Online 10-Week Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training – Foundation Course

*If you are interested in this program, please fill out this form to be added to the interest list. We will contact you once this program is scheduled.

Course Description

Are you a mental health therapist seeking to take your expertise to another level? Are you looking to make a difference in how mental health is best addressed? If so, a transdiagnostic approach, such as Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MiCBT), is the answer.

MiCBT is an established evidence-based integration of mindfulness training taught in the Burmese Vipassana tradition of Ledi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka, with well-established principles of cognitive and behavioural methods. MiCBT has been shown through rigorous research to reduce symptoms in a wide range of acute and chronic psychological disorders, including those with complex comorbidities. This unique integration of mindfulness and CBT is known as a “second-generation mindfulness-based intervention”, as it includes essential sets of transformational skills from Buddhist psychology.

Through the MiCBT Foundation course, you will gain and enhance your understanding of mindfulness insights and behavior reinforcement, explore recent neuroscience findings related to behavior maintenance and change, and learn to engage clients in the treatment plan.

Importantly, you will learn core and advanced personal mindfulness meditation skills that profoundly improve mental well-being. There is evidence that therapists practicing mindfulness decrease their mental fatigue and the frequency of burnout and increase their clinical effectiveness. Take part in the reputable MiCBT Foundation Course to benefit from these techniques and start making real change in your therapy outcomes and professional satisfaction!

This foundation course involves didactic, practical and experiential means of learning, including:

  • Twice daily 30 minute meditation practice (1 hour daily)
  • Training in a range of mindfulness meditation practices (as traditionally taught in the Burmese Vipassana tradition)
  • Implementation of the four stages of MiCBT, including mindfulness-based exposure and relapse prevention strategies
  • The opportunity to role-play core implementation skills with colleagues in online break-out rooms

What can I do after I have completed this training?

  • Apply equanimity like a boss: develop attention and emotional regulation skills in daily life
  • Take the Applied course (8/10 attendance required)
  • Participate in the Best Practices monthly meetings (describe these)
  • Attend the annual 7 day silent retreat (FC is a prerequisite)

What will I learn in the Foundation Course?

You will learn:

  • the personal practice of core and advanced mindfulness meditation skills
  • recent findings on theoretical underpinnings of mindfulness practice and its effects
  • the neurophenomenological foundations of behavior maintenance and change
  • how to engage the client in the treatment plan
  • the use of MiCBT for behavioral regulation and decreasing avoidance
  • the use of MiCBT for interpersonal regulation and improving conflict resolution
  • the use of MiCBT for transpersonal regulation and relapse prevention strategies
Course Session Outline

Lesson 1: Committing to Self-Care

This class will introduce the four-stage structure and theoretical underpinnings of MiCBT—the Co-emergence Model of Reinforcement. This will include the neurobehavioral bases underlying mindfulness meditation and the rationale for using mindfulness as trained in the Vipassana tradition in MiCBT. You will be practicing mindfulness of the body (attending to posture and movements in daily actions in order to anchor attention in the present). You will also practice a pre-mindfulness relaxation method called progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) twice daily Engagement exercises: therapy contract exercise

Lesson 2: Regulating Attention

This week’s class will demonstrate how to address possible difficulty keeping a regular home practice of mindfulness meditation. The teacher will demonstrate the use of Socratic dialogue to clarify possible difficulty with daily practice. The class will also describe the practice of mindfulness of breath and provide you with a rationale for its practice to improve attention regulation and executive functions in daily life. Engagement exercises: mindfulness of breath practice,

Lesson 3: Regulating Emotions

This week’s class will guide you to develop your own emotion-regulation skills with the practice of mindfulness of body sensations, using a method called unilateral part-by-part body-scanning (from the original Burmese Vipassana tradition of U Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka). This week’s class will also demonstrate the delivery of the rationale for integrating mindfulness of body sensations in therapy. The trainer will explain how equanimity in mindfulness meditation acts as an exposure (to sensory stimuli and memories) and response prevention method. You will have the opportunity to role-play the skills in breakout rooms and discuss your implementation. Engagement exercise: experiential delivery of the rationale for the coemergence model of reinforcement

