Cultivating the Inner Holding Environment: An Intensive Mindfulness Retreat for Mental Health Professionals

We are pleased to offer the 9th annual mindfulness retreat for mental health professionals at Vallecitos.

Many in our field have been studying mindfulness and its clinical applications for years but have not found time for more intensive meditation practice. Others appreciate the opportunity to refresh their meditation practice with like-minded colleagues. By deliberately stepping out of everyday life and into a retreat environment, the subtle habit patterns of heart and mind are more easily accessed, and mindfulness can begin to deepen.

This week we will study and practice setting up the internal environment conducive for making progress in mindfulness meditation. In our experience, practitioners in this cognitively oriented and high stress culture frequently struggle in this area. We will offer many instructions and guided meditations designed to create a personally meaningful and enriching environment in which mindfulness practice may flourish.

This yearly course provides a container in which to explore these practices with colleagues. The teaching is experience-near, focusing on the development of mindfulness practice and its relevance in our work with others, particularly in the delivery of accurate empathy and therapeutic presence. There will be daily mindfulness meditation instruction and three to four hours of meditation each day, study modules most afternoons in combination with dyadic or small group discussion, and individual meetings with teachers. The rest of the time we will observe silence, including during meals, to facilitate a deeper contemplative experience.

This is a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in an exquisite natural environment and work closely with leaders in the growing field of clinical mindfulness meditation and compassion. Every effort will be made by the teachers and staff to give each participant a delightful, educational retreat experience, so that you can return home with renewed enthusiasm for clinical work and for cultivating mindfulness and compassion in daily life.

20 Continuing Education units are available to psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors. Eligible participants will receive a certificate for 20 CEUs at the conclusion of the retreat. 

This retreat is sponsored by the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.