MAPs Class Schedule

MAPs I for Daily Living

The MAPs I course is an excellent introduction to mindfulness for beginners. MAPs I provides insight into the basics of mindfulness, how to develop a mindfulness meditation practice, and how mindfulness can be applied in daily life. It is also appropriate for experienced practitioners who wish to revitalize their practice.

MAPs I- for Daily Living is also an excellent introduction to mindfulness for clinicians, who are welcome to take it for credit.

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MAPs II: Next Steps - Improve Your Meditation

In this follow up class to MAPs I, we will focus on maintaining and sustaining a daily mindfulness practice, how to bring mindfulness into our daily activities, how to develop more concentration, and how more confidence and wisdom can arise in our practice.

Pre-requisite: Attendance in any introductory MAPs I series or equivalent mindfulness introductory class with permission from our instructor. If you have not taken a MAPs I class at MARC, please email us a brief description of your equivalent experience to [email protected] before class start date.

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MAPs II: Cultivating Positive Emotions

In this follow up class to MAPs I, we will learn how to cultivate loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, joy, gratitude, and forgiveness.

We will learn new meditations to develop these qualities, tools to work with when we find them ourselves stuck and not feeling positive emotions, and practical exercises to incorporate them into our daily life. This is a helpful expansion to our basic mindfulness practice.

Pre-requisite: Attendance in any introductory MAPs I series or equivalent mindfulness introductory class with permission from our instructor. If you have not taken a MAPs I class at MARC, please email us a brief description of your equivalent experience to [email protected] before class start date.

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MAPs II: Working with Difficult Emotions

Many of us struggle with anxiety, depression and anger. These natural human emotions can be a source of suffering that can negatively impact quality of life. Mindfulness has been shown to promote more states of well being and happiness and has been incorporated into a variety of clinical treatments for mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. But whether or not you have a mental health concern or simply struggle with the challenges of 21st century living and the anxiety, stress, and frustration of life, this class can support you in finding more ease, balance, and happiness.

In the class we will work weekly with each emotion, exploring how to bring mindfulness to it and include other approaches to working with it. We will also learn practices that antidote difficult emotions such as equanimity or balance, compassion, and loving kindness.

This class may be particularly relevant for mental health clinicians, but is open to anyone.

Pre-requisite: Attendance in any introductory MAPs I series or equivalent mindfulness introductory class with permission from our instructor. If you have not taken a MAPs I class at MARC, please email us a brief description of your equivalent experience to [email protected] before class start date.

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MAPs II: Mindful Self-Compassion

Many of us struggle with issues of self-judgment and self-criticism. People of all ages suffer from painful thoughts such as, "I'm not good enough," "I messed that up again," and "I hate my body." Although these thoughts may feel overwhelming and intractable, we can learn how to work with and lessen them. Science has shown that you can actually change your brain through mindfulness and the cultivation of positive emotional states.

In this class, we will explore mindfulness practices to work with self-critical thoughts, and self-compassion practices to nurture kindness and compassion for ourselves and others. This class will include sitting and walking mindfulness and kindness meditations, periods of silence, personal exploration, and discussion to help cultivate and encourage more self-compassion. The material in this class is very powerful. We encourage you to have a consistent daily meditation practice before attending this class.

Pre-requisite: Attendance in any introductory MAPs I series or equivalent mindfulness introductory class with permission from our instructor. If you have not taken a MAPs I class at MARC, please email us a brief description of your equivalent experience to [email protected] before class start date.

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MAPs III: The Buddhist Roots of Mindfulness: The Eightfold Path

This class will explore core Buddhist teachings that are implicit in mindfulness practice. In this series we will learn about the 8-fold path.

The eightfold path can be considered the Buddhist prescription for living a healthy life where we take our meditation practices into all aspects of our experience. The 8-fold path includes teachings on ethics, meditation, and wisdom, and we will apply these teachings to our personal practice and life.

Pre-requisite: MAPs I and at least two MAPs II classes, or permission from instructor. If you have not taken these classes at MARC but have equivalent experience, please email us a brief description of your equivalent experience to [email protected] before class start date.

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MAPs Applications: Introduction to Mindfulness for Adult ADHD

As an ADHD adult you are brilliant, full of great ideas and insights and definitely able to be present and attentive.

