Mental health is complex: much of our stress and distress can come from circumstances beyond our control. There are so many things that influence it: our genetics, our education, our family experiences as a kid, our job, what we eat, our culture and our current stresses. Even how we imagine our future can make a big difference to how we feel right now. Good help can be hard to find and it can get confusing! 

What we offer

Here at Openground, we offer evidence-based group mindfulness meditation training programs. These programs have a different approach to the way we generally think about illness and health. Mindfulness is not a quick fix and takes time. It does involve getting to know your own mind, heart and body and how they affect each other. It can be interesting, heart-opening, transforming and  empowering. It is also demanding and requires some dedication and grit. A proper mindfulness training is a very different from using a mindfulness app or just doing an intro course.  Rather than simply learning how to relax, you will learn how to get curious and less reactive to your thoughts and emotions.  And to understand and interrupt patterns that are not serving you.

A holistic multi-faceted approach

Unlike most interventions in the current health system, our programs attend to you as a whole person in the following ways:  

• Physiological regulation~ learning how to calm down and balance your nervous system
• Emotional awareness ~ getting to know your own emotions and how to accept, explore and transform them
• Cognitive flexibility ~ developing more awareness and clarity, and less rigidity in your beliefs and attitudes 
• Engagement with values ~ bringing what you care about into how you live
• Behavioural change ~ experimenting with small changes leading to bigger shifts in life

Not for everyone

However a mindfulness program is not a treatment of choice for everyone or for all problems. It may not be workable or helpful if you:

• Feel actively suicidal
• Have severe addiction and substance abuse
• Are unable to be in a group situation
• Have psychosis or severe impulse disorders, 
• Have untreated major depression or bipolar disorder, 
• Have moderate to severe autism spectrum diagnosis, 
• Are in a current crisis situation requiring immediate crisis intervention (e.g., intimate partner violence). 

For these things, psychiatry, social work, clinical psychology and psychotherapy will be more helpful.  

 Be in touch if you want to explore whether one of our programs is right for you.