Taking it Further Research Course

Description

This October 2021, the Oxford Mindfulness Centre will offer a number of ‘Taking it Further’ courses at a reduced fee if you take part in a research study – both the courses and the research will be online. This study involves completing surveys that will ask questions about your well-being and mental health over time.

You are invited to complete your first survey by September 15th, 12:00 midnight, UK Time: https://psychiatryoxford.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_01lPrBQn9JjffsW

The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete and it will ask you to fill out a consent form and to answer questions on well-being.  We will be recording changes in your well-being prior to the start of the study to make sure it is the right time for you to take part. If you have recently experienced a traumatic event or are struggling with bereavement, please get in touch with the research team so that we can support you and discuss the next steps.

Please complete this registration form no later than September 15th, at midnight, UK Time so that we can process all the applications on time. The research team will be in contact to inform you of your eligibility and you will receive your next survey one week after completing this survey, so please check your email regularly and if you have not received it by then, please contact the research team at shannon.maloney@psych.ox.ac.uk

Registering does not confirm your place on the course due to limited capacity.

What will I do on this course?

• Attend 12 sessions lasting 2 hours and 15 minutes. The first session is 2 hours and 30 minutes
• This is a structured course where each session builds upon what has been introduced before. This is why it is important to attend all the sessions
• You will be in a group of up to 12 people, led by one of OMC’s experienced mindfulness teachers
• Each session will have guided and structured meditation practices. Many sessions also have exercises drawn from modern psychology
• Each practice or exercise is followed by a review of what you and/or other participants experienced or discovered in that practice/exercise. This review does not include a discussion of participants’ past history
• Each session is followed by suggestions for personal practice of up to 45 minutes. This includes both recommended guided practices, and also ways to cultivate new habits of mindfulness in everyday life
• You will have access to a web resource which gives you guided practices and written material to support each session.

Learning Outcomes

• How to learn more about attention and how to use it skilfully
• How to cultivate the attitudes of mindfulness, in practice and in life
• To understand how we can choose to vary the perspective we are taking in order to respond more skilfully
• To extend our learning to include both our inner and our outer, wider world in ways that are consistent with our values