Inquiry is an integral part of mindfulness based programs and often cited as the most challenging aspect to learn. This one day workshop will invite participants to explore inquiry as a practice and a contemplative dialogue. Participants will move between didactic sessions and experiential exercises so that we can learn inquiry from both the bottom up and top down, Inquiry, as with any other mindfulness practice is first and foremost experiential. Like juggling you can read about it, be told about it or watch it, but it is not until you begin to practise, that it becomes embodied. We will examine what it is, why it is important and how we can begin to deepen our understanding and engagement with this means of  coming to fully know our own experience and that of another.

This workshop will examine some significant concepts and how they relate to inquiry as a practice. We will discuss this work as it relates to adult learners, how it assists with self-discovery and the reduction of suffering. We will also show how the incorporation of certain elements of Buddhist psychology can inform its delivery. Participants will work with noticing, tracking and exploring the integration of what is learned to stress reduction, difficult mind and mood states and daily life.  This program is suitable for clinicians working in a number of psychotherapeutic modalities whether or not they are mindfulness practitioners or teachers.

Learning Outcomes

The participants will:

• be able to define inquiry and its elements;
• understand its place and importance in mindfulness based programs;
• be introduced to the practice and delivery of inquiry experientially and didactically;
• understand the three characteristics from Buddhist Psychology and how these inform the delivery of Inquiry;
• experience inquiry as a practice at an introductory level.

Presenter:

Patricia Rockman MD, CCFP, FCFP is a physician with a focused practice in mental health. She is the co-founder and director of education and clinical services at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies (CMS) in Toronto. She is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Family and Community Medicine cross appointed to Psychiatry. Patricia Rockman developed the MBCT Facilitation Certificate Program at CMS as well as numerous other workshops. She teaches locally, nationally and internationally in the area of mindfulness- based programs (MBSR, MBCT, Inquiry). She is a mentor for both MBCT and MBSR trainees. Inquiry as it relates to practice is a passion. She is a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Mindfulness Magazine. She is a co-author with Susan Woods and Evan Collins of "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Embodied Presence & Inquiry in Practice,” (New Harbinger Publications, June 2019). She is also a trained Yoga teacher and has been teaching on stress, mindfulness, change management and other mental health issues for over thirty-five years.

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