Mindfulness Meditation Retreat for Therapists

Deepen your personal practice and understanding of mindfulness meditation and its clinical implementation within MiCBT

No event found!

Next Retreat: March 2025 (to be confirmed)

Overview

MiCBT Institute mindfulness meditation retreats are near-silent retreats with a predominantly meditative content, specifically designed to teach the practice of the Vipassana method in the popular Burmese tradition of Ven. Ledi Sayadaw, Saya Thet, U Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka. The retreats have the particularity of developing equanimity, one of the central mechanisms in MiCBT. They provide a more advanced understanding of mindfulness meditation and its fundamental purpose in the wider Buddhist teaching of the Eightfold Noble Path and its relevance to MiCBT. You will benefit from practising an ancient, authentic and unaltered mindfulness meditation tradition.

The retreats are offered to mental health therapists who have attended an MiCBT Foundation or Applied Course. The retreats are an opportunity to deepen your practice of mindfulness meditation and acquire priceless personal and professional benefits. They also provide a deepening of mindfulness meditation’s central effects and how these differ from occasional adverse effects reported in the literature.

The retreats are indispensable to anyone serious about acquiring a thorough experiential understanding of equanimity. While spending time with like-minded colleagues, the retreats are an ideal way to improve your self-care and regain a sense of peace and equanimity at home and work. The retreats are also an ideal training event to maintain yearly MiCBT professional development.

The fee is kept purposefully low to facilitate frequent attendance for MiCBT clinicians and teachers.

Learning Objectives

You will learn
to achieve greater levels of experiential awareness, equanimity and well-being
the structure, content and purpose of the Eightfold Noble Path, of which mindfulness is a part, and its relation to MiCBT
to implement mindfulness meditation with greater knowledge and confidence while using MiCBT

Pre-requisites

Participants must have successfully completed the MiCBT Foundation Course

Noble Silence and Right Speech

The retreats integrate the ethical principles of traditional Buddhist retreats. For example, to enhance your personal gain in this course, the silence of speech, body and mind (i.e., “Noble Silence”) must be kept at all times between 9:00 pm and 8:30 am, as well as during all rest, meal and break periods (except for dinner on the first day and lunch on the last day). You are welcome to speak to the teacher about private matters during breaks. During communication periods, participants abstain from using misleading speech and (Buddhist) “right speech” is cultivated.

Testimonials

This retreat was well run and Bruno has a strong compassionate and skilful holding of the group for the whole retreat. Would love to attend for 7 days next time.

It was a rewarding experiential learning that I would not be able to have the same outcome from an ordinary classroom teaching. I gained personal growth and insight about myself as well as clinical skills and knowledge. I feel that I have a deeper understanding of the MiCBT skills, its underlying Buddhism framework, and how to communicate them to clients. The venue was good enough and tranquil for the teaching and meditation. The staff/volunteers were helpful and friendly; trying their best to accomodate our needs for silence. I enjoyed the yoga classes which helped me to stretch muscles after long sitting. It will be fantastic if the course in Australia could be extended to have more days to further deepen learning. I would like to thank the MiCBT Institue staff for this well organised training. Also special thanks to Bruno for his teaching and providing a genuine and supportive environment for learning (as always been).

An excellent meditation retreat, with Bruno imparting invaluable skills and insights.

Great retreat in further developing understanding and insight related to mindulness and meditation for daily life. Bruno was responsive to the needs of the group in kind and compassionate ways, while also providing the opportunity for growth. Teachings were flexible and totally appropriate for me.

The MiCBT mindfulness meditation retreat was all that I asked for and more. Through the retreat, I have further deepened my understanding of the MiCBT technique, particularly in relation to the meditations themselves and how the benefits translate into day to day benefits. I also appreciated the in depth understanding of the origins of the MiCBT program as it pertains to elements of buddhist psychology. Overall, this retreat has resulted in improving the therapy I provide in addition to adding many benefits to my own life. Thank you for hosting this retreat.

The mindfulness retreat exceeded my expectations and I would highly recommend it to other therapists interested in utilizing mindfulness based approaches in their clinical work. It was extremely helpful to attend this retreat on both a personal and professional level.

