MABT Training

MABT Overview

MABT teaches interoceptive awareness skills using a combination of manual, mindfulness, and psychoeducation approaches. This training will give practitioners the information and practice needed to teach their clients how to develop interoceptive awareness and related self-care tools that can be integrated into their daily life to promote emotion regulation. See Upcoming Trainings to information on training opportunities.

Delivered individually, MABT is particularly useful for individuals who are disconnected from their bodies due to stress, pain, & trauma. This in depth course focuses on embodiment training with an emphasis on:

• developing capacity to attend to inner body experience
• integrating interoceptive awareness into daily life for self-care

The protocol and training manual was developed by Dr. Cynthia Price for research purposes and can be easily translated into clinical practice. Because of the incremental learning approach, individual delivery, and the use of touch to facilitate attention to body, this therapeutic method is particularly useful for individuals who will benefit from the attention to pacing, safety and individualization that this approach allows.

MABT has multiple elements and three distinct stages. This publication describes the MABT approach, including a conceptual framework based on emotion regulation, and vignettes to explicate the MABT teaching and learning processes. The following are the key MABT elements covered in the training (stages are not outlined here):

1. Check-in involves gathering participant responses to semi-structured questions regarding participant emotional and physical well-being as well as a review of homework experience. This serves as a guide for the therapeutic focus of the session.
2. Body literacy training is designed to promote sensory awareness. A lack of sensory awareness is clinically identified by bodily dissociation and overall lack of sensory awareness, common among individuals with chronic pain or a trauma history. The ability to notice and describe sensation is a first step toward developing association or connection to body (vs. dissociation or avoidance). Links between sensory awareness (physical and emotional) are explored and processed.
3. Interoceptive training involves learning to bring attention to the inner body in order to gain awareness of inner body experience. Interoceptive training is achieved through exercises, each designed to facilitate different approaches to, and aspects of, interoception.
4. Mindful Body Awareness involves the key aspects of mindful practice: skills that include compassion, non-judgmental presence, and observation of moment-by-moment inner experience. Individuals are taught to bring their awareness into the internal body and to use mindfulness skills in response to challenging responses to physical sensation, emotions, thoughts, and memories that may surface rather than engaging in habitual experiential avoidance strategies.
5. Session review involves therapist facilitation of participant verbal overview of session highlights to promote integration of therapeutic elements.
6. Homework consists of a take-home body awareness practice for the interim week, and is developed collaboratively by the therapist and participant. The homework is designed to incorporate the work from the week’s session, integrate skills into daily life, and increase the participant’s emotion regulation.

Who is this Course For?

The Level 1 Professional Training course is intended for therapists/practitioners who wish to expand their practice to include a focus on interoceptive awareness and mindfulness-based practices. While designed for mental health professionals and bodywork therapists who have experience working with mental health issues, this course may also be appropriate for health care practitioners in other disciplines or mindfulness-based teachers who work individually with clients.

Therapists/Practitioners should not expect to feel fully prepared to deliver MABT in practice after this training. Each professional will enter into the training experience with her or his own unique background, skill set and vision of how they might want to bring mindfulness body awareness skills into their work. Because additional learning, skills, training and experiences are typically needed before one is ready to deliver this deeply transformative approach, we offer additional training options for those who would like to continue and become proficient in the delivery MABT and integration of this approach into practice (see MABT Advanced Training Options).

Guidelines for MABT Training

It is our experience that successful delivery of MABT requires experience with mindfulness practice, a comfort with the use of touch in practice (or having client use self-touch), and verbal interaction skills. You will be asked to complete a brief essay to address your background and reasons for wanting to attend this MABT training program. This essay is required for admittance and we will do our best to get back to you within 2 weeks regarding acceptance to this training. If not accepted, you will receive a full refund of your registration fee.

We have created recommendations for acceptance to the MABT training course:

• Advanced training or experience that has prepared you for work with emotional/mental health issues. This may include an advanced degree in mental health-related field (e.g., psychology, social work or counseling), certificate-level training in body-oriented approach such as Hakomi, Focusing, etc., or significant clinical experience.
• Experience or comfort working with touch-based approaches (as we typically use touch in our teaching methods although it is quite possible to translate this work into a non-touch approach if you so choose).
• Prior course in a mindfulness practice such as Vipassana or Insight Meditation, professional training in a mindfulness approach such as MBSR, MBCT, etc., or personal mindfulness-based experience.
• Familiarity with psychotherapy techniques and practice.
• Experience and/or interest in working with clients with have mental health concerns.