Openground has 20 years of experience in helping people with serious mental and physical health challenges. Our programs spring from a long tradition of preventative and behavioural medicine which has been researched over decades. Much of the more recent mindfulness stuff has been watered down:
- using videos V exploring with a dedicated teacher
- just using an app, rather than a detailed exploration of your patterns and how to interrupt them
- using the research about longer, intensive programs like MBSR and MBCT to "sell" more "light-on" programs
- focussing on "well-being" rather than acknowledging just how tough mental health problems can be.

Our MBSR course is for anyone who wants to reduce work, family or health-related stress, bring a greater sense of balance and meaning to their lives, and learn how to manage challenges more skillfully.

The MBSR course involves:
- an individual phone interview with your teacher
- a 2.5 hour class, once a week for eight weeks, plus one full retreat day
- yoga and body awareness training
- an exploration of your own patterns of thinking, feeling and action, and how to transform them
- brief lectures and discussions
- individual feedback and support
- scientific rationale for the practice
- your commitment to daily homework practice using audio tracks and a course book.

Mindfulness is not just a good idea – it’s a practice!

A with any new skill – like learning to swim, do Pilates or play golf – just hearing or reading about mindfulness can only take you so far. Experience and practice are the two things that will lead to lasting and profound changes.

For the training to make a real difference to your mental health, ask yourself if you are willing to make a commitment to undertake some formal practice each day over the eight weeks of your course. This will make all the difference to your satisfaction with the course, the benefits you experience, and your life.

Training in mindfulness will equip you with a very portable set of skills that you can practice anywhere, anytime. Give it a go and let's see what happens!

We may not like it, but real change takes time. This is why your training for stress and burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma unfolds over eight weeks plus a whole day retreat – a total of 27 hours of training, as well as your home practice.

Promises of a quick fix are always tempting. There are many pre-recorded short courses about recently, that don't have the clinical evidence behind them. If you have tried these and only had minimal benefit, that makes sense.
We encourage you to do some research of your own. If you are quite stressed, or you’re facing some big challenges, you may find greater benefit in an in-depth, evidence-based program.

Change happens through practice, and evidence suggests that for clinical conditions eight weeks is an optimum time for new cognitive, emotional, neurological and behavioural changes to become embedded. Our experience is that practice develops most effectively and sustainably when there is an ongoing personal relationship with a teacher who really knows their stuff.

MBSR and MBCT can assist with your capacity for listening, empathy, compassion and genuine curiosity. It can also help you see into our own patterns that can get in the way of being truly helpful.
However these programs are not a professional training program for using mindfulness with clients. We welcome you to join the course as a participant, leave your professional hat at the door, and immerse yourself in mindfulness practice. Our courses present an opportunity to learn about mindfulness from the inside out, by engaging in the group process and learning from your fellow participants.

There are good ethical and professional reasons to develop an in-depth understanding of your own personal mindfulness practice before teaching others. A sustained mindfulness practice, including completing an MBSR course and a teacher-led silent mindfulness retreat, is a pre-requisite for training to teach

Unfortunately, not all health professionals can be registered to offer a Medicare rebate. Although many of our teachers are among the best trained and most skilled in the country, they are not able to offer a rebate. However, we do offer discounts for people whose circumstances make it impossible to afford the full fee, and we’re happy to discuss this option with you.

We are a not-for-profit committed to making the programs accessible to as many people as possible. So, we offer some heavily discounted places and payment plans for our courses for people who genuinely can't afford the full fee.
Please click on the DISCOUNTS tab on the course booking page to request a discount. We are proud of the fact that we have never turned anyone away from doing the program just because they couldn’t afford the full fees.

There may be no difference. It is important to know what you are engaging in so check it out!

For over 39 years, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has been the gold standard of teaching mindfulness in a secular setting for the relief of physical and psychological suffering. It is taught by people who have committed themselves, over many years, to training, doing retreats, and having a personal practice.

Many people are now offering ‘mindfulness’ courses ‘based on MBSR’ or ‘based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn’. Often, these teachers have very little personal experience and immersion in mindfulness practice, and little or no training in MBSR. These courses are often shorter, perhaps six 1.5-hour sessions (nine hours total) or six two-hour sessions (12 hours total) for around $400. This works out to be more expensive than the MBSR program, which is 28 hours, including a silent retreat day, plus email and phone contact with your teacher if you need it during the eight weeks.

You might like to ask the teacher of these courses if they have specific training in teaching mindfulness, have completed retreats and if they adhere to the Good Practice guidelines.

Many people come to MBSR because they specifically want a mindfulness training that is secular and has no particular spiritual orientation or beliefs attached to the process. 

In addition, most ‘free’ meditation centres depend on the generosity of people to support and sustain their work. If you want these centres to survive, you may want to offer payment for the services you receive, so these wonderful resources can continue to thrive.