I found the MiCBT Retreat to be a an invaluable experience for me, both personally and professionally. All aspects of the event were well thought out and implemented. The venue offered a very peaceful setting and significantly contributed to the benefits of the retreat for me. I would highly recommend this experience to others and plan to attend again.

I enjoyed every minute of it, as I have achieved deeper levels of self awareness while going through the experience. Thank you for a great experience of professional training!!

Bruno is an outstanding teacher. His depth of knowledge and ability to apply this in wise, compassionate, relevant and practical ways in working with individuals and groups is rare. The retreat environment is ideal in deepening therapists' personal and professional growth, resulting in greater quality of effectiveness in working with clients, and greater satisfaction for therapists in their work. Don't hesitate to be part of one of these retreats if you are a therapist working with MiCBT.

The 5 day retreat is a very valuable opportunity to gain a deeper level of practice experientially. Challenging but hugely beneficial.Bruno is a wonderful teacher and guided us beautifully towards a broader and deeper knowledge of MiCBT. Thank you Bruno.

I attended this 5 day retreat because I wanted to deepen my meditation practice alongside fellow MiCBT practitioners. Did not expect such a profound experience & outcome - understood more clearly because of Bruno's simple, clear and normalizing explanations and responses. This is one of those life junctures that has resulted in significant shift for me, both personally and professionally. Gratitude to Bruno and the MiCBT Institute & North American MiCBT Chapter for providing this opportunity/training. Would highly recommend.

A transformative experience. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to deepen their meditation practice and overall personal development. Thank you.

This retreat greatly deepened my understanding and personal practice of mindfulness meditation. I would recommend the MiCBT retreat to therapists looking to further develop their mindfulness meditative skills in an intensive format over a short time period. I am grateful to the teachers and facilitators for providing this opportunity.

Transformative - yet again.

Gained experiential insights to compliment cognitive insights. Deepened my mindfulness meditation practice and understanding of MiCBT implementation.

A very in-depth learning experience that could not have been gained in another way. Bruno is a very learned teacher and his knowledge is very apparent, which helped a great deal in the gaining of experiential knowledge. Highly recommended for those who would like to go to a deeper level of knowledge and practice

Thank you Bruno for offering this 3-day retreat. A vital part of deepening practice.

Really helped to deepen my understanding of the practice, resolved some things I'd been stuck on for years, really glad for the high quality instruction and the chance to spend several days just focused on practice.

I was impressed by the effects that an intensive amount of mindfulness practice can have, even in the context of a short 3-day retreat. I had a profound experience that Bruno was able to clearly explain. Bruno demonstrated skillful group facilitation of the daily discussions. Perhaps I could sum up my praise by saying that I wanted the retreat to continue! I will definitely attend future MiCBT retreats with Bruno.

The experiential awareness I gained at the retreat demonstrated that daily maintenance practices, which I never skip, are purely for maintenance. I cannot recommend regular silent meditation retreats highly enough to anyone who wish to advance their mindfulness skills and understanding.

A wonderful opportunity to refine practice and learn..

A highly valuable opportunity for clinicians working with MiCBT to significantly further develop their skills and effectiveness in understanding and applying MiCBT with clients

Always always always a deeper awareness of self (or "not-self")

I really enjoyed the training. It was challenging on many occasions but that is okay as it helps you to learn more and deepen your understanding. The group interacted well and contributed to the learning. I also enjoyed Bruno's insights and the opportunity to touch base with him and other meditators and strengthen my own resolve with the practices.

A very important opportunity to deepen one's understanding of the mind and MiCBT.

It has been a great experience and learning for me professionally and personally! Cathy's food is yummy and provided a calm and caring environment to practice. The content of the teaching was enjoyably complex and thought provoking. Bruno and other participants at the retreat made it easy to understand and take it in. This is a training that I would go back again! Thankyou

It made crystal clear the fluidity and connectivity of 1.lack of balance, 2. physical pain, and 3. emotional pain. It made it crystal clear what to do about it!

The retreat must have helped me dissolve a layer of my 'ego' or two - because I am now effortlessly loving and patient, both inside and out.