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, who has been approved as a provider of continuing education by the organizations listed below, maintains responsibility for the educational activity offered and for following the standards and regulations for the organizations listed below.
Praxis CET maintains responsibility for the program with the CE approvals outlined below:
Joint Accreditation: In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc and Mindfulness Travels. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 12 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Nursing: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this activity for a maximum of 12 ANCC contact hours.
Physicians: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this live activity for a maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 12 clinical continuing education credits.
NY Social Workers: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0467
NY Counselors: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0198.
NY Psychologists: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0002.
How to earn CE credits:
In order to earn CE credits, you must attend the activity in full. No partial credit will be awarded. You will be asked to sign in each day of the activity. Upon completion of the course in full, you will be provided an instruction sheet on how to access the course post activity requirements. On this form, you will receive a link to a website where you will complete an online course evaluation and attest to attending the complete activity. Upon submission, you will be able to print or download your CE Certificate of completion.
Disclosure Information:
There was no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Program Agenda Summary
Day 1: 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Letting Go and Showing Up: An Overview of Why Flexibility Matters
● What our experience shows about processes of change
● What a comprehensive review of the entire world literature shows
● The six processes that underlie psychological flexibility / inflexibility:
○ Emotional openness
○ Cognitive Flexibility
○ Flexible, fluid, and voluntary attention
○ A transcendental, perspective taking sense of self
○ Chosen values and purpose
○ Commitment to values-based habits
● The flexibility processes can be organized into three major chunks that underlie most 3rd wave interventions: open, aware, and actively engaged
● Extending these processes socially
● Listen to and taking care of your body
● State of the ACT evidence in altering these processes
Day 2: 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Putting Your Mind on a Leash
● You already know all you learned yesterday:
○ Show me with your body
● This can help you recognize flexibility processes in clients and in yourself
● The yearning that underlies these processes:
○ Coherence and understanding
○ The signs that your critical mind is taking control
○ What you see in clients
■ Signs of processes
■ Common problems
● The evolution of meaning
● How that leads to the Dictator Within
● How to rein in that internal critic
○ Examples of defusion methods
Word repetition
Funny voices
Mr. Mind
The Little Kid
● Final exercise: Take your Mind for a Walk
Day 3: 2:00 to 4:00 pm
A Transcendent Sense of Self
● How perspective taking evolved
● The yearning that underlies these processes:
○ Belonging
○ The signs that your conceptualized self is getting in the way
○ What you see in clients
■ Signs of processes
■ Common problems
● Implications for the ACT therapeutic relationship
Essential characteristics: Instigate, model, and reinforce it, from, toward and with it
● How to strengthen non-duality
○ Examples of self as context methods
Observer exercise
Moving across the room
● Final exercise: Eyes on
Day 4: 5:45 to 7:45 pm
Attending in a Flexible Fluid and Voluntary Way
● Why attention matters
● The yearning that underlies these processes:
○ Orientation
○ The signs of attentional inflexibility
○ What you see in clients
■ Signs of processes
■ Common problems
● How to strengthen attentional flexibility
○ Examples of attentional control methods
Space at the top of the breath
The souls of your feel
Moving slowly
● Final exercise: Listening
Day 5: 5:30 to 7:30 pm
You Hurt Where You Care and You Care Where You Hurt
● Why acceptance and values matter
● The yearning that underlies these processes:
○ Feeling
○ Autonomous Meaning
○ The signs of emotional rigidity and absent or fused values
○ What you see in clients
■ Signs of processes
■ Common problems
● How to strengthen values and emotional openness
○ Examples of acceptance and values methods
Saying yes
Picking a hero
Flipping pain into purpose
● Final exercise: Sharing your values with others
Day 6: 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Putting it All Together: Your Life on Purpose
● Why commitment matters
● Social and physical extensions
● The yearning that underlies these processes:
○ Competence
○ Attachment
○ Vitality
○ The signs of a lack of commitment and social/physical expansion
○ What you see in clients
■ Signs of processes
■ Common problems
● How to strengthen commitment and social/physical expansion
○ Examples of methods
SMART
Declaration of commitments
Compassion
● Final exercise: Stand up and declare
Presenter Bio and Credentials
Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D. is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno and President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45-year old charitable organization dedicated to better mental and behavioral health.
His work has been focused on developing a new behavioral science approach called Contextual Behavioral Science. He originated its underlying philosophical of science (Functional Contextualism), its basic science of human higher cognition (Relational Frame Theory or "RFT"), its application to individual psychological change (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training, "ACT" in either case), and co-developed its application to the development of more cooperative groups (Prosocial). He has helped develop a model of human suffering and human prosperity (the Psychological Flexibility Model), a new method of analyzing processes of change (idionomic analysis), a new vision of what evidence-based intervention should be (Process-Based Therapy), and he has extended multidimensional and multilevel evolutionary thinking to human problems of all kinds.
His work has been celebrated with several awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Impact of Science on Application Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis.
With 47 books and nearly 700 scientific articles published, Dr. Hayes is one of the most cited psychologists in the world as he continues to innovate in the field of psychology.
Program Fees
The continuing education program fee is $1,800.00 and includes all educational programs during the retreat. This fee is subsumed within the overall fee of a Mindfulness Travels educational retreat.
Retreat Cancellation and Refund Policy
Upon registration for a Mindfulness Travels retreat, participants are required to purchase comprehensive travel insurance that covers cancellations and refunds. Our retreat fee is non-refundable. If Mindfulness Travels must cancel, participants will receive a full refund minus $400. for administrative fees.
Grievance Policy
The CE provider seeks to ensure equitable treatment of every person and to make every attempt to resolve grievances in a fair manner. Please submit a written grievance to Linda Cammarata, RN at this email link: Linda Cammarata or call 828-398-4680. Grievances would receive, to the best of our ability, corrective action in order to prevent further problems.
Accommodations for the Differently Abled
Mindfulness Travels is committed to welcoming people of all abilities and doing our best to make accommodations for those who are differently abled. For individuals requiring special accommodations, please email Linda Cammarata or call 828-398-4680 to discuss your needs.
Continuing Education Verification
It is the participant's responsibility to communicate to their state board to verify CE requirements for their state. Licensed Counselors must check with their state board to ensure the reciprocity of CEs approved through the American Psychological Association (APA).
