"Breathworks methods could radically change your life for the better."

- Prof. Lance McCracken, Professor of Behavioural Medicine, King's College, London

A simple 8-week mindfulness and compassion course to give you the tools and skills to live well with your chronic pain or health condition.

Chronic pain and ill-health can feel unbearable, debilitating, and unfair. Many people at the beginning of these courses say their life feels completely overshadowed by their pain and illness.

Clinical trials have shown that mindfulness meditation can be as effective as prescription painkillers, and can enhance the body’s natural healing systems. Mindfulness can also reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion, and insomnia that arises from chronic pain and illness.

Mindfulness for Health is the unique meditation programme developed by Vidyamala Burch to help her cope with severe pain and health complications following two major spinal injuries. She is now living a rich and fulfilling life, with more well-being than ever. The course has been backed with huge amounts of research, and changed the lives of thousands of people.

“Mindfulness for Health has literally changed my life. I can do a lot more, and enjoy what I’m doing.”

S.O. - Rheumatoid arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis

Techniques that Work


These techniques: a mix of mindfulness, meditation, a supportive mindful movement practice, and modern pain management strategies, were created and refined by mindfulness experts who made it their life’s mission to share them, having suffered themselves from chronic pain and health problems.

Research and Testimonials


Here are some of the outcomes from our Mindfulness for Health course evaluations:

Mindfulness for health course benefits and outcomes

  • Rumination: e.g. “I can’t stop thinking about how much it hurts.”
  • Magnification: e.g. “I’m afraid that something serious might happen.”
  • Helplessness: e.g. “There is nothing I can do to reduce the intensity of my pain.”

Participants’ experienced many other improvements; their overall quality of life increased by almost 50%.

Testimonials and Endorsements

You can read about some of the awards won by the Mindfulness for Health book at the bottom of the page, read the full evaluations and many studies published on the course on our research page, and watch some video testimonials below:



 

Read More Testimonials

The Course

The course itself requires 20 minutes of meditation per day, in addition to a little reading every week, and a weekly or fortnightly session with your group and teacher. The sessions will consist of 20 hours of class time over the 8 weeks, including guided meditation, in-depth teaching on the practices and techniques, discussion, opportunities for questions, and help with your home practice.

What will I learn? What will I get with the course?
  • The skill of meditation
  • Mindfulness and self-compassion skills in your daily life
  • To live in the present moment and breathe into your experience, rather than tensing against it.
  • How mindfulness can help you to manage and live well with pain and chronic health conditions
  • Supportive mindful movement practices
  • Greater concentration and focus
  • The art of taking joy in simple pleasures
  • Transformative body and breath awareness for relaxation, tranquillity, and to let go of tension
  • Pacing and learning how to break the 'boom and bust' cycle.
  • 8-weeks of lessons - 20 hours of class time
  • A balance of teaching, questions and discussion, and guided meditation
  • Daily home meditation practice of 20 mins a day
  • Guided meditations CD / MP3 downloads
  • Teaching and practices to help you develop mindfulness and self-compassion, and to relieve pain and anxiety.
  • A highly experienced mindfulness teacher to answer your questions and guide you through difficulties every week
  • A supportive peer group of those on the course with you

What Now?

Choose how you would like to do the course:

Manchester Courses

London Courses

Residential Courses

Online Courses 

Book & Audio

Find a Breathworks Teacher

Specific Health Conditions

If you want to get a better feel for the course, you can also read a blog about the course from a Breathworks teacher and pain specialist, and try some Breathworks guided meditations.

The course is such a powerful tool, and many of your symptoms may continue to be difficult to manage without them. You can learn to live a rich and full life, restore your wellbeing, and truly say that your pain or health condition is well managed. 

Awards and Research

Jon Kabat-Zinn Breathworks Endorsement Quote

British Medical Association Award

The best-selling book Mindfulness for Health,, an abbreviated summary of this course by Breathworks Founder  Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman, won First Prize in Popular Medicine in the British Medical Association Medical Book Awards in 2014.

Reading Well: Books on Prescription

The book has also been recommended by the Reading Well: Books on Prescription Scheme, endorsed by public libraries and selected by expert health professionals as the most helpful and most evidenced self-help books available to support members of the public suffering from conditions and mental health issues.

Research and Evaluations

Breathworks Courses have been the subject of some psychological research, as well as our own internal evaluations. If you would like to find out more about the results of these studies, you can take a look at our research page

Lance McKracken Breathworks Mindfulness Endorsement Kings College London

 

Mindfulness for Health Overview