There are perfectly good reasons (no, not being defective) that you ignore tasks, leave them unfinished, don't put things back where they belong, act impulsively, lose interest, become bored, anxious, are hyper-sensitive to blame, have no sense of time, forget important things, and can't stick with things to the finish line.

Through years of work with thousands of clients Dr. William Dodson, psychiatrist, tells us the ADHD brain simply functions differently than the 80% - 90% of the society who are "Neurotypicals." For example, you become motivated, engaged, focused and on top of things in 4-5 completely unique ways than others do. This can cause you to be hyper focused or not engaged. There are several other differences.

 Most doctors are not educated about these differences and treat according to old paradigms. Unfortunately, most tips, including regular Mindfulness aimed to fix these issues have failed, leaving the ADHD adult hopeless and stuck.

When you understand how the ADHD brain works and develop the skills to do things accordingly, you can reduce almost all of the challenges mentioned above and live a successful happy life.

In this four-week introductory course, you learn about your brain’s unique qualities and natural strengths and pick up a few modified Mindfulness tools. This is an educational course designed with Mindfulness techniques for the ADHD nervous system. We offer practices appropriate to the way the ADHD brain can absorb.

Science indicates Mindful Awareness can reduce worry, anxiety, forgetfulness, impulsive reactions, and hypersensitivity. With training and practice, you can fine tune your brain to reduce tardiness, fogginess, and confusion. You are naturally present. Learn to how harness this natural strength of being present.

 Who should attend: Ages 16+ who believe are ADD/ ADHD. We encourage spouses, family members, teachers, therapists, coaches and trainers to attend to learn in order to support the ADHD individual effectively.

Course Format:

• Appropriate meditation techniques (Mindfulness, Loving Kindness, self-compassion, etc.)
• Education
• In-class group discussions and practice
• Home practices

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MARC has teamed up with Mindful to present a new online course: Cultivating Forgiveness.

In this class, Diana Winston guides us on a journey of forgiveness - a journey that includes forgiving others as well as ourselves. Diana teaches with empathy, kindness and gentleness, encouraging us to release the pain, anger and self-blame that we may be holding in our hearts to find a renewed sense of inner release and freedom.

You’ll learn how to:

• Deepen these ideas through formal and informal meditation practices that you can apply every day, for the rest of your life
• Transform pain and resentment into an abiding sense of well-being and freedom
• Understand forgiveness as a kindness to yourself, rather than an act of condoning others’ harmful actions
• Cultivate forgiveness for others, for actions you’ve done that have harmed others, and towards yourself

Pre-requisite: Mindfulness experience is a plus, but not a must.

Class Notes & Policies

• MARC classes are educational programs, not a clinical treatment.

• Please avoid wearing restrictive clothing or jewelry to our workshops, classes, and daylongs. Please avoid wearing heavy fragrances and perfumes as well, since this may disturb the practice of others around you.

• All MARC events are subject to audio and/or video recording.

• Please review the Missed Class Policy

Technical Recommendation: For optimal experience, we encourage you to access the course with a Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser on a desktop/laptop with secure internet connection. UCLA's online course website is also mobile responsive, so you can access it on a phone or tablet as necessary.

MARC remains deeply committed to equity and accessibility and recognize the economic hardship caused by the global pandemic. We invite you to contact us ([email protected]) if you cannot afford the minimum fee and want to participate. Please submit any scholarship requests at least 48 hours before event start date.

**Note: Current UCLA students (non-Extension) may sign up for this class for FREE. To use this discount, please register using your UCLA email address, and select the "UCLA Student" discount from the pulldown menu during the payment process. 

◊ Anyone registering with the TMF/IPP discount must be enrolled in MARC's Training in Mindfulness Facilitation or Intensive Practice Program. If you are a member of these programs, please be sure to enroll with the name and email address associated with your program. 

MAPs I For Daily Living is an excellent introduction to mindfulness for clinicians, who are welcome to take it for credit. Participants need to attend all 6 weeks to receive credit. The cost for the CEs is $50.

Psychologists: Continuing Education Credit for this program is provided by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This course offers 10 hours of credit.

California licensed MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs: Continuing Education Credit for this program is provided by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists 10 contact hours may be applied to your license renewal.

Nurses: UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP16351, for 12 contact hours.

For those licensed outside California, please check with your local licensing board to determine if CE credit is accepted.