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Creston mindfulness teacher-in-training offering eight-week course

As a step to becoming a certified mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher, Kuya Minogue is offering free eight-week class...
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Kuya Minogue

Less than 100 people in the world are certified mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) teachers, and Creston’s Kuya Minogue is working toward joining their ranks. To that end, she’s offering a free eight-week mindfulness training course, which is the next step toward her goal.

The course, which starts March 17, involves eight two-hour classes — plus one daylong retreat — which cover, among other things, sitting and walking meditation, and mindful communication. And in between each class is 45 minutes of daily homework, including guided meditation and mindful yoga.

It involves a lot of concepts that Minogue, the resident teacher at the Creston Zen Centre, is familiar with through her study and teaching of Zen and Buddhism. But it also has a significant difference.

“It’s evidence-based,” she said. “It’s not Zen or Buddhist. This is completely secular. It has nothing to do with religion at all. ... It’s not a touchy-feely New Age thing.”

MBSR is a behavioural medicine program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Research has suggested it improves brain function, blood pressure and some medical conditions, said Minogue. And it has other applications, too; she will offer a mindful eating workshop in April, and, later in the year, an addiction relapse prevention workshop.

“There isn’t a lot of didactic teaching,” she said. “It’s about learning practices.”

Minogue recently took 10 days of training along with professionals, including surgeons, psychologists and an advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, from Europe, South America and Asia, to prepare for the program she is about to teach.

The course was a real eye-opener for Minogue, who appreciates being “a member of a community of people who are so extremely well educated in medical and psychology fields and seeing how sincere they are about helping others. ... It’s changed my whole self-concept.”

There’s far more to come, though. The upcoming eight-week course is part of a research project, and Minogue will write a report based on her students’ outcomes. After that, she takes 10 days of teacher development training, teaches under Skype supervision from the University of Massachusetts, takes a course in Boston and makes a DVD of her teaching. Only then will the school decide if she’s prepared for certification.

“It’s a readiness model,” Minogue said. “They really want qualified teachers because it’s so effective if it’s done right.”

For more information, including requirements for admission to the course, contact Minogue at 250-428-6500 or kuya@telus.net, or visit www.kootenaymindfulnesscentre.org.