Courses

PATHWAYS TO RESILIENCE™

Over the past five decades the rates of anxiety, depression and stress-related conditions in this country have increased markedly and are well on their way to becoming worldwide problems.

PATHWAYS TO RESILIENCE ™ is an integrative workshop that brings together interventions for body, mind and spirit in a fresh and comprehensive way to help individuals address these problems. The most powerful approach to regaining resilience begins by recognizing that we are unified beings. Although we have many entry points for toxins—nutritional, informational, relational, to name only a few—that deplete our natural resilience, we have at least as many pathways back to resilience.

In this workshop you will learn about The Seven Roots of Resilience, and you will use our assessment tools to identify the aspects of resilience where you are already strong and the aspects where you have greater vulnerability. You will learn physical, psychological and spiritual practices that enhance resilience and you will leave with your own Resilience Plan.

There are a variety of ways for you to explore Pathways to Resilience™. We schedule workshops in the Twin Cities, and will also work with you to offer one- or two-day workshops at your location. In the future we will make Pathways to Resilience™ available to more people via our on-line course.

NOTE: At this time there are no scheduled Pathways to Resilience courses in the Twin Cities area.

RESILIENCE TRAINING

Offered at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing in Minneapolis.  Call 612.863.3333 for information.  2011 programs begin January 11, February 16, March 15, April 13, May 10, June 8, August 30, September 28, and October 25.

Inspired by the book, The Chemistry of Joy, and based on The Seven Roots of Resilience, the Resilience Training program aims to restore balance with natural therapies, including diet, exercise and selected micronutrients. Consultations with holistic psychiatrist, Henry Emmons, MD, integrative nutritionist Carolyn Denton, MA, LN, and exercise physiologist Sue Masemer, provide participants with a foundation for the program.

In the eight-week skill-building program that follows these initial consultations, participants meet for 2 ½ hours weekly in groups of fifteen. In these groups, participants learn and practice skills of meditation, mindful self-awareness and reflection, befriending emotions, managing difficult emotional states, opening the heart, and deep connection with self and others. Experienced trainers, Susan Bourgerie, LP and Sandra Kacher, LICSW facilitate these groups,  creating with participants a safe and spacious experience where a remarkable level of trust is inspired among members.

Testimonials:

  • “I have never been able to talk so frankly and honestly about my struggles with depression as I have in this program. I am amazed at how safe and understood I felt with my group.”
  • “For the first time in my adult life, I made it through the winter without a depressive episode!”
  • “Although I didn’t find the “magic cure” I’d been looking for, I now accept myself– depression and all–and feel more hope than I ever have before.”

SHAME AND SELF COMPASSION:  THE HEALING POWER OF MINDFULNESS

Saturday morning series – June 11, 18, and 26, 2011            Thursday evening series – June 16, 23, and 30, 2011

Loring Psychotherapy & Mindfulness Center – Minneapolis, MN.

For many of us there has long been a separation from ourselves, and the inability to give ourselves the kindness and compassion that we offer to others.  The origins of this suffering differ from person to person, but at the core is the experience of shame – the painfully felt experience of believing we are deeply flawed and therefore unworthy of connection.

In this three-session class you will:

  • Assess your own level of shame vs. self-compassion
  • Understand and work through specific barriers that keep you from being more accepting of yourself
  • Learn a clear and proven path to developing a compassionate heart and mind
  • Practice a variety of mindfulness-based and meditative practices that will move you along this path

We will use the work of Kristin Neff, author of Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind, and Tara Brach’s book Radical Acceptance, which centers on use of the Buddhist practices of mindful awareness and compassion that offer healing from shame.  The class will be largely experiential, as we spend time in guided meditations, creating a safe container for touching into some aspects of experience that have been difficult to face – some loss, rage, shame, or fear that is in need of healing attention.  We will practice anchoring in the body, developing awareness of inner experience, staying with whatever arises, and developing the healing capacity for radical and compassionate acceptance of our experience and of ourselves, just as we are.  Previous meditation experience is helpful, but not necessary.

For more information contact Susan Bourgerie, MA, LP at 612.874.8608 or email susan@partnersinresilience.com

Click here for a flyer and registration form.

SETTLING THE MIND: EASTERN WISDOM & PRACTICES FOR YOUR 21st CENTURY LIFE

 

This class offers instruction and support in developing practices that quiet the mind, focus attention,and open the heart to self and others. At the core of this instruction are mindfulness meditation and informal mindfulness practices that can be integrated into your daily life.

Weekly readings and practice assignments will be given to support your efforts to integrate the classroom instruction into your daily routines. These readings and assignments have their roots in a variety of meditative traditions – Zen, Vipassana, and Tibetan Buddhism. Special attention will be given to the use of meditative practices as a means of dealing with difficult emotions triggered in daily living and relationships, and methods of cultivating a positive state of mind will be explored.

BENEFITS OF FULL PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROGRAM INCLUDE:

  • Increased ability to reduce stress and anxiety
  • A quieter mind and decreased emotional reactivity
  • Strengthened ability to change negative habits
  • A sense of well-being and greater enjoyment of the present moment
  • Development of greater compassion for self and others

NOTE: No offerings currently scheduled in the Twin Cities area.