Mindfulness for Caregivers: An Introduction
with Joan Griffiths Vega
Thursday, September 12th, 2019 | 1:30pm – 3:30pm
This program is an introduction to the “Mindfulness for Caregivers” course, and offers a set of teachings to help us learn how to reduce daily stress and increase stamina, vitality and well-being. Caregiving for an aging relative, friend or child is demanding physically, emotionally and spiritually. Research shows it as being high on the list of the most stressful experiences in our lives.
Join us for an afternoon to learn skillful tools to soften stress. Begin to understand how compassion might replace frustration, and how mindfulness balances thoughts run amuck and the forever list of to-dos. The journey is always in front of us; the path is a choice.
You will come away with a toolbox of skillful options: brief meditations and movement, breathing exercises, a basic understanding of the neuroscience of stress, as well as the bonus of meeting a new community of like-minded friends. This program is open to anyone in a caregiving role or who may see that role on their near horizon.
This introductory program can be followed by an 8-week course that will build off of these foundational teachings, but the course is not a requirement for those who wish to explore this introduction.
Registration:
Please register at the highest level that your generosity offers.
Explanations of levels follow below.
Registration Fees include Teacher Support
New York Insight Meditation Center has streamlined the registration fee levels. Members of our Circle of Friends are eligible to receive 20% off of the Sustaining Rate via a code provided in the email confirming membership, which you can enter after clicking the Sustaining Level registration.
*Benefactor Level: Supports NYI’s ability to offer the Subsidized Base.
**Sustaining Level: This level reflects the actual costs to support this program. Circle of Friends members eligible for 20% discount with code. Click here to join.
***Subsidized Base: Made possible by the generosity of Benefactor Level above and other donations to ensure participation by those requiring financial assistance.
If you have questions about your registration (cancellation policy, membership discount, email confirmation, etc.), please read our FAQs. If your question is not addressed in the FAQs, please email registration@nyimc.org.
If you are unable to pay the Subsidized Base Fee, you can learn about volunteering to offer work exchange and letting us know how much you are able to pay for this program by emailing registration@nyimc.org.
Teacher(s)
Joan Griffiths Vega, MFA, MA, Certified Open Focus Coach, Qualified MBSR Teacher
After her first Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course in 2003, Joan took her first steps on her path to becoming a facilitator. Nineteen years later, she has taught MBSR around the city at different venues, particularly at the Martha Stewart Center for Healthy Living, Mt. Sinai Hospital, for over the last 15 years.
She completed the Professional Training workshop led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD., and Saki Santorelli, Ed.D, Exec. Director of the UMass Center for Mindfulness (CFM) in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, as well as the MBSR practicum and Teacher Development Intensive at CFM in Worcester, MA. As a former family caregiver, she tailored the 8-week course to caregivers’ concerns. With Patricia Bloom, MD, she developed a pain intervention model MBPR, Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief.
She deepens her practice and understanding through retreats, courses, studying online with Sharon Salzberg, Tara Brach, and Jack Kornfield, and at Zen Contemplative Care and New York Insight, as well as continuing extensive reading and ongoing personal supervision. She is a storyteller with a MA in cross-cultural mythology, Jungian and religious studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute, CA, and a MFA in film from School of the Arts at Columbia University. She is a certified Coach of Open Focus™ Attention, a dynamic pain management tool.
Over the last two years, she deeply trained in pain management as she healed from a sacrum fracture.