Mindfulness and Counselling in the Community

The course investigates, Buddhist Mindfulness related to Anapanasati and Satipatthana; awareness of breath, body, feelings, mind and phenomena/dhamma. Through exploration of Buddhist spirituality/philosophy/psychology related to these two discourses class members will draw links to everyday life. Focusing on mindfulness of breathing, speech, feelings and thoughts members will examine the pedagogy of mindfulness attributed to the historical Buddha and his associates along with its contributions to contemporary counselling. The class will be conducted in a lecture/seminar style drawing on key points from the readings including interest from class participants. Each class will begin with a 5 minute silent meditation followed by a summary/discussion of key theoretical concepts based on weekly readings. The second half of the class will begin with another 5 silent meditation, and progress to include other mindfulness meditation exercises. Class members' will also have the opportunity to share and discuss their weekly response papers as it relates to mindfulness pedagogy and experiential practice. Invited guest speaker(s) will speak on the practice of meditation.