Are you tired of emotional eating or binging? Are you tired of having little control with foods like chocolate, cheese or potato chips? Evidence based mindful eating strategies can help.

An Introduction to Mindful Eating workshops

3-hour workshop including morning or afternoon tea

THE ORIGINAL MINDFUL EATING EDUCATION PROGRAMME DEVELOPED BY REGISTERED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST DR HEIDI DOUGLASS

MINDFUL EATING BASICS – 90 MINUTE ZOOM WORKSHOP

There are no up-coming 3 hour Introduction to Mindful Eating in-person workshops coming up BUT we do have the fantastic Mindful Eating Basics Zoom workshop with Dr Heidi Douglass. See all information, schedules and book now here.

THE MINDFUL EATING ALTERNATIVE

Mindfulness provides an alternative to diets. With mindfulness, you don’t restrict any food or food types, you don’t calorie count or weigh-in. Instead you learn to use the systems that you were born with.

With mindfulness, you eat whatever you want. You learn to stop eating when your taste buds tell you the taste is no longer as good. When you are mindful, you notice how the chocolate or chips don’t actually taste as good after the third or 4th bite.

THE BENEFITS OF MINDFUL EATING

REDUCE BINGE AND EMOTIONAL EATING 

LEARN HOW TO BREAK FREE FROM OVER EATING PATTERNS

BETTER UNDERSTAND CRAVINGS FOR FOOD AND HOW TO REDUCE THEM

LEARN HOW TO LEAVE SHAME AND GUILT RELATED TO EATING CHOICES BEHIND

DEVELOPED BY NZ BASED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST AND BASED ON MB-EAT

The Introduction to Mindful Eating workshop has been developed by Hamilton-based Registered Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Heidi Douglass and is drawn from the scientifically-proven Mindfulness Based-Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) programme created in the USA by Dr. Jean Kristeller and colleagues.

 “Are you really good at beating yourself up and calling yourself names when you fail yet again at another diet? We can teach you how to stop doing that.” – Dr. Heidi Douglass 

“Mindful eating involves use of meditation and mindfulness practices to build our capacity to be aware and to direct our attention to the present moment. With mindful eating, we can better observe our triggers to overeating and eating when we are not hungry. With mindfulness, we can develop a new, flexible relationship to food and eating. The use of mindful eating techniques can help us, with regular practise, to reconnect with our body’s own systems for hunger and fullness and to start to identify the thoughts, emotions and behaviours that lead us to overeat or eat when not hungry. By listening to what our body needs, we can move toward a more positive relationship with food and with our body.” – Dr Heidi Douglass.

“Just telling people to eat healthier and exercise more if they want to lose weight doesn’t work for everyone, it gives some people terrible self-esteem when they fail to do that. Mindful eating teaches people to tap into their built-in natural systems. They don’t have to calorie count; they just have to listen to their body.” – Dr Heidi Douglass

BOOK HERE | ALL WORKSHOPS RUN FOR 3 HOURS AND INCLUDE MORNING/AFTERNOON TEA

Course Locations and Timetables | Click menus to expand

SAFE, CONFIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT

This course and all course facilitators are non-judgemental.  All people who come to the Introduction to Mindful Eating course are attending for similar reasons. Your privacy and confidentiality is fully respected.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ON THIS WORKSHOP

• Ways to decrease mindless eating, emotional eating and binge eating.
• How to reconnect with your body’s own built-in systems of hunger and fullness.
• How to release yourself from negative judgements about food and your body.
• How to slow down, savour and more fully taste and enjoy food.
• How to become less reactive and more calm; especially when making food decisions.

WHAT YOU GET WITH THIS WORKSHOP

• Three guided, online, mindfulness meditations for you to access.
• A small guidebook emailed to you in pdf format.
• A delicious morning tea during the workshop.
• Food to be used as food experiments during the workshop.
• Opportunities for questions and answers.

