The Mindful Therapist

With Sal Flynn

Sal Flynn is a Yoga therapist, psychotherapist and educator. In this presentation Sal will look at some simple yet effective models for understanding our habitual responses and in doing so enable us as therapists to model the qualities of being aware and present for clients.

Mindful practice is a scientific dispassionate willingness to look at things as if for the first time. Zen Buddhists call this “beginners mind” - a knowing awareness that is as much about “not knowing”.

Sal will explain how when we approach our work with clients like this it becomes profoundly healing and transformative - a way of being that comes from cultivating our own personal experience of being absolutely present for whatever arises whether that be good, bad or neutral. As a consequence of this, we are inviting our clients to drop into that same way of being, allowing them to come to terms with the way things are. When we and our clients find this way of being, often things change in profoundly meaningful ways that we might not have considered. Through our own willingness to engage in the process of not knowing – of letting go the need to force change – low and behold everything changes.

This presentation will show how cultivating the practice of mindfulness can enable us to develop our capacity to slow down, expand our awareness and our range of responses. This way of deep listening, first to ourselves, helps us to suspend judgment about our own and others' preliminary ideas, and most importantly, a willingness to linger, in the sometimes uncomfortable realm of uncertainty. With practice we learn to trust our inborn resources and innate intelligence.