Breathing Space
Mindfulness
Your Mindfulness Training in Sydney
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness teaches you to relate to your internal world (thoughts and feelings) and the external world in a different way by helping you direct your attention. In so doing, you can choose how to respond to and manage things, instead of simply reacting to them. It can be surprising what impact making space for how you feel has on your mental health and wellbeing. Read on for more in-depth information regarding it’s application and benefits.
When some people think of meditation, they think of sitting still, clearing or blanking their mind, and chanting. Mindfulness meditation does not require any of these. Sitting still can well be part of a meditation, but it is not essential and some meditations are even based on movement. Just for the record, it’s virtually impossible to ‘blank’ your mind, so it’s lucky that is not the aim. Mindfulness is Mindful Meditation, but also doing day to day things in an a more ‘Mindful” way.
Individual / Group ProgramLife throws challenges our way. The types of challenge can vary from work stress, to life events such as accidents or relationship breakdowns, or long standing problems such as anxiety, low mood, chronic pain, etc. Sometimes, it’s nothing obvious, we just find ourselves living in our heads, or life just takes over and ‘gets in the way’ of our goals, plans and hopes.
People often find themselves feeling stuck and overwhelmed, trying to keep on top of competing demands and on top of their feelings at the same time. Sometimes the demands and feelings get on top of them; the more they try to multitask to manage, the less attention they pay to themselves, what they do and the world around them.
Mindfulness therefore can help with:
Anxiety
Anxiety
Mindfulness can help manage anxiety in a number of ways. When we start to feel anxious about something, it triggers a cycle that affects our thinking and physiological responses like heart racing, which then start to feed each other. Mindfulness offers us somewhere else to put our attention e.g. soles of our feet / places we are connected to the ground, or following the sensations of the breath. This can help take us out of the anxiety loop and help us steady ourselves. Mindfulness can also help us to see that that anxious thoughts are just thoughts and don’t have to be attended to or given the power we usually ascribe to them.
Depression
Depression
Many people that experience depression will agree that that when they feel low, they give more power and weight to certain types of thoughts. One of the things mindfulness can help with is noticing those old familiar thoughts and paying less attention to them. This skill can help deflect a downward spiral of mood and thought that leads to recurrent depression.
Stress
Stress
We often feel stressed when we have too much going on in our minds and lives. Trying to attend to too many things at once leaves us scattered, less able to cope and more stressed. We can use mindfulness to gather ourselves, do one thing at a time, and sit with the uncomfortable feeling of not trying to sort out multiple problems simultaneously. This often helps manage stress and start to be more productive, so we can achieve more and beat stress at the same time.
Managing Pain
Pain
Mindfulness applies to pain management in a number of ways. Often people with chronic pain report that stress and mood affects pain levels. As Mindfulness can help manage stress and mood, it can therefore help reduce the factors that affect pain.
It is also used to learn to recognise the difference between intense physical sensations, the thoughts we have about them and the emotional response to them. By doing so, some people can learn to relate to painful sensations differently.
Sleep and Overthinking
Sleep and Overthinking
One of the main skills one is practicing during any Mindful activity is letting go of thoughts and mind wandering. For those who are constantly overthinking, or kept awake by busy minds, the realisation that you can let thoughts go again and again is a powerful and useful one.
Getting more from your day and looking after yourself
Getting more from your day
As you learn to become more Mindful and pay more attention to everyday things, you can begin to notice pleasant experiences that have been in your daily routine that you just haven’t attended to before. Noticing many small things can add a lot to your day. By meditating regularly, attending to more, seeing thoughts as just thoughts and spending less time in their heads, people report a greater sense of wellbeing and looking after themselves.
The Program
The program is based on the eight week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale. It comprises eight x two hour sessions and a whole day of mindfulness towards the end.
Each session starts with a guided meditation, followed by a discussion about it. Participants are then asked to talk about their experience of the home practice that they have done during the week. The learning comes from these discussions, as this is where the skills are fine-tuned and all trouble shooting occurs. Not everyone has to say something every week; as long as everyone listens, you will pick up tips and learn from other people’s experiences.
Home practice is one of the most important components, with people asked to try to find time each day. Even though this can seem impossible in an already hectic day, there is usually some way of managing it. If you are interested in the course, but think you will struggle with this, please contact me to discuss. Quite simply, the more you put in, the more you get out.
Each week there will be handouts with a summary of the themes from that week and instructions for the home practice.
The aim of this eight week course is to learn a new skill and develop the understanding that goes with it. It is not a forum to discuss and work through one’s personal problems and difficulties. This means that it is well suited to those who prefer to not discuss their personal problems and stresses with strangers.
It is usually taught as a group program as lots of helpful learning comes from the shared experience. It can also be taught to individuals or private groups, please see below for pricing.
Please contact me with any questions you have about mindfulness, the program or whether it is right for you.
Value for money
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Place on Group Program
$695 Inc. GST- 16 hours tuition (eight x 2 hour sessions)
- handouts each week with that week’s themes and home practice
- access to recorded guided meditations
- invitation to attend every full day of Mindfulness run with subsequent programs
- the chance of winning a place on the next course to gift to a friend or loved one (a draw takes place at the end of each course)
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Private Individual Tuition
From $240 per hour (8-10 hours usually required, rates vary depending on location if sessions are at your home). Includes:- 1 hour intensive tuition
- handouts that correspond to the group program summarising themes and home practice
- access to recorded guided meditations
- invitation to attend every full day of Mindfulness run along side each group program
- Medicare Rebates applicable
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Private Small Group
(2-4 people) From $325 per hour inc GST (8-10 hours usually required, rates vary depending on location if sessions are at your home). Includes:- 1 hour intensive tuition
- handouts that correspond to the group program summarising themes and home practice
- access to recorded guided meditations
- invitation to attend every full day of Mindfulness run along side each group program
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Corporate Packages
Various options possible depending on company need Please contact me for more details
Dates and Location
All sessions are on a Wednesday evening from 6.30pm - 8.30pm, apart from the 'half day of mindfulness' which is on Sunday 01 December.
| Session 1 | 23 October 2019 |
| Session 2 | 30 October 2019 |
| Session 3 | 06 November 2019 |
| Session 4 | 13 November 2019 |
| Session 5 | 20 November 2019 |
| Session 6 | 27 November 2019 |
| Session 7 | 04 December 2019 |
| Session 8 | 11 December 2019 |
Half Day of Mindfulness: Sunday 01 December 2019 10.30am - 1.30pm (at City Community Tennis Hall, Prince Alfred Park)
Location of Sessions:
Surry Hills Community Centre, Level 1, 405 Crown Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Please request a contact via the form below or call with any queries.
It is often helpful for us to have a brief chat about what you hope the course will help you with prior to booking.
About Me
Dr. Nunzio Mosca
DClin Psych, Dip Psych, BA (Hons)
I am a Clinical Psychologist, originally from the UK, now living in Sydney and offering therapy as well as mindfulness training. I completed my Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter in the UK in 2008 and have worked in mental health full time ever since.
My career has been quite diverse, working in community settings, as well as psychiatric and medical hospitals. Since arriving in Sydney in 2014, I have worked in both private and public capacities, working at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Pain Management Clinic, in the oncology setting at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Cancer Hospital, and with private Pain Management and private Clinical Psychology practices.
I started teaching Mindfulness Meditation in a clinical setting in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK in 2011. I now teach Mindfulness via the above group program in Sydney, as well as individually or small private groups. I also offer Corporate Mindfulness packages, including ‘Lunch and Learn’ talks.
Breathing Space Mindfulness Contact Form