Lesson 4: Equanimity in Daily Life

This week’s class will discuss the effects of neuroplasticity on your meditation practice. It will also emphasize the role and practice of equanimity, both during mindfulness meditation and applied in daily life, to increase your ability to recognize the deeper and usually subconscious characteristics of emotional experiences. You’ll learn to apply the meditative skills in everyday life and regulate emotions more efficiently with the Mindfulness-based Interoceptive Exposure Task (MIET) when faced with common stressors. Engagement exercises: demonstration and role-play of the Mindfulness-based Interoceptive Exposure Task (MIET)

Lesson 5: Reducing Avoidance

This week’s class will introduce the role and practice of mindfulness-based exposure methods in MiCBT. It will guide you to use these methods in your own life, using skills acquired in the preceding weeks. This increases one’s levels of equanimity and creates a sense of increased self-confidence. You will also learn the first advanced body-scanning method, called symmetrical scanning, which involves a simultaneous bilateral allocation of attention. Engagement exercises: group development of the subjective units of distress scale and demonstration and role-play for the Bipolar exposure technique

Lesson 6: Improving Self-Confidence

This week’s class will guide and assist you in addressing the most avoided situations and resolve potential difficulties you may have with exposure methods. You will learn to review progress with the results of exposure systematically. The class will also introduce you to a more advanced and deepening mindfulness meditation method called partial sweeping. This body-scanning method enables earlier detection of more subtle experiences, including early distress cues, with which you will learn to apply equanimity. Engagement exercises: partial sweeping body scanning exercise

Lesson 7: Interpersonal Mindfulness

This week’s class will teach you the first skillset to develop your own mindfulness-based interpersonal skills, called “experiential ownership, ” enabling you to take “ownership” of your experience and disown that of others, thereby setting healthy interpersonal boundaries. This method also teaches you to “see suffering” for what it is when someone reacts to you negatively, . You will also learn the next advanced body-scanning method, sweeping en masse, which enables deep perception of early onset of emotional processing, including early detection of distress cues. Engagement exercises: demonstration and role-play of experiential ownership task

Lesson 8: Mindful Communication

This week’s class will teach you the second mindfulness-based interpersonal skillset, which teaches you to integrate the interpersonal mindfulness skills learned last week with seven steps of assertive communication. The body-scanning method this week, transversal scanning, allows you to feel the inside of the body and neutralizes deep-rooted schematic modes of emotional reactivity. Engagement exercises: demonstration and role-play of the 7 steps of assertiveness

Lesson 9: Compassion and Connectedness

This week’s class will teach you the principal of relapse-prevention methods of MiCBT. It will teach you to self-implement compassion training, grounded in thoughts, emotions and daily actions, through the practice of loving-kindness meditation and ethical living. You will also learn to use the most advanced body-scanning technique in MiCBT, which enables you to scan your body in its totality, eventually in a single breath, with a method called sweeping in-depth. Engagement exercises: group loving kindness meditation

Lesson 10: Maintenance of Progress and Course Conclusion

This week’s class will reinforce your proficiency in compassion training and link mindfulness of ethical intentions and actions to a sense of self-worth. The class will summarize the course and review your overall outcomes. It will describe future training, including MiCBT accreditation, and use of the Institute’s resources will be discussed. Engagement exercises: review of individual therapy contracts and course feedback

