Women 4 Women: Connecting to Your Inner Resilience

Join us to participate in a small, supportive 8-week, trauma-informed mindfulness-based group where you will uncover ways to tap into your innate strengths and develop competence to navigate the stress of everyday life. With the approach of spring, we offer this program to promote healing and renewal from the losses and challenges of this past year’s pandemic. The intimate nature of the small group context provides opportunity to enhance self-awareness and discover the power of connection and community.

Over the course of eight 2-hour weekly sessions, participants will be invited to explore the practice of different mind-body techniques and engage in self-reflection, generous listening and sharing of their experience. The practices include meditation and breathing, journaling, art & drawing, gentle movement, and guided imagery techniques. The program is based on a model originally created by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine.

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As a result of this 8-week program, participants will:

      become familiar with the way that the mind and body reacts in ordinary situations

      gain insight and compassion into the personal and collective experience of being human

      learn how to respond to whatever happens in life with a sense of kindness and equanimity

      recognize and appreciate their unique gifts; and

      connect to their sense of personal agency

The program will be held virtually through Zoom and facilitated by two mental health professionals skilled in teaching this program. Two different time slots are offered to accommodate interested participants. Groups are limited to no more than twelve women.

Dates and Times:     Tuesdays, 9:30 - 11:30 AM, beginning March 23, 2021 OR 

                                    Wednesday, 7:00 - 9:00 pm, beginning March 24^, 2021

Fee:                             Before March 10, $325 (early bird rate); After March 10, $ 400

                                    (Educators and First Responders may request a reduced rate) 

The model for mind-body skills groups was developed by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine's Founder and Executive Director, James S Gordon, MD and Senior CMBM Faculty over thirty years ago. The program has been transformational in promoting personal growth, well-being and recovery from trauma. Mind-Body Skills are grounded in attention to present moment experience, self-reflection and experiential learning. Through practice of various mindfulness-based activities, participants learn to access their innate wisdom and gain clarity and skills to move through daily life with greater ease, clarity and joy.

In each of the eight weekly sessions, participants experience how to use the breath and body to bring them into the present moment and feel a sense of ease and relaxation. Each session involves discussion of practice and sharing of personal experience. The confidentiality and safety of the group facilitation offers a container for holding whatever emotions, thoughts, stories or experiences that arise.

This group is limited to 12 adult women over the age of 21 and facilitated by two experienced instructors - a psychologist and founder of the Michigan Collaborative for Mindfulness in Education and a social worker and faculty member from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. 

Bios

Rita Benn, PhD is a clinical psychologist by training, a long term meditation practitioner and a founding board member of MC4ME, the Michigan Collaborative for Mindfulness in Education. For over 20 years, she has taught and facilitated many group-based workshops and interventions using mindfulness-based practices and mind-body skills and is adjunct faculty at the University of Michigan.  

Lilita Matison, LCSW is a senior faculty member with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. For the past decade, Lilita has created and directed K-12 School Counseling and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in international schools across the country. Lilita leads workshops, supervises teachers & support staff that are integrating mindfulness-based practices into their classrooms. She is a social worker in Kalamazoo, Michigan.