Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

tandem with skills teaching to deal with the realities in their lives that
are severely challenging.
On reflection, the authors would recommend that in future courses,
trainers take more time to emphasise the importance of participants
accessing additional support to cope with whatever comes up during
the course. This was in fact suggested by one of the participants in
the follow-up interviews.
The issue of non-attendance by some members was raised. Although
there were a few apologies, it was clear that others who had begun the
program may well have chosen to drop out. This needed to be raised
in the group rather than avoided, in some vain hope that they might
show up in future sessions.
Generally the team felt the group were achieving a genuine sense of
cohesion. Many comments were made between the group members
themselves, and many reflected a tremendous capacity for empathy
between themselves. One or two members were “burning to tell their
story” but the team felt that we should be careful not to let one
individual say too much in case his trust level in the group was not
quite up to his appetite for self-disclosure. It was suggested that
perhaps he could have some time with his own therapist in a one to
one this particular week, so that he could ventilate freely and safely.
Movement exercise at the beginning and sitting quietly at the end
seemed to work very well in this session.
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