Melbourne Mindfulness Institute

“Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that are forever blowing through one’s mind.”

– Mark Twain

Melbourne Mindfulness Institute – a psychology clinic offering individual and group therapy that is mindfulness informed.

We are highly trained in mindfulness-integrated cognitive behaviour therapy (MiCBT) in addition to our generalist psychology professional training. Our research – published in Frontiers in Psychiatry – demonstrates the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based approach.

We treat a wide range of mental health conditions. Our aim is to provide client centred care that works with the underlying processes that cause and maintain psychological distress.

We work with a range of issues including:

  • Anxiety disorders: generalised anxiety, social anxiety, OCD
  • Mood disorders: depression, bipolar affective disorder
  • Trauma: traumatic stress and PTSD
  • Substance use disorders
  • Work stress
  • Relationships: family; partner; workplace
  • Life transitions: transitions in work; transitions to parenthood; end of career transitions

Our group programs teach MiCBT over 8 weeks online. The group programs are designed to teach the skills to manage thought processes and emotional reactivity. Participants need to be willing to commit to regular daily mindfulness meditation practice. The group programs do not deal with individual issues.

Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious? Are you feeling low or behaving poorly to those around you?

Mindfulness integrated with CBT offers a wonderful toolkit that helps to understand the relationship between thinking and emotions and the processes that create and maintain unhelpful habits. The skills enable  deep levels of change; a path to achieving peace of mind.  They may be learned in the process of individual therapy (preferred for complex and acute problems) or through group work. Our program has been subjected to to robust research demonstrating its effectiveness across a broad range of issues.

Contact us for individual psychology sessions or formal mindfulness training.

Group programs for 2023

NEXT PROGRAM – TUESDAY 25TH APRIL

  • Evenings:  Tuesdays 6-8pm 
  • Daytime: Wednesdays 12-2pm

Refresher programs and ongoing support

  • Thursday 16th February 12.30-1.30pm

Refresher programs are designed for those who have learned the MiCBT skills and need a refresher.

We also offer three session of lightly guided meditations each week to support people to maintain their skills – see members page for the link.

Mindfulness Therapists Support

Monthly MiCBT Interest and Research Group – Peer supervision meeting and research update – 3rd Thursday of each month. Contact Dr Sarah Francis for more information

Our Services

Training, therapy and group mindfulness sessions

Group Training Programs

Individual Therapy

Ongoing Support

Employee Assistance Program

Support for Organisations

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness enables us to remember to stay fully aware of only what is actually happening in the present both internally and externally – with no bias and no judgement.  Mindfulness is a tool that helps us to observe and become aware of our own mental mechanisms.  We cannot change what we are not aware of. With mindfulness we learn to manage persistent worrying or “mind-wandering” thinking and emotional reactivity.

Our approach uses Mindfulness-Integrated Cognitive Behavoiur Therapy (MiCBT), developed by Dr Bruno Cayoun (Cayoun, 2011, 2015) and Cayoun, Francis and Shires 2019.

What is MiCBT

Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiCBT) places a strong emphasis on developing both the ability to think about our thinking (metacognitive awareness) AND the ability to notice what is happening in our bodies when we are thinking and reacting (interoceptive awareness) . MiCBT training integrates mindfulness training (as taught in Vipassana traditions) with contemporary evidence based approaches of western psychology (CBT and cognitive neurobiology).

MiCBT is structured in 4-stages.

  • Stage 1 teaches mindfulness skills to improve attention to and understanding of thoughts and body sensations.
  • Stage 2 teaches how to apply these skills to the challenges of daily life helping us to tackle previously avoided situations.
  • Stage 3 specifically engages the mindfulness skills in interpersonal communication and relationship issues.
  • Stage 4 explores personal ethics from a mindfulness perspective and uses compassion training to develop empathic understanding of ourselves and others.

Changing unhelpful or unwanted habits becomes easier as mindfulness skills are consolidated and integrated into daily life. We learn to understand and accept the process of thinking and sensing and to have a different perspective on troublesome thoughts and reactions. As self understanding increases we also understand others better.

We provide mindfulness training for individuals, groups and organisations.

Why body scan is important

In our programs we spend a lot of time learning to scan the body in great detail - so that we can detect even subtle changes in the body. Why is this helpful? We feel our emotions through the body - we say I FEEL sad/anxious/happy...we dont say "I think anxious"! To...

Mindfulness programs in 2023

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Research demonstrate effectiveness of MiCBT

Our randomised controlled trial was able to show the effectiveness of group MiCBT in reducing psychological distress in a diverse group with varying levels of psychological discomfort. The results were recently published in Frontiers in Psychiatry:...

New group mindfulness program dates

As we get to the end of what has been another challenging year we are starting to look ahead to the New year. We are excited to be offering our group programs again in 2022. We are running the 8-week online group program starting in February. We also have a new...

Post-lockdown struggles – equanimity helps

Now that Melbourne is no longer in lockdown we are in an adjustment period. We are having to adjust to returning to work - often with significant changes to the workplace. Many of us have become used to being away from crowded places and transitioning back can be a...

Mitigating stress from lockdown cabin fever

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes everyday - unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” ― Dr. Sukhraj Dhillon. Over recent weeks we have been noticing an increased level of despondency as we continue to manage our lives in lockdown. The...

Online Mindfulness-integrated CBT program – July start

We have been delivering our 8-week program over the last 12 years and many people have told us how much they benefited from it. We have recently researched the effectiveness of the program in a randomised controlled trial and we found that the participants who...

Meditation sessions start again

As we launch into another new year, one that we hope will be easier than 2020, we are again offering our meditation sessions. These sessions (no cost) are designed to help support the maintenance of psychological well-being through the regular meditation practices you...

New additional meditation session

The online meditations sessions are proving to be very popular - helping people who have learned the wonderful skills of MiCBT to maintain their practice. We now have three sessions a week; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The Wednesday evenings (7.00pm) may suit...

LOCATION

Suite 314, Level 3,
530 Little Collins Street,
Melbourne 3000.

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OFFICE HOURS

Monday - Friday: 9:00 – 18:00
Some Saturdays & Evenings by arrangement
Sunday: Closed

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CONTACT

Phone: 03 9629 3869
Fax: 03 7000 5017