Mindfulness training and its application in mental health professionals’ clinical practice is being offered during a weekend retreat in West Hartford, with continuing education credits available for the program.

Retreat leader Arnie Kozak. Submitted photo

Submitted by Copper Beech Institute

Copper Beech Institute will offer a weekend retreat on mindfulness for mental health professionals, Living in the Present Moment of Clinical Work, March 13-15, 2015. Participants will explore core mindfulness skills that can have significant value with client interventions while also protecting the caregiver’s own wellbeing. Seven CE credit hours are available for LCSWs, LPCs, licensed marriage and family therapists, and certified holistic nurses.

Retreat leader Arnie Kozak, Ph.D. is a clinical assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He brings 30 years of meditation and yoga practice to his teaching and has published several books on mindfulness and Buddhist psychology, including “Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness” and “Mindfulness A-Z: 108 Insights for Awakening Now.”

Mindfulness has been shown to help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain, and is therefore a valuable practice for mental health professionals to teach to their clients who are in distress. But the caregivers are subject to stresses of their own — sometimes referred to “compassion fatigue” — due to the emotional nature of their work. Mindfulness also has application here, providing skills for self-care that may help prevent occupational burnout.

Participants in the weekend retreat will learn the basics of mindfulness and meditation, explore basic Buddhist psychology, develop practical skills for mindful communication, and learn tools for getting unstuck and dis-identifying with painful stories.

Tuition for the weekend program is $250 plus accommodations. The retreat weekend also includes yoga classes and meditation practice. Healing arts therapies including massage and reflexology are also available for an additional charge.

To learn more about the Copper Beech Institute as well as scholarships through the Boundless Heart Fund, please visit copperbeechinstitute.org.

An independent, nonprofit retreat center, the Copper Beech Institute is located in West Hartford, CT on the campus of Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center where it leases space. The Institute offers day retreats, overnight retreats, professional trainings, and extended learning opportunities. Copper Beech Institute has also has partnered with the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness to offer an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course three times a year. The Institute’s campus has quiet places to rest with 200 beds, an art gallery and stone labyrinth, all on 48 wooded aces, with healing arts therapies and farm-to-table food to nourish health, and a compassionate staff to support personal growth and exploration.