Soft belly breathing
Slow, deep breathing with a soft, relaxed belly that calms the body and eases tension.
Mind-body skills
Together towards more balanced, safer mental and physical health
Holistic skills that offer a great deal of self-expression, inner reflection, relaxation and imagery. We use our minds to bring healthy change to our bodies, and the strength of our bodies to bring healthy change to our minds.
Why we teach them
What are mind-body skills?
Mind-body skills were designed to lower stress and to bring clear clinical change in conditions affected by stress, such as high blood pressure, AIDS, diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
By practising these skills you can lower your stress, remove or ease symptoms of weakness and fatigue, improve your mood and energy, and live a more enjoyable, meaningful life.
Self-care is the heart of health care: taking an active part in helping yourself is a powerful form of healing.
- Everyone can come to know themselves
- Everyone can care for themselves
- Mobilising the healing power of our minds
- Improving our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing
What we practise
Mind-body skills we use
Breathing and movement
Deep breathing, slow in meditation or fast in expressive movement, improves the body’s ability to take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
Shaking
Shaking the body to release the tension held in it.
Drawings
A form of imagery: knowing and expressing ourselves with paper and colour, and at the same time a way to let feelings out.
Body scan
A meditative way to grow aware of the body and ease tension, imagining yourself inside a capsule travelling through the body’s organs and systems.
Autogenic training
A calming method that shows how words and phrases affect our bodies.
Biofeedback
A tool to measure the effect of autogenic training on the body.
Mindful eating
Eating slowly, meditatively and with full awareness.
Genogram
Understanding ourselves in our social setting by drawing three generations of our family: its members, their relationships, and its similarities, differences, strengths and weaknesses.
Dialogue with a symptom
A written dialogue with a topic, a problem or a symptom, as if it were another person sitting across from you.
The wise guide
A skill that uses imagery, the language of the unconscious mind: with all the senses, we imagine a safe place where a wise, experienced presence visits us, hears our problems and offers the best way forward.
Closing rituals
Repeated, meaningful acts that close a meeting with contentment and warmth, and give participants a way to use imagery to set their next steps.
Inside a group
How does a mind-body group session work?
A mind-body group brings together 10 to 12 people over 5 to 8 sessions. A session lasts one hour for children, an hour and a half for adolescents and two hours for adults, once or twice a week. Every session has six main parts.
Our group guidelines
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Mutual respect
- The “pass” rule: you can always choose not to share
- Being on time
- Regular attendance
- Practice at home
- Opening meditation
- Feelings check-in
- Theory
- Practical exercise
- Sharing and discussion
- Closing meditation
Start your journey to recovery
Our groups and workshops are free and open to all. Contact us to join the group nearest you.