Courses
Thriving Life offers courses to private groups as well as to companies.
Self-care for Health Care Workers – 2 full days of mindfulness
Most health care providers are motivated by a deep desire to care for others and often forget to care for themselves. However, if we constantly work ourselves to the limit, we will not have the required energy to help others in the ways we would like to, and our own physical and mental well-being will suffer. Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing and Thriving Life are offering an intense mindfulness course over 2 workdays, with support to establish a regular mindfulness practice in between and after. Participants will leave with skills and knowledge to cope with the demands of their profession.
Friday 24rd of November 9.00-17.15 &
Friday 8th of December 9.00-17.30
Ageing Upwards – 6 weeks course
This is a 6 weeks online course using the framework from the book Ageing Upwards. The course is for people of any age, as the skills you learn are mindfulness based lifeskills that can be applied to any situation or challenges you might face in life. However, the course is aimed at people from 50+.
The next planned course starts on
Thursday the 17th of August 2023 at 5pm – 7pm (CEST).
There is an introduction meeting on the 10th of August from 5pm-6pm, but you can also see a recording of a previous information meeting on this link.
The following courses are offered on a regular bases, but we are always happy to adjust the content and structure to fit your needs. All courses be done online, in person or in a hybrid version and we can be flexible in the structure of them as well. Please contact us to discuss how we can help you.
We do not schedule the following courses for private people as it varies greatly when people are able to join (people join from all over the world). If you are interested in joining one of the courses below, please send me an email telling where you are, what you are interested in, and your preference for day of the week and time of the day. Thriving Life collects these requests and offer courses directly via email to a group when we have enough interest for a course to go ahead. There is if course no obligation to join. In order to teach mindfulness in a safe way, we always have a one-to-one meeting with potential participants and together we decide if it is the right time for you to do a mindfulness course.
It is worth knowing that some mindfulness courses – especially MBSR trainings – are recognised by Dutch insurances and many of them will cover (some of) the cost. Berit Lewis is a registered category 1 trainer thought the Dutch mindfulness association VMBN, which most insurance companies require the trainer to be. At this website you can see if and how much your insurance covers; https://www.zorgwijzer.nl/vergoeding/mindfulness
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
This is the 8 weeks well-known Golden Standard of mindfulness courses. It was developed by Jon Kabatt-Zinn in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Today it is taught worldwide to hundreds of thousands of people for a wide variety of reasons. MBSR is supported by a wide body of research showing that it is effective at addressing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, stress and generally improve well being.
“I absolutely enjoyed EVERYTHING about the MBSR course. Just right mixture of theory, practice, embodiment exercise. What made the delivery perfect, in my view, was the excellent communication skills (oral, written, body language, tone of voice) or the trainer (Berit). Also the absence of judgement of the trainer.”
Mindfulness Based Vitality & Ageing (MBVA)
This is an 8 weeks course that was developed and researched by Berit Lewis as part of her Master Thesis on Vitality & Ageing in coorporation with Leiden University and Leyden Academy of Vitality & Ageing.
“(…) all the thoughts that sometimes I build up – and sometimes you just go in a circle. So, you can break and step away, that is what I have learnt and that is what I find very useful with mindfulness. My mind gets another set-up. I am stepping out of the circle so I can se everything in a distance.” Quote from a participant in the research rapport
Mindfulness @ work
Mindfulness is an excellent way to improve the work environment and the well-being of the individual employee.
Thriving Life has great experience in offering an adjusted version of the MBSR to organisations in stages. We start with a general introduction and offer all employess the opportunity to sign up to the courses on a voluntary basis. In our experience it creates waves within the organisation. More people sign up and as mindfulness practices and skills spreads into daily life, employees start to respond to challenges and stress with more awareness, calmness and compassion.
Thriving Teenagers
This is a 6 weeks course teaching teenagers mindfulness techniques to help them cope with the challenges of stress, social media, social relationships and pressure. They gain some very important skills for how to cope and look after their mental well-being for the rest of their lives.
Sleep Well
This is a 4 weeks course teaching you a mindful approach to coping with sleeping-difficulties. Instead of resisting the difficulties, and tossing and turning all night while counting the hours, we work on how to accept and respond to insomnia with compassion. Paradoxically, this approach help us relax and eventually get a better night´s rest.
Learn mindfulness over two full days
Paradoxically the people who wants to do a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course are too stressed to find time in their schedule for the standard 8 weeks. We are therefore successfully offering the standard MBSR over two full days (ie. Saturdays) with a month apart and include online guided meditations in between to practice the new skills.
“Berit Lewis came to us in UK to deliver a condensed programme for us. It was a really brilliant experience; superb underpinning theory (the Jon Kabat Zinn MBSR approach along with some ACT), perfectly paced practices and wealth of take away resources to support you own ongoing practice.