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Mindfulness, Meditation & Breathwork  | Mental Health Empowerment HYBRID

Strengthen your capacity to support yourself, as well as those you may teach or care for who have mental health challenges. This in-depth 4-week hybrid course will take you on a journey of empowerment to optimize your mental health through breathwork, mindfulness & meditation.

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Mindfulness, Meditation & Breathwork  | Mental Health Empowerment | IN STUDIO or LIVESTREAM

David Behrens | 4 week course | 5–26 October 2024 | Price: £395 

We all need support through life, no matter how resilient, capable and knowledgeable we are. Mental Health is something we all possess, and good mental health is key to loving a life of growth and feeling alive. At some point in our lives, most of us will experience some trauma, and recovery back to health through repairing our nervous systems is key to healing our wounds. When it comes to our physical health, it is common practice to seek to improve it, even when we have no known issues. But we tend to take our mental health for granted, and rarely consider it until we experience the anguish of anxiety, depression, and other symptoms. This course is for everyone wishing to give mental health the attention it deserves — to tap into and cultivate optimal mental health, whether mental health issues are present or not. In a nutshell, this course can benefit all.

Strengthen your capacity to support yourself, as well as those you may teach or care for who have mental health challenges. This course is a deep dive into ancient energy practices combined with a modern scientific understanding of the nervous system and trauma. You’ll experience the power of breathwork, mindfulness & meditation to harmonise your own nervous system, restore vitality, and foster a sense of safety and balance. In deepening the power of your own capacity for compassionate self-care, you’ll not only optimise your own mental health, but also find the inspiration and skills for easing the burdens of mental illness and trauma in those you care for, or those you work with in a professional capacity. These are lifetime skills, which will help you realize mental health potential in yourself and others.  

Ahead of the course we will be running a FREE webinar with David – click on the link below to book in.

Course Overview

This in-depth 4-week hybrid course will take you on a journey of empowerment to optimize your mental health and give you skills and tools to help others do the same. The course is suitable for anyone who is looking to improve their own mental health as well as for those working to support others in a professional capacity, such as yoga teachers, alternative therapists, teachers, psychologists and psychotherapists.    

The course focuses on mindfulness, meditation and breathwork. Here is what the course will cover  in more depth:

  • why incorporating mindfulness-based practices into therapy empowers healing and recovery  
  • how experiencing for yourself the dynamic transformational potential of yoga and mindfulness — the source of true self-care —expands your ability to give to others 
  • how the journeys of spiritual development, personal development and recovery are all rooted in the same shared holistic principles and practices 
  • the power of the three core practices of mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork to transform lives 
  • how mindfulness meditation reshapes the brain, guides the mind, rebuilds brain functions, and expands the capacity for present-moment awareness and deep focus
  • what actual clients on the recovery journey say about their experiences of healing through the power of mindfulness 
  • what we need to understand to use the tools of ancient and modern energy practices safely to harmonize the nervous system when working in a professional capacity 
  • the importance of understanding what keeps the nervous system from functioning harmoniously and what hinders our ability to access our full vitality 
  • why understanding how different traditions and professions define mental health and mental illness helps you be clear in your own approach 
  • how Polyvagal Theory provides an elegant modern-day understanding of the nervous system’s influence on mental health and how to support people back to wholeness 
  • how the nervous system and the development of the brain are affected by trauma 
  • how to approach and modulate the dynamic power of the stress response at its extremes — the anxiety and worry states of hyperarousal, and the depressive states associated with hypo-arousal 
  • why understanding stress is key to preventing relapse in mental illness and addiction   
  • how to apply a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to rebuilding resilience in the face of mental health challenges and restoring the nervous system’s ability to self-regulate  
  • why the breath holds the key to harmonizing the nervous system, connecting with the intelligence of the body, building a healthier relationship with the mind, and living in self-acceptance, love, and gratitude 
  • the “Breath behind the breath”: How working with the prana, the shakti, the vital force — the pure energy within which is the very essence of yoga and the spiritual path — is key to a cutting-edge understanding of the therapeutic approach to improved mental health and healing from trauma   
 