“So honest & relatable. Great new ideas made simple. Made me feel that all my inner dialogue and disagreements around food was normal, just thoughts, and could be managed with mindfulness, time & kindness to myself. Thanks so much.”  – Jenny D.

What The Workshop Covers…

What is Mindful Eating?

• What is mindful eating and how can it be helpful?
• What evidence do we have that it works?
• How can we cultivate mindful eating behaviour?

Our Body and Our Thoughts: Internal and External Triggers to Eating

• We will look at internal and external triggers for hunger and eating.
• We will discuss how our patterns and habits of thinking can influence when we eat and how much we eat. These thought patterns can lead to mindless eating, emotional eating and binge eating.
• We will cover black and white thinking and behavioural chaining.
• We will discuss the benefits of taking a non-judgemental stance towards ourselves and the food choices that we make.

Chasing Taste: Mindfulness of Our Taste Buds

• We will demonstrate how mindfulness of how our taste buds operate can influence how much of any one type of food we consume.
• We will look at how we can shift our focus from quantity of food to quality of food: we can eat less yet feel more satisfied.

Cultivating Connection and Kindness Towards Ourselves and Our Body

• Many people with food issues make negative judgements about themselves and dislike their bodies. Guilt about food intake is common.
• We will discuss some ways to move away from this pattern and towards kindness and acceptance and a more positive relationship with food and with our bodies.

Who is this course suitable for?

This course is suitable for any of the following:

• Any adult who is overweight.
• Adults who struggle with emotional eating, binge eating or mindless eating.
• People who struggle with guilt over food decisions.
• People wanting to explore mindfulness and meditation in relation to relaxation, stress reduction and wellness.
• This workshop is aimed at adult men and women. It is not an appropriate workshop for children. Please organise offsite babysitting on the day of the workshop for any children you are responsible for.

BOOK A COURSE NOW

About the teachers

The approach by all Mindfulness Works teachers is straightforward, practical and heartfelt and is directed towards you discovering your own innate wisdom and authentic experience.

Dr. Heidi Douglass – Course Designer and Lead Facilitator

Dr. Heidi Douglass is an American-trained Clinical Psychologist who provides psychological assessment and treatment services for adults, children and couples in Hamilton. Dr. Douglass provides Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) along with other evidence-based therapeutic approaches (ACT & DBT) depending on the needs of the person.

Heidi has experience treating a wide range of problems including weight management, eating disorders, anxiety and stress, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, depression and trauma. Mindfulness Based Eating Awareness Treatment (MB-EAT) is one of her specialities.

Over the years, Heidi has held clinical and research positions at some of the most prestigious American Institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, Boston University, Mt Sinai Hospital in NYC, Brown University in Providence RI and three Hospitals of the American Veterans Administration, and within New Zealand at Otago Medical School. For over two years, she worked as an obesity expert for the Waikato DHB in Hamilton. She resigned from this position to return to private work in August 2013.

Most recently, Heidi has become very interested in the scientific literature regarding the health outcomes of a Whole Foods Plant Based Diet (WFPBD). In March 2014, she completed a certificate program through Cornell University in the USA on plant-based nutrition.

Pat Alexander – Napier

I came to New Zealand eight years ago and since then, I have consolidated a passion for mindfulness. This personal journey came about from different life events, but significantly from the disconnect I felt when I was dealing with the impact of a big change in my life.

This challenging time brought a lot of self-doubt and emotional vulnerability into my life. However, I have found that mindfulness practice has enabled me to engage and rejoice in the complete person that I am and connect with the very being of me.

This journey has been in both my personal and professional life. It has been enabled through attending training, retreats and teachings and through the development of my own practice which has been a personal commitment to my journey and that at times has brought feelings of fear and trepidation. It has enabled me to connect with like-minded people and to receive guidance and mindfulness supervision through my teachers to whom I am very thankful.

As a clinician in mental health, I can see the great potential mindfulness offers and use it in my work. I observe the benefits it provides people – developing awareness and gaining a better understanding of what limits their lives and living to their full potential and freedom of choice.

