As we in the field are quickly discovering, mindfulness-oriented psychotherapy helps clients build their capacity to safely tolerate emotional (and sometimes, physical) discomfort in order to ultimately move beyond it. In this video series, mindfulness and addiction experts Dr. Sarah Bowen and Devin Ashwood demonstrate a range of key skills in an eight-week group recovery setting. Full of rich practices and useful commentary, this series offers tools to support your work with clients, regardless of their clinical presentation.
Each video starts with an introduction of MBRP, including its clinical origins, phases of treatment, three primary foundations, and guiding tenets. Having developed this approach with a team of researchers under the mentorship of the late G. Alan Marlatt, an expert on harm reduction, Bowen notes the modality’s emphasis on using the practices to help clients become experts on themselves. Ashwood, noting that facilitation is best approached from a place of the clinician’s own experience rather than a script, challenges practitioners to lead from a place of personal resonance, rather than a detached “expert” role.
You’ll then watch Ashwood conduct mindfulness-based group therapy with clients in the early recovery phase of treatment. Group members practice the “body scan,” “walking down the street,” “urge surfing,” the “mountain meditation,” the “SOBER breathing space” (Stop, Observe, Breathe, Expand, and Respond), and the “friendliness meditation” geared toward self-acceptance—activities that Ashwood describes in detail and covers in the commentary provided.
If you’re in search of up-to-date resources on mindfulness, addiction and recovery, or group work, this video series is one you won’t want to miss.
By watching this series, you will:
- Understand the theoretical underpinnings of MBRP, and how they apply to clients in recovery.
- Learn how to lead the practices of the “body scan,” “urge surfing,” the “SOBER breathing space,” and more.
- Discover key skills for leading a mindfulness-based group inquiry.
Length of Series: 3:14:22
English subtitles available
Devin Ashwood has worked in a range of substance misuse settings and is currently program leader and lecturer in addictions counseling for the Centre for Addiction Treatment Studies and the University of Bath. His specialties include mindfulness, interpersonal group therapy and cognitive therapy. He has been working in private practice as a therapist and supervisor for over ten years and has been delivering and teaching interpersonal group therapy since 2006. Devin’s work with the Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) authors Sarah Bowen and Neha Chawla has helped develop and deliver a version of MBRP compatible with rolling treatment programs as well as an advanced training pathway for mindfulness teachers. He has been practicing mindfulness since 1999 and has studied with, and conducted research at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice on the University of Bangor’s master’s program. Devin leads a number of meditation groups and retreats throughout the year including offering his time as a Buddhist Chaplain to the prison service.