Mindfulness for living with cancer: Eight-week course – Thursday evenings
16 April 2026 at 18:30 to 21:00
This eight-week course uses mindfulness as a tool for self-care to support those living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. It is designed to help improve wellbeing and give you tools to respond to the stresses and strains of everyday life. It is based on the original ground-breaking Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy course.
Overview
Receiving a cancer diagnosis, undergoing treatments and living with the ongoing possibility of a recurrence, however great or small, is a life-changing experience – things will never be ‘the same as they were before’. However, this is the hope and expectation of those around us, particularly once active treatment has come to an end. This can leave us feeling isolated, unheard and plagued by thoughts of ‘what if’.
In this eight-week mindfulness course, written specifically for those living with a cancer diagnosis by leading practitioner in the field, Trish Bartley, we explore our daily experiences. This is not counselling, but is skills-based learning that offers tools to help you work in a more skilful and compassionate way with the day-to-day challenges we face.
Participants welcome talking about the impact of cancer on their daily life with others ‘who get it’ as opposed to friends and family. They are engaged by learning what this thing called ‘mindfulness’ is and how each of us can apply it in our daily lives, as a form of self-care.
Attendance at all eight sessions of the course is crucial, as is the commitment to 30 minutes of daily home practice. Many of us will need to carve out this time from the busyness of our daily routines, the various roles we play, as well as our habitual tendencies. There maybe 101 reasons why we may not be able to commit to this. But then we may also ask, ‘if not now, when?’ Maybe this is the time to prioritise our own self-care.
Who is it for?
This eight-week course is designed for both those living with and beyond the cancer diagnosis, be it a recent diagnosis or many years ago, as well as others also affected. This includes partners, family members, carers and friends.
All active, hospital-based treatment needs to have been completed, and participants will need the physical and mental presence to gain the best from the course. Each applicant will have 45-minute one-to-one meeting with the course tutor, Chris Barker, to discuss their unique situation and hopes for the course. This helps ensure that this is the ‘right time’ for such a significant undertaking, and to ensure the hopes / expectations are in line with what this course typically offers. No charge will be made for those who do not progress with the course following this meeting.
When?
Every Thursday evening from 6.30-9pm, starting on 16 April 2026 and concluding on 4 June 2026. An optional half-day retreat will take place from 10am to 2.30pm on Sunday 24 May 2026.
Where?
The course and retreat are both online.
You will get Zoom log-in details when your place is confirmed.
The format of the course?
The course involves:
- One-to-one pre-course meeting lasting 45-minutes with the course tutor Chris Barker.
- Eight weekly two and a half hour classes including mindfulness practices, discussion and exercises.
- Optional half-day retreat, lasting four and a half hours.
- Daily meditation home practice of 30 minutes.
The course involves mindfulness meditation practices of up to 30 minutes in each group session, and the same period of recommended daily home practice. These will be guided by the mindfulness teacher in each session, and via audio recordings for the home practice. Links to the audio guidance will be shared by email, along with weekly notes, which together provide a rich resource during and after the course. Please note: no CD’s or paper copies will be provided.
Everything is optional, and you are encouraged only to do what feels safe and comfortable for you. The practices may involve lying down, sitting, walking and other forms of movement. In the sessions, the mindfulness teacher will invite group members to share their experiences of practice. Again, this is completely optional, and you are encouraged to share only what you are comfortable with. The sessions will include smaller-group discussions, typically with two to four people. These discussions will be in Zoom break-out rooms.
NB: For all mindfulness work, the connection between the people in the group is central to the discovery and learning process, so please keep the camera on throughout each session. Sessions will not be recorded.
Facilitator
Chris Barker
Chris came to mindfulness as a stressed Head of PE in a large secondary school. Despite his initial reservations that it was just “yoga and meditation, that I couldn’t see myself doing” he was persuaded by colleagues to give it a try. It changed his life. Not overnight, but by allowing every drop of mindfulness, squeezed into every frantic day, to permeate through his previously sceptical being!
Now, Chris predominantly shares mindfulness with people living with cancer and their carers and leads on this both for the National Centre of Integrative Medicine as well as providing support for fellow teachers via BAMBA.
How to book
Our booking system will open for payments from October 2025. In the meantime, please fill in an application form that will be sent to the facilitator. Click this link for the form. We will send applicants the booking link when it goes live.
If you have any queries please contact us at spft.smc@nhs.net.
The cost of the eight-week course is £250. We also offer a choice of two other options:
- £275 – Supporting rate. You can support other participants to attend who are on a low income.
- £225 – Supported rate, if you find yourself on a low income.
