Opening the Heart: online compassion retreat
Compassion for self and others
6 February at 14:00 to 8 February at 13:00
A long-weekend retreat from your own home. You’ll be supported to deepen your mindfulness and compassion practice and experience stillness and silence. A chance to open your heart and listen to your deep intentions.
Brief overview
This retreat will offer mindfulness and compassion practices designed to deepen self-care and our intention to benefit others. Althought the retreat is entirely secular, the over-arching framework for it this year will be the Tibetan Lo Jong or Mind Training guidance and practices. These practices are widely used in Tibetan Buddhism and are an inspiring guide for cultivating compassion.
For participants who attended last year’s retreat of the same name, this retreat is different. As Mindful Self-Compassion teachers and practitioners in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Robert and Paul have used the framework of the Lo Jong Mind training slogans to shape the retreat. This will help foster qualities of the heart, such as tenderness, courage and kindness, that are essential for living life to its fullest and deepest extent. This retreat will offer the same focus on opening the heart, but with slightly different content so that people who came last year would experience a different approach.
There will be a mix of teaching, guided and unguided practice, and unstructured silent time. Most of the retreat will be held in silence, though there is the possibility to talk to either of the teachers individually at any point.
The programme itself will run through Friday afternoon until Sunday morning.
Where is it?
Online. You can attend from your own home whether or not you live with others. You will be given guidance on how to prepare for the retreat.
Who is the retreat for?
The retreat is designed for people with some experience of mindfulness and/or compassion practice who want to deepen their practice in a supportive, safe environment. As a minimum, participants should have a regular practice of their own and should have done an eight-week mindfulness-based or compassion-based course and have attended at least a one-day, silent retreat.
It is also a great opportunity for mindfulness-based and compassion-based teachers to approach this area in a new way. The retreat will count towards the annual retreat requirement for teachers and supervisors on the BAMBA Register.
Retreat leaders
Robert Marx
Robert Marx is co-lead for the Sussex Mindfulness Centre and leads the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in Talking Therapies in NHS services training centres collaboration. He is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist and has been teaching mindfulness to patients and staff in the NHS for 18 years. He teaches MBCT and Mindful Self-Compassion. He has been practising Buddhist meditation for over 30 years, initially in the Theravadan tradition and then in the Tibetan tradition. He is passionate about building compassionate cultures in organisations and about integrating relational and mindful approaches to work.
Paul Johanson
Paul Johanson is a social worker, a teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion and a cognitive analytic therapist working in private practice. He has worked in various areas of health and social care, including criminal justice, substance misuse, serious mental illness, psychological therapies, cancer, and palliative care. He has also worked as a strategic leader for the NHS, implementing national programmes in mental health, psychological therapies, and patient experience. A long-term Buddhist practitioner, Paul began his journey over 35 years ago in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition and has been a student in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism since 1991. From 2013 to 2025, he was the Buddhist Chaplain at the University of Sussex.
How much does it cost?
The cost is £250.
How do I apply?
Please download and fill this application form and when completed return it to spft.smc@nhs.net.
The purpose of this is to understand what we need to know to support you properly. If we have any concerns about anything in your form, we will contact you.
- On offering you a place we will issue an invoice for the full amount.
- Your place is confirmed once we receive full payment. Please note the terms below for refunds.
- Any bursary reductions will be offered by 1 Dec 2025, and earlier if possible.
Are bursaries and payment instalments available?
Once we break even, we will offer reductions to those who request them in their application form. These are likely to be very modest and we won’t know what we can offer until fairly near the start of the retreat. We can offer payment in two instalments.
Please contact spft.smc@nhs.net to request a bursary or to pay in instalments. Any bursary reductions will be offered by 1 Dec 2025, and earlier if possible.
How to book?
To secure your place you can book here