Objectives
  • Describe the theoretical foundations of MiCBT: Articulate the Co-emergence Model of Reinforcement that integrates meditation and cognitive-behavioral principles and underpins MiCBT.
  • Explain the four stages of MiCBT: Summarize the purpose, structure, and therapeutic goals of the Personal, Exposure, Interpersonal, and Compassion Stages.
  • Identify qualities of targeted problems and success indicators: Learn to assess key characteristics of client issues that can be effectively addressed with MiCBT and recognize markers of progress.
  • Practice systematic mindfulness meditation: Commit to engaging in a minimum of 7 hours of mindfulness meditation weekly to deepen experiential understanding and enhance self-regulation.
  • Utilize mindfulness breathing practices: Implement mindfulness of breath to develop three executive functions key to emotion regulation
  • Apply body-scanning techniques: Train progressively advanced methods of body scanning to develop interoceptive awareness and reduce experiential avoidance.
  • Introduce mindfulness-based exposure techniques: Guide clients in approaching distressing thoughts, emotions, and sensations mindfully and non-reactively.
  • Facilitate the development of equanimity: Teach clients strategies to foster acceptance and non-reactivity to access/facilitate emotional balance during stress, while remaining emotionally engaged in the situation.
  • Apply cognitive restructuring tools: Utilize MiCBT’s approach to challenging unhelpful cognitive patterns while maintaining mindfulness practice.
  • Assess mindfulness efficacy and equanimity: Use the Mindfulness Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES) and Equanimity Questionnaire (EQ-16) to self-assess and measure growth in mindfulness and emotional balance at the start and end of the course.
  • Integrate MiCBT in exposure therapy: Design and implement exposure hierarchies using mindfulness to manage client fears and aversive experiences effectively.
  • Enhance interpersonal mindfulness: Practice Experiential Ownership, learning to bring equanimity to mindful communication and interpersonal challenges, while maintaining interpersonal boundaries.
  • Cultivate compassion for self and others: Apply techniques from the Compassion Stage of MiCBT to foster compassion for self and others.
  • Measure treatment outcomes: Learn to evaluate the effectiveness of MiCBT interventions through behavioral and self-report metrics.
Target Audience

Mental health clinician or student/in training.

Required Reading 
  • Cayoun, B. A. (2015). Mindfulness-integrated CBT for Well-being and Personal Growth: Four Steps to Enhance Inner Calm, Self-Confidence, and Relationships. Wiley.
  • Grabovac, A. D., & Cayoun, B. A. (2024). The Mindfulness and Meditation Workbook for Anxiety and Depression: Balance Emotions, Overcome Intrusive Thoughts, and Find Peace Using Mindfulness-integrated CBT. New Harbinger Publications.
Suggested Reading
Testimonials

Rachel Branson
Master Advanced Social Work, Bachelor Social Work, Diploma of Counselling, Diploma Financial Counselling, Perth, Western Australia

A highly beneficial training course for me personally and professionally. Delivered wholeheartedly and authentically, with apparent ease and obvious expertise by Dr Alia Offman. Thank you.

Kelly Sestero
LPC, NCC, Professional Counselor, Beaverton, Oregon

Thank you for all your wise guidance and teaching. I appreciate the clarity around mindfulness and the course has benefited me personally and professionally. I can see many of my clients would benefit from this experiential modality. I can't wait to learn more from the Applied Course. Thank you!

Dr Prateek Yadav
Professor in Psychiatry, India

A nicely structured course and aims at development of knowledge and skill simultaneously. Classes are well spaced and makes it worthwhile to practice and move ahead. I personally gained a lot. The course inculcates skills.to manage thoughts and emotions in a very easy manner which appears to be a natural phenomenon, awaiting within us to be discovered. I am confident that my patients will be better cared and managed with the new skill, which i plan to hone further. Big THANKS to Bruno and the whole team at the institute.

Continuing Education Credit

Psychologists: This program is sponsored by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This course offers 20.0 CE credit.

California licensed MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs: This activity is an approved continuing education program by the American Psychological Association. 20.0 CE credit may be applied to your license renewal through the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. For those licensed outside California, please check with your local licensing board to determine if CE credit is accepted.

Nurses: UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP16351, for 24.0 contact hours.

CE credit fee: additional $75

Cancellation Policy

A refund (minus $300 non-refundable deposit) will be made for cancellations submitted by emailing mindfulness@healthucsd.edu on or before 30 days prior to the start of the course. No refunds will be allowed after this date. Registration, deposits, and funds are non-transferable.

In the unlikely event that the course is cancelled, UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is responsible only for a full refund of the registration fee and not for transportation, hotel accommodations or any miscellaneous expenses.

The refunds are processed in the same method as payment were submitted.

Note: This training requires a minimum of 4 registrants per program. Classes with fewer than 4 registrants will be cancelled and provided a refund. Please be aware of this when making arrangements to attend this program.