Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme (MBSR)

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme (MBSR) is a scientifically supported group programme that focuses on teaching mindfulness within meditation teachings, where mindfulness practices are systematically progressed step by step.

 

This programme was developed by Prof. Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and first implemented at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) University Mindfulness Centre in 1979.

 

The MBSR programme can be used as a supportive, preventive, complementary or stand-alone modality. Integrating this capacity into our daily lives provides a resource that can be relied upon when struggling intensely with bodily symptoms and difficult emotions. Initially, it was a programme designed not only to heal patients with chronic pain and reduce their pain, but also to change the way they relate to pain. Later, it was used to cope with stress, challenging situations and emotions.

 

An experiential understanding of mindfulness is possible with MBSR practice. If you want to understand Mindfulness and if you go through MBSR for this purpose, it will be very enriching for you. Thus, Mindfulness will not remain as a concept, it will be much easier for you to turn it into a life, an experience.

 

About MBSR

The intervention has its roots in the ancient Buddhist Vipassana (insight) and Shamatha (focus) meditations and yoga practices. However, it is independent of religious aims or affiliations.

 

It is a group programme.

It lasts 8 weeks. It takes place 2 hours a week.

There is a 5 hour silence day.

The weekly sessions include a series of mental and bodily practices, including awareness of emotions, awareness of thoughts, awareness of sensations.

In addition to mindfulness practices and experiential work, psychoeducation and participant sharing clarify stress, stress management and how mindfulness is applied in everyday situations and interpersonal communication.

Outside the sessions, through audio recordings and guided practice, participants are encouraged to practice for 30-45 minutes every day.

 

Who is MBSR for?

It is primarily suitable for anyone who wants to deal skilfully and wisely with emotions and situations that challenge us in daily life.

There are no prerequisites (being a meditation practitioner, being a mental health professional, having a clinical diagnosis, age, gender) to be a participant of this programme. The programme is currently offered in many healthcare institutes in the USA and Europe. Target groups include people with chronic physical pain, cancer, or people experiencing anxiety, depression, burnout. The programme was also applied to non-clinical populations of students, therapists and prisoners.

In which situations is the MBSR programme used?
It is used to cope with stress, challenging situations and emotions. The MBSR programme can be used as a supportive, preventive, complementary or stand-alone method. Mindfulness is a skill that can be learnt. Integrating this skill into our daily lives provides us with resources to deal with intensely experienced physical symptoms and difficult emotions.

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How Does Intervention Work?

The MBSR programme provides systematic training in mindfulness as a self-regulation method to reduce stress and regulate emotions. The programme aims to become more aware of what is happening in any given moment through an accepting attitude. MBSR is designed to help people avoid habitual negative thoughts, feelings and behaviour patterns. Instead, it helps individuals to increase their coping skills through increased awareness and acceptance. Mindfulness training is linked to changes in areas of the brain responsible for emotion regulation and stress response. These changes in turn affect biological processes such as breathing, heartbeat and immune functions.

 

In the MBSR programme, each week has a theme. In this process, these themes and practices are emphasised. It is important to share the practices within the group. Sharing is an important process in the MBSR programme because naming is taming. When we share our practice experiences with the other participant, the importance we attach to that experience increases. Sometimes we do not attach much importance to a small experience we have in the moment. Therefore, talking about the experience increases the importance we give to that experience. Perhaps this is where change begins, by describing the experience, by expressing it.

 

Certificate of Participation 

In order to be entitled to receive a certificate of participation, it is necessary not to be absent for more than 2 sessions and to participate in the silence day. No certificate of attendance can be obtained after completing the day of silence. 

 

 

Upcoming MBSR Courses

Course Timetable
Session 1: 11 March Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00) 

Session 2: 18 March Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00) 

Session 3: 25 March Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00) 

Session 4: 8 April Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00)  

Session 5: 15 April Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00)  

Session 6: 22 April Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00)  

Session 7: 29 April Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00)  

Session 8: 6 May Tuesday 2025 - (20.00-22.00)  

 

Day of silence (retreat) - 27 April Sunday 2025 (11.00-13.00/Break/14.00-16.00)

Pricing:

Early Registration Period (Until 21 February 2025): 11.500 TL + VAT
Normal Registration Period (After 22 February 2025): 12.500 TL + VAT

 

 

Location
The training will take place online via ZOOM.

 

 

MBSR Trainer Features
First of all, it is important that the MBSR trainer has the necessary certifications and has gone through the formation process. As a prerequisite for this, they should have completed an MBSR Programme and then an MBSR Trainer Programme. The most important characteristic of practitioners is that they are people who have gone through their own processes and continue Mindfulness practices in their lives in a formal and informal way, because talking about something and experiencing it are completely different things. In order to understand it, you need to go through the processes and apply it on yourself. Prof. Dr. Zümra Atalay has completed the MBSR training of trainers programme organised by IMA (International Mindfulness Based Association).

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