What is Mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapy?

Mindfulness based Core Process psychotherapy is the original Mindfulness based psychotherapy in the UK, The approach integrates the latest advances in Western developmental understanding and neuroscience with Eastern embodied awareness and compassion practices that have their roots in Buddhist psychology.

It is also a trauma-informed psychotherapy training and practice, influenced by the somatic practices of the renowned trauma expert Peter Levine and the neuroscientific findings of Stephen Porges' Polyvagal theory.

The benefits of mindfulness practice and mindfulness based therapies have a rapidly growing evidence base across the world. 

Mindfulness simply means bringing conscious attention to your experience, in a non judgemental and accepting way. Anyone who’s watched a baby or young child witnesses our natural capacity to be open and live purely in the moment, yet we often lose this throughout life as we develop protective strategies to adapt to our environments or cope with difficulties.

By enquiring into our present experience, we can develop a greater understanding of the nature of our struggles, noticing how we get stuck in unhelpful unconscious patterns and recognising how past experiences or future worries may affect our perception and experience in the present. When we are supported in becoming more aware of our feelings, thoughts and body sensations, we can begin to step back, notice patterns and consider what's no longer serving us. We can begin to gain a sense of freedom to consciously choose our response instead of being hijacked by old patterns.

Mindfulness can also help us to see the constantly changing nature of our experiences, which can help us notice it is not fixed or 'who we are', even though it may feel that way. We can begin to see our experiences like passing weather conditions, which can help us to be with the difficulties, safe in the knowledge that it will pass.