I completed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teachers practicum in 2012 and provide mindfulness-based interventions in my private practice.

I enjoy being part of the Mindfulness Works team and providing the Intro and Mindful Eating courses in Napier. With the Mindful Eating courses, we explore our relationship with food with openness, kindness and curiosity and allow ourselves more insight, understanding and compassion.

For more information and contact details please go to mindfulnessmind.co.nz

Kate Brandram-Adams – Rangiora – MBSR Qualified Trainer

Kate has a love for practising and teaching mindfulness. She has her home in rural North Canterbury. Her passion is to offer professionally led mindfulness workshops, retreats and courses to groups and workplaces in the area https://mindfulnessnorthcanterbury.wordpress.com/

Mindfulness is a fundamental part of Kate’s life. She has a daily meditation and yoga practice, attends regular meditation and mindful living retreats and has done personal development work with mindfulness therapists. It is a value of hers not to teach anything that she is not willing to experience herself, allowing her to teach with authenticity and compassion.

Kate is a Registered Mindfulness Teacher with MTIANZ and is trained to teach the worldwide evidence base course Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) that she offers as a follow up course in Rangiora. She is committed to ongoing training in mindfulness teaching and has recently completed her yoga teacher training too.

She is also a Registered Mental Health Nurse who specialises in addictions and holistic approaches (integrating body, mind and spirit for wellbeing) including training in naturopathy, nutrition and massage.

Kate has a passion for the integration of ancient wisdom with modern day neuroscience, thus uniting the art and science of supporting people to discover their own source of wisdom, wellbeing and healing; connecting with their own “inner teacher”.

Kate is grateful to the many mindfulness teachers in her life that include the animals and the nature around her.

Kovido Maddick – Dunedin

Kovido has over 35 years’ experience in mindfulness and meditation and spent 10 years training as a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest tradition under Ajahn Sumedho.

Kovido has been teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programmes since 1996. He is co-facilitator of the Dunedin Men’s group and is a Hakomi Graduate. Although his training is primarily Buddhist he is very eclectic, drawing on the wisdom of many different traditions and contemporary teachers including Rumi, Osho, Ajahn Chah, Ram Dass, Jeff Foster and Thich Naht Hanh. Probably his greatest teachers have been his two foster children, Mason and Savannah, who can take him to love, joy, delight and rage and frustration and despair on a daily basis.

For many many years, Kovido tried to get enlightened, improve himself, get better at meditation but constantly failed. Gradually his focus has changed to more self-acceptance, trusting his own intuition and being with life as it is on this wonder-full and

What People are Saying About The Intro to Mindful Eating Course and Course Designer Dr Heidi Douglass

“So interesting! Heidi has a beautiful, friendly, kind and understanding personality. Awesome to be in a room with others dealing similar feelings. Loved the balance of meditations and discussion.” Kate U.

“So honest and relatable. Great new ideas made simple. Made me feel that all my inner dialogue and disagreements around food was normal, just thoughts, and could be managed with mindfulness, time and kindness to myself. Thanks so much. ”
Jenny D.

“Interesting, animated – fostered self acceptance.” A.M.

“Made me really think about my actions and decisions that lead to over eating.” K Coulter

“ Warm, friendly, real instructor. Does make you think and notice the value of meditation to thoughts and behaviour.” Andrea E.

“It has been useful and enjoyable. It has been really nice to make time for myself and learn skills that I can apply to my everyday life.” Anna S.

“The course was extremely informative. It was practical, insightful and useful for everyone. Heidi truly has the skill to put people at ease and able to deliver. I think it was great.” Sandnya F.

“Heidi is absolutely lovely and explains everything thoroughly. She makes it interesting to listen and learn and love her accent.” Meena P.

“I have found your style to be very effective and informative and I have learnt a lot. I like your humour and your knowledge. I find you to be welcoming and down to Earth.” Elizabeth