Mindfulness and Anxiety Group

Mindfulness is a Critical Element for Reducing Anxiety

Mondays, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm, 8 Sessions, $320.

David Plotkin, Ph.D. and Associates
16055 Ventura Blvd. Suite 715
Encino, CA 91436.

There is street level parking with an entrance on Woodley Ave.

Mindfulness is often defined as nonjudgmental moment-to-moment awareness. While this is essentially true, it is a tad misleading.  We would define mindfulness as having neither a positive nor negative reaction to our experience. It is superficially about judgment and more fundamentally about how our body-mind system responds to internal and external experience.  It is the development of the capacity to cultivate a stable awareness.

Anxiety is often the experience of a dysregulated nervous system.  It is a symptom of nervous system activation with cognitive misdirection.  Anxiety is experienced in the body by a disconnected mind that lives in the future.  By bringing awareness to the experience in the present moment and letting the mind make friends with the body,

This group will employ mindfulness and cognitive behavioral strategies for the reduction of anxiety.  The group will meet on Monday nights from 7:30 – 9:00 in Encino.

There will be eight 90-minute sessions (cost of $320).  The first three sessions will address the elements of anxiety and  how to track thoughts, feelings, sensations, our reactions to them and what we do with those reactions.  During these first weeks we will also lay the foundation of mindfulness practice using meditation and grounding exercises.

The second half of the group will employ mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral strategies.

The group is in formation and I anticipate that it will start the later part of March.  The group will be limited to 12 participants.