Read more about Mental Health over on our Blog.
Mental Health Empowerment
Mindfulness yoga training

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Course Overview by David Behrens

Mental Health Empowerment

Course Content

This mindfulness, meditation and breathwork for mental health course is structured into eight sessions, each of which includes time for practice and reflection: 

Part 1
The Journey to Mental Health: From Victim to Empowerment
Through the Practice’s of Breathwork, Mindfulness, and Meditation
 
Part 2
The Empowering Relationship
of Body and Breath
 
Part 3
The Power of Befriending the Mind
 
Part 4
The Empowering Heart
 
Part 5

Harmonizing the Nervous System:
Restoring Vitality Through Ancient Energy Practices

 
Part 6

Harmonizing the Nervous System:

Restoring Vitality Through Ancient Energy Practices
 and Understanding How Trauma Shapes Our Lives – Part II

Part 7
Unfolding our Spiritual Energy

Part 8
Gathering our Knowledge and Experiences into Wisdom

David Behrens Biography

David Behrens is a breathwork , mindfulness & meditation teacher who collaborates with doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapists throughout London and Gloucestershire. His specialty areas include addiction and mental health recovery, working with young people with learning disabilities, and working with families. He teaches mindfulness-based stress management to individuals and corporations, and as a MISP (Mindfulness in Schools Project) teacher, has trained social workers, teachers, and students. David’s work is inspired by and rooted in his nearly thirty years of practicing and teaching meditation while a monk at an international retreat site in India, where he also studied ayurvedic medicine and yoga philosophy. He is also an advanced practitioner of homeopathy.

David’s extensive multidisciplinary background has taught him the subtleties of tailoring the approach to the individual. He loves the synergy that happens when the ancient fundamentals of yoga (specifically mindfulness, meditation and breathwork) come together with the contemporary science of the nervous system.  

Read this recent Newsweek article in which David is interviewed on the topic of Sleep & Meditation.

