Training Mindfulness in Healthcare Contact



Cultivating Presence:

Clarity and Calm in the Care of Serious Illness

A residential Mindfulness Training Program for health care professionals who encounter illness and suffering in their daily work.

May 2010
With Sabina Rabold-Well for Life and Timothea Goddard Openground

Being witness to physical and emotional pain on a daily basis can be a great challenge to health professionals providing care. When coupled with an often intense work environment and the fast paced nature of modern western medicine, helping professionals frequently feel depleted, stressed and overwhelmed by the ongoing demands of their work life. Chronic exposure to human suffering can turn optimism into despair, kindness into resignation. Talented people and valued workers may leave their chosen profession before they planned or wanted to or may stay and become tired, indifferent and ill.

Mindfulness practice has the potential to rekindle joy and aliveness in daily life. It offers self-care tools to manage work-related stress, foster resilience and prevent burn-out. It cultivates the ability to be more present and connected with patients and colleagues.


 This workshop
  • Offers easy-to-understand mindfulness practices that can be applied to your personal life and work.
  • Is practical and transformative – a short-term program with long-term
  • benefits
  • Is targeted towards health care professionals working with individuals experiencing serious life-threatening or debilitating illnesses.
  • Will explore the theoretical and scientific foundations of mindfulness

Participants will learn:
  • To foster resilience and prevent burn-out
  • To develop effective self-care tools to manage work-related stress
  • To develop and maintain a sense of inner balance and calm
  • To enhance the quality of life of a seriously ill person by using and adapting mindfulness techniques in clinical care

About the instructors

Timothea Goddard (BA, Dip. Psychotherapy (ANZAP), Cert. IV Workplace Training, Member PACFA Register), works as a psychotherapist, educator and workplace trainer, having trained in humanistic, body-oriented, and psychodynamic therapeutic orientations. She is a senior trainer in mindfulness based interventions and accredited with the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School as an MBSR teacher. Timothea is the Director of Openground which offers Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction in health, community and workplace settings in Australia. For further information www.openground.com.au

Sabina Rabold (M.Couns.,Dip.Hom.,DRM, CM CAPA, PACFA reg) is a counsellor in private practice, with a focus on working with people with cancer and their support people. Sabina has been practicing holistic healthcare since 1991 with training in homoeopathy, nutrition and various kinds of bodywork. Sabina is an experienced lecturer, teacher and trainer in the fields of counseling, communication and leadership, and is a qualified MBSR teacher. She is Director of Well for Life – which offers well-being training and workshops and is endorsed and supported by the Gawler Foundation to conduct the 12-week Lifestyle Based Cancer Self- Help Program.
For further information see: www.wellforlife.net.au



Mindfulness in Healthcare