Guided Mindfulness & Meditation for chronic pain
Mindfulness for chronic pain. How can this help? There is now a growing body of research to show that mindfulness programmes, often referred to as Mindfulness-Based Interventions or MBI’s, can have a positive effect in a range of situations, one example being that MBI’s have been found to reduce pain intensity (Paschali et al 2023)
This online support service is in partnership with Alfie Golden (see bio below) who facilitates small groups through a mindfulness and meditation session with time at the end for reflection and questions. These events are safe, inclusive, open and engaging and we hope that you enjoy the experience.
Alfie explains that ‘in the context of mindfulness, we might speak of two types of pain – primary and secondary. Primary pain is the physical sensation we experience with illness or injury. Secondary pain relates more to the thoughts and emotions that accompany primary pain. For example, we might label the physical feeling of a broken bone or a cut as primary pain and the accompanying worry (“How am I going to work with a broken arm?”, “What if this doesn’t heal properly?”) would be secondary pain.
Mindfulness can’t directly help get rid of the primary pain but can drastically reduce our secondary pain, which often has a longer lasting impact on us.
Mindfulness can help us to manage the mental/emotional side of long-term illness by changing our relationship to our symptoms, reducing the amount of worry, anxiety or stress that goes with them. This can then actually lower the amount of primary pain we perceive.
We may not have control over what is happening to our bodies but by developing a sense of kindness and compassion towards ourselves, along with the ability to clearly see our experience, we can change our experience of pain and learn to live well with it.
These stand alone sessions will run on the following Wednesday’s at 7pm however it is vital that you register in advance as places are limited. To register please log into your account via https://chronicpain.ie/my-account/
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About the facilitator
Facilitated and guided by Alfie Golden a graduate member of the Psychological Society of Ireland and accredited by the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland. Having graduated from UCC with both a degree in Applied Psychology and a master’s degree in Mindfulness-Based Wellbeing, he has been practising mindfulness meditation for over 10 years and is passionate about helping others to discover the benefits for themselves of following evidence-based training in mindfulness.
Alfie offers courses in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness in the Workplace, talks and workshops along with one-to-one mindfulness training and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.