The Future of Mindfulness
The theme of our upcoming conference is the Future of Mindfulness. Join us on Friday, 10 May 2024, to explore how mindfulness can help shape our future. And if you can, stay for the all-day retreat on 11 May.
Sussex Mindfulness Centre conference 2024
How will mindfulness influence the future? Alongside the big issues of the day, what role will mindfulness play? Technology, the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis are rapidly shaping the world we live in. Added to this, the increasing polarisation of discourse is undermining social cohesion and our ability to engage with the pressing issues that affect us all. Is mindfulness just a niche, wellbeing intervention? Or does it have the potential to transform our world?
We will be exploring this theme in a day-long conference with leaders from their respective fields including:
Vidyamala Burch OBE
Vidyamala Burch OBE is a mindfulness and compassion teacher, speaker, coach and best-selling and award-winning author. Her books include: Mindfulness for Health, Mindfulness for Women, and Living Well with Pain and Illness. Her evidence-based mindfulness-based pain and illness management approach has reached over 100,000 people around the world and is recognised by health boards globally.
Jamie Bristow
Jamie Bristow, is an expert on the application of inner development and contemplative practices in public life and until recently was Director of the Mindfulness Initiative. His work includes influential policy reports such as Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out, and he currently leads on public narrative and policy development for the Inner Development Goals.
Debbie Abrahams MP
Debbie Abrahams MP has served as the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since January 2011. Prior to entering Parliament, Debbie worked as a Public Health academic and practitioner. She was also Chair of an NHS Trust from 2002 to 2006. It was her work on inequalities that drove her into Parliament – to tackle injustice you need to focus ‘upstream’. She currently serves on the Work and Pensions Select Committee and chairs several APPGs, including on ‘Health in All Policies’ and ‘Compassionate Politics’.
Conference workshops and all day retreat
We have an excellent range of workshops lined up. And this year the conference includes an all-day retreat on 11 May, the day after the conference.
Conference workshops
During the conference you can choose to attend one of six workshops. Please read the descriptions here as you will be asked to choose your top three in order of preference, when you book. Places are limited, but we will do our best to allocate you to your preferred workshop.
The workshops will cover the following themes.
A. Cultivating mindfulness in a digital world: Can (and should) we cultivate mindfulness using digital self-help?
B. What is the future of mindfulness without Buddhism?
C. Future of secular mindfulness: Moving beyond the individual to relational.
D. Valuing our skills: Mindfulness for long COVID recovery as a response to ever-changing needs.
E. Can mindfulness be more than a sticking plaster for refugees now, and in the future?
F. Frazzled Café; It’s Okay to not be Okay.
All day retreat
Your 2024 conference booking ticket also includes free entry to our all-day retreat at the same venue on the following day, 11 May. The retreat is open to anybody attending the conference, who has done an eight-week mindfulness course. We do hope you can join us for both days.
Ticket prices
This year we have had to make the difficult decision to charge people who previously would not have had to pay for the conference. We have made this decision so that we can cover our costs. Speakers are giving their time free, but we do need to pay for travel, accommodation, venue hire etc. We have introduced a reduced concession fee of £5 for anybody struggling to pay the new prices. Please email us separately at smc@spft.nhs.uk, to request the booking form for the concession ticket.
The prices below include the conference and free entry to our all-day retreat on 11 May.
Early Bird
There are currently a limited number of Early Bird tickets, sold on a first come, first served basis. So book early to secure the best prices.
General admission: £45
Sussex Partnership staff & service users | current Sussex Mindfulness Centre (SMC) contracted teachers | current SMC trainees | advocates: £15
Standard
General admission: £60
Sussex Partnership staff & service users | current Sussex Mindfulness Centre (SMC) contracted teachers | current SMC trainees | advocates: £25
Concession
If the ticket price is prohibitive, we have a limited number of subsidised tickets available for £5. Please email smc@spft.nhs.uk to request a concession ticket.