Mindful Transitions

Seagulls Winging over the Ocean at Sunset

“Let your­self be silent­ly drawn by the stronger pull of what you tru­ly love.”
—Rumi

Limited to eight par­tic­i­pants, this psy­choe­d­u­ca­tion­al sup­port group is designed for peo­ple in tran­si­tion who want to devel­op the tools need­ed to deep­en their sense of pres­ence and abil­i­ty to cre­ate lov­ing rela­tion­ships. Participants look at how self-protective pat­terns devel­oped and how they pre­vent us from being inti­mate and liv­ing with integri­ty. Mindfulness helps us explore these with accep­tance and kind­ness so we can step out of these pat­terns and make dif­fer­ent choic­es about how we relate to oth­ers and our­selves. We dis­cov­er where inti­ma­cy with our­selves and oth­ers starts as well as how to tru­ly connect.

Through awareness, understanding, mindfulness, and the support of a group of others of like mind, this group provides support for:

  • under­stand­ing how ear­ly attach­ment and self-protective pat­terns impact our relationships
  • expe­ri­enc­ing greater inti­ma­cy, warmth, and a sense of belong­ing through mindfulness
  • prac­tic­ing deep­er self-acceptance
  • respond­ing rather than react­ing in stress­ful situations
  • devel­op­ing new neur­al path­ways to cre­ate lov­ing relationships
“Helping peo­ple remem­ber their good­ness is the great­est gift we can give to each oth­er.” —Tara Brach

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People Walking with Their Dogs on Beach

Testimonials

I felt a strong sense of mutu­al respect and car­ing in the group. Everyone had a strong desire to under­stand them­selves and their pat­terns at a deep lev­el. Thank you, Jennifer, for cre­at­ing this won­der­ful pro­gram. —Roger

I just don’t know how to thank you—in eight short weeks, I feel that I have been giv­en valu­able tools that have begun to and hope­ful­ly will con­tin­ue to make the qual­i­ty of my life so much bet­ter. I have not felt so con­nect­ed, excit­ed, and moti­vat­ed since Bill’s death. I am so grate­ful to you for allow­ing me to par­tic­i­pate in this group of tru­ly won­der­ful peo­ple, to start look­ing at life issues in a dif­fer­ent way, and begin­ning to amass the tools for con­tin­u­ing on this path. —JD

Dear­est group, as I pre­pare for Thanksgiving with my fam­i­ly, I am struck with deep feel­ings of appre­ci­a­tion I have for all of you in my heart. In a very short time, we have forged an open­ing into the deep­est heart of who we are and the light that has seeped through has light­ened my load and helped my inner chat­ter of judg­ment. I appre­ci­ate all of you for the indi­vid­ual beau­ty you share with all of us and for your lov­ing and kind being. —Letter to the group from a participant

I am capa­ble of more emo­tion­al courage and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty than I thought pos­si­ble. I was able to break up with a man with­out hard­en­ing my heart against him and turn cold, con­tract­ed self-judgment into heart­warm­ing, expan­sive self-compassion. I felt so much car­ing from you (Jennifer) and oth­ers. —CS

This group opened my eyes to liv­ing mind­ful­ly. Yes, I’d read about it and heard about it yet had no idea how to put the con­cepts into prac­tice in dai­ly life. It all seemed too “lofty” to be prac­ti­cal. During those eight weeks, through our dis­cus­sions and read­ing and prac­tic­ing, I have been able to begin a prac­tice. The prac­tice path that I am going down includes con­scious­ly slow­ing down, con­scious­ly pay­ing atten­tion, con­scious­ly breath­ing. One con­crete exam­ple is that in the nine or so months since that group I can count on one hand the num­ber of times that I’ve mis­placed my keys — or any­thing else that was in my hand. That may seem like a very small thing, yet it rep­re­sents a great deal and has reduced some lev­el of dai­ly stress. —JD

Than­ks, Jennifer. You are an inspi­ra­tion and an impor­tant per­son in my life. I get clear­er by the day, and my mind­ful­ness prac­tice grows. It’s been a life-changing, trans­for­ma­tion­al expe­ri­ence. —RP

The group con­tributed to my con­stant aware­ness of how I am led astray from the present moment by my inces­sant thought pat­terns and habits and how hard it is to accept myself as I am. I felt a strong sense of mutu­al respect and car­ing from oth­ers in the group. Everyone seemed to have a strong desire to under­stand their lives at a deep­er lev­el and shared a rev­er­ence for life. Thank you, Jennifer, for cre­at­ing this won­der­ful expe­ri­ence. —RD

This group helped me get a good han­dle on my code­pen­dent ten­den­cies that I real­ized come out of my belief that I don’t have a right to ask for what I need. I now real­ize that I need to hon­or myself and that it is OK to express what I want. —Participant

The great­est ben­e­fit was real­iz­ing that I am not alone, that every­one is going through some­thing equal­ly as painful or chal­leng­ing. Being there for oth­ers, to lis­ten to them, is a gift for your­self, not just for them. I am not alone in try­ing to learn and grow, and I am not alone in stum­bling along the way. I would rec­om­mend this group to any­one going through a chal­leng­ing time. —ST

Jennifer Downs

MA, LPC | 541.488.4872 info@jenniferdowns.net
Psychology Today