David-Behrens

TESTIMONIAL

“David is the embodiment of compassion. His teachings are bespoke and incredibly effective, and I warmly recommend him to anyone committed to understanding what mindfulness is and to developing a practice. It can change your life.”
Elsa
You have guided us beautifully with our minds and breath and have taught us how its all connected. I take this with me and integrate it in my everyday life, as a yoga teacher as well as a public health scientist. A big heart warm thank you David for this wonderful course. It has literally changed my life.
JW
David provided a depth of knowledge that I never expected. I thought the course was going to be the same as many commercial tutorials but he provided a lot for me to think about as well as touch on sensitive subjects that I continue to work on. I like the fact that he was willing to share his sources and is very generous with the extra time he provided.
[This course] has open my eyes to learn about how much meditation can change how you feel not only about yourself, but also about the world around you.. I have managed to create the habit of meditation and it has given me the gift of feeling connected to my body... This course has helped me to feel better with myself and to calm down my talking mind. I loved every single lesson... it has been the best present I could give to myself.
This course not only inspired me but sparked a mind switch. I can finally say meditation is a daily practice, and I can touch that blissful place every single day, at least for a moment. I learnt a lot in this thirty-hour journey through body, mind, and breath. I can't count all the defining moments… I realized that I don’t need to sit still for twenty minutes every day for my meditation practice. A single moment of presence – a chant, a gesture, a breath, can take me there. This feeling will stay with me for the rest of my life. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to listen to you, and share this experience with an awesome group of people.
MM
“I have been struggling with a number of symptoms for many years. Initially I was unsure how David and his type of treatment may be able to help. I was surprised how calm, easy going and understanding David was when we initially spoke. Additionally, it was his time spent as a monk that I felt could help me further and in a unique way, opposed to others trained within the psychological field. [Working with David], I came to understand how my past experience and trauma had been creating beliefs and patterns of behaviour that put my body into a sympathetic state, which make my symptoms worse. David used tools which were and are simple to follow…. I am now at a point where I am no longer in that state as often and as a result, I have more balance within myself and in my life.”
L.K.
“Thank you for providing practical mindfulness techniques which the people attending can follow up and maintain the practice. The group particularly commented on how useful these techniques are. [The session was] well-paced, met the needs of the group, and engaged the group and answered their questions.”
Organizer, Mindfulness Taster Session, NHS
“…each week the discussions on the various topics of mindfulness have further reinforced my understanding of the importance of a healthy mind. The practices, such as being aware of one's breath, have been extremely useful when wanting to clear the mind of past worries and future anxieties. I would highly recommend it to anyone that worries or struggles to deal with stress.”
“As an autistic person I have found it hard to find someone I can work with to help me further on my journey over the years. However, working with David has helped me to learn some really insightful techniques that I could add to my day-to-day life to become more present within the body and soothe the nervous system when it enters fight or flight mode or a time of illness….I highly recommend David to anyone who would like a gentle hand that can guide them through developing daily practices to help reduce stress and learn new ways of dealing with certain daily life challenges through these practices.”
V.M.
“I have learned the ability to stop myself when I start thinking about a conversation I haven't even had yet with someone. I would normally over-think an issue or problem which would be very upsetting. I now stop those thoughts and they go away.”
“[The course] really highlighted how busy my mind can be and has taught the practices to cope with this. I feel like I no longer panic when there are lots of different things going on in my mind. I am more able to let my thoughts go and effectively 'park' them until I need to deal with them, if I need to deal with them at all.”
“The thoughts of my illness, which is schizophrenia, are haphazard and convoluted and complicated concoctions of fears and anxieties, and so the ability to say to myself, I’m not going to think that because it’s not true, and pass on to the next thought, really does free me from the agony and desperation of schizophrenia. [David]…created an exercise for moving on from my thoughts, and I realised that it works, and it brought me great joy, really, because it set me free.”
“After my first meeting with David, I was already a different person. I realized that the meditations that I was doing every day, were giving me back the awareness in my life. He gave me many useful meditations [and] helped me scheduling my meditations as well and explained really well why the meditation was useful.  He helps looking at a problem from a different perspective and that often really opened my eyes and made it much easier to cope with everything. Personally, I would recommend David to anyone that is dealing with life.”
“I have introduced the breathing element into various aspects of my day-to-day life; this allows me to have control over situations, due to living in the present, […] more composed as a result.”
“Have been able to be more objective. Become much better at guiding my thoughts where I want them or perhaps away from where I don't want them. Learned to step back and take a pause before refocusing. Can help relaxation. Helpful, useful, and instructive.”
I have really enjoyed every single session. When I started this journey, I wanted to learn how to deal with my emotions and my talking mind. I wanted to be able to be more present, and definitely I can say this course has helped me to connect with myself and be more aware of my emotions. Including the meditation in my day-to-day has helped me to start the day in a better mood. I am very happy that I committed to this course, it has been a great pleasure to listen to David during the eight sessions.
David is highly experienced and knowledgable teacher, this course allowed me to delve deeper into my inner landscaoe and gave me a greater understanding of somatics. I have gained a deeper insight into the benefits of meditation which I will continue to share with my students
inspring & mindblowing... I'm taking away the power of choice and the choice is the power - the ability to learn to guide, rather than control our thoughts and emotions
LZ
This has given me tangible ways to stay in the present moment
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Course Dates

The course has the following modules scheduled:

  • 5 October 2024 Day 1

    1-5.30pm

  • 12 October 2024 Day 2

    1-5.30pm

  • 19 October 2024 Day 3

    1-5.30pm

  • 26 October 2024 Day 4

    1-5.30pm

Pricing

  • The cost is £395
  • A non-refundable deposit of £150 is required on booking.
  • To reserve your place, please >>click BOOK button below >> sign in or input your details and choose payment method
  • If you do not pay in full, please ensure that you save your credit card details so we can process the final payment of £225. This will happen 21 days before the start of the course and a receipt will be sent to you when the payment has been taken.
  • In order for the balance to be processed, please ensure that you save your card details and opt for the direct debit option. If you prefer to pay by the credit card option then this incurs a 2.4% charge. Receipts will be sent to you when the payments are taken.
  • 300 hour students get a 10% discount on this training if they have booked three trainings with us including the core. Email us if this is the case and the discount will be applied when the balance is taken
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