Be Mindful&ACT training program for mental health professionals

WELCOME TO BE MINDFUL&ACT

Be Mindful&ACT is a mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy based e-learning course for mental health professionals. The course is available in three languages, Spanish, Slovenian and English. The first part of the program (5 modules) focuses on the potentiation of the own psychological flexibility of the mental health professionals and learning ways to relate with stressful thoughts and feelings that enable actions based on what is important at a precise moment. The second part of the program (module 6) has been specifically designed to be employed in the work with patients and clients. The six modules contain 13 weekly sessions that follow a homogeneous structure containing the following elements: agenda, audio practices/activities, conceptual and theoretical materials, written activities, self-care documents, session summary, a leaflet with activities and proposals for the week. The training program uses a metaphor of maritime navigation to refer to going through life- the ship serves as an analogy of the body and the weather conditions
represent the thoughts, feelings and sensations.

The main objective of the first module is to present the basic elements of mindfulness in a practical way. The professionals are introduced to the basic elements of mindfulness, the concept of the “autopilot mode” and how it affects most of the people, and the concept of noticing “jerk of the mind” (when the mind doesn’t pay attention to changes of internal and external contexts), among others. The second module, on one hand, approaches augmenting the perceptive abilities in terms of internal events, external events and bodily sensations with the objective of becoming more conscious of one’s own necessities and the conditions taking place at the moment. Developing these skills will help to differentiate the tension level and other sensations taking place in the participant’s mind and body. Finally, the participant will learn more about the experiences that are under her control and those that are not and, consequently, attempting to control them will generate more problems than solutions. The purpose of the third module is to deal with the changes in the perspective of ‘‘I’’ (oneself), through several different exercises, precise instructions on how to take perspective and become a spectator watching the development of internal events. This way, the participant will learn to differentiate between who he is and his thoughts and feelings (dissociation). In the fourth module, the focus is placed on emotional management, not understood as control or opposition to the emotions, but as acceptance of unpleasant internal experiences (thoughts, feelings, and sensations) and taking control of the actions to be taken to advance in the desired direction. This training will be gradually performed, starting with neutral emotions and thoughts, and moving on to more general practice with those internal experiences with more emotional charge and that might require more effort. The fifth module is a recap of the first part of the course. The sixth module has been specifically designed to be employed in the work with patients and clients. It introduces tailor-made mindfulness and ACT based techniques to be applied in professional practice, with the following objectives:

- Becoming a more present and client-focused professional.
- Working towards understanding how your clients sail through life and how they interact with their adverse conditions.
- Training how to adjust your interaction when facing any client (different ways of interacting) and be able to help them face their distress in a way
that does not take them apart from their life objectives

To enroll in the course, please contact us at dsm@intras.es.