Mindfulness and Counsellor or Therapist Training

The Western Chan Fellowship offers retreats ideally suited to those individuals who are training in and continuing a professional practice in therapies that are based on mindfulness.

With its innovative and unique retreat the "Western Zen Retreat" we offer an experience that is fully incorporated into an understanding of Western psychology whilst being based on a traditional and authentic foundation of meditative practice.

This retreat with its beginning question, "Who am I?" provides an experience central to the appreciation of how we personally operate and how the processes of mindfulness allow for a personal development on the issues and dilemmas that each of us face.

Therapists and counsellors report benefits of undertaking this retreat in their training and some prior to commencing their training. Many therapists and counsellors incorporate our retreats into their continuing professional development as they offer a continual way of investigating the issues involved in the interface of "me as a person" with "me as therapist". Our retreats deal directly with the issues involved with ‘mindfulness of self’, ‘mindfulness of the other’, ‘mindfulness of listening’, ‘mindfulness of being’, ‘mindfulness of mindfulness’ and ‘beyond mindfulness’.

Several of our senior practitioners and teachers have a background in counselling and psychotherapy and they bring their integrative knowledge into their presentations. This is in a way that is beneficial for those who wish to develop their mindfulness skills both professionally and personally. For individuals who develop an ongoing involvement with the Fellowship personal consultations on ‘self and therapist’ are readily available.

Further Reading

• Adapting traditional Buddhist practice to a Western context, by Simon Child, Teacher of the Western Chan Fellowship
• Mindfulness and Mindfulness Training, by Eddy Street, Family Therapist, past Chair of the Western Chan Fellowship
• Paying Attention, by Professor Susan Blackmore
• Western Zen Retreat Reports, reports by participants on their experience of retreat