Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Training Programs.
There are a various reasons why people seek out the support of psychotherapy and counseling. For some people it is a desire to discover skills that relieve a sense of chronic sadness and calm anxious thoughts. For others it is a desire to understand a specific issue or situation that is troubling and worrisome and develop alternate skills and choices. For some others it has to do with relationship issues, family issues or parenting problems. And for some it is sense of wanting to explore a greater sense of self awareness. All of this can add stress in our lives. And when we add the responsibilities placed on us by career, family and personal goals, it can be difficult to know how to manage the seemingly competing issues placed on us. How we react and respond to these pressures will depend on our personalities, and what we have had to deal with in our lives.
Mindfulness is an approach that allows us to relate to ourselves and our lives with wisdom and equanimity. The practice of mindfulness increases our natural ability to develop a different relationship to difficulties; one that increases choice by deciding to have a focus on the present moment, rather than be governed by anxious thoughts about the future or ruminating about the past. When we practice mindfulness, we come to realize how often the mind is on ‘automatic pilot’. Mindfulness allows us to see clearly that thoughts and emotions are transient events and loosens the hold that thinking and moods have on our choices and behaviors. The outcome is a fresh and different perspective.
Susan Woods, MSW, LCSW has been a psychotherapist since 1989 and her practice, Silver Birch Counseling and Psychotherapy is located in the town Stowe in the heart of the Green Mountains, Vermont. Ms. Woods works with a variety of psychological and emotional conditions and is interested in helping people develop wiser choices, take better care of themselves and live healthy more adaptive lives. Her professional training includes psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral and various body centered psychotherapies. Ms. Woods has been extensively trained in mindfulness-based approaches and is certified as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher by the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.
Ms. Woods has served as consultant on a number of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy clinical trials and is a published author in the training of health professionals in mindfulness-based approaches. She provides consultation and supervision to health professionals in mindfulness-based approaches and leads workshops and professional training programs in MBCT.
Ms. Woods is a certified yoga teacher and teaches mindful yoga and meditation classes.
Silver Birch Counseling and Psychotherapy offers:
- Individual mindfulness-based psychotherapy sessions
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction groups
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy groups
- Consultation/Supervision for health professionals in mindfulness-based approaches
- Mindful Yoga Classes; individual and group classes
- Mindfulness Meditation instruction: individual and group classes
- Mindfulness Meditation CDs