Highland Mindfulness Group

Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) – we successfully ran this course for people with long-term health conditions in autumn 2024 and again in spring 2025 thanks to funding by The Everyone Project.

This 8-week introductory course by the Mindfulness Association has been adapted by the Highland Mindfulness Based for people with symptoms of Long COVID and other long term health conditions such as ME/CFS, MS, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, etc.

The course is delivered in eight 90-minute sessions by 2 experienced facilitators from our charity – Catherine Lavelle and Val Gale (see bios below).

We are currently looking for further funding to run the MBLC again and also develop a new course for those who have completed the MBLC with us. Please email us at HighlandMindfulness@gmail.com to register your interest in a future course.

COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS
“It is helping me manage my pain and feel better about myself; I don’t feel so alone.”
“I have learnt about secondary suffering which I wasn’t fully aware of before and I didn’t realise that it can be as big an issue as your health problem is. I have learnt how to relax and calm my mind and body when it is racing and using all the techniques learnt I believe I can actually calm down my autonomic nervous system which allows me to recover quicker from acute health episodes.”
“I have used it to help me get to sleep, to cope with pain etc. it has been one of the most useful courses I have ever been on.”
“The tools I have been taught are already helping my chronic pain and anxiety.  I can get more out of daily moments by viewing life through a lens of mindfulness and acceptance rather than chronic worry and stress.” 
“Really hope many more people get the chance to benefit from this amazing course which helps you to deal with so many issues. It has been extremely beneficial to me. I have learned so much and feel privileged to have continued access to a wonderful toolbox for my mind.”

MBLC
With its compassionate framework, the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) offers a variety of tools for coping with long term health conditions. Mindfulness can support participants to manage both unpleasant physical and emotional aspects of their condition for more functional living over the longer term and getting their lives back on track. This is supported by peer review scientific research in that mindfulness based approaches can support and compliment self management strategies such as enhanced sleep, pain management, pacing and resting alongside clinical input.

What’s included:

• 8 x 90-minute group sessions on Zoom with our mindfulness facilitators
• Weekly chapters from the course manual (PDF and audio book options)
• Audio recordings of the guided meditations from each course sessions

We highly recommend that you attend at least 6 of the 8 sessions to get the best out of the course (including at least 3 of the first 4 sessions). If you miss both of the first 2 sessions, then you will be unable to start on this course. A certificate of completion can be given to anyone who attends at least 6 of the 8 sessions.

After the course finishes, participants are invited to join the follow-on group (1-hour sessions every month). Participants are also welcome to join in with the regular free drop-in sessions offered by the Highland Mindfulness Group to help people maintain their practice.

COURSE FACILITATORS

Val Gale

Val has undertaken teacher training with Bangor University, the Mindfulness Association, and is registered with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA). 
She facilitates 8-week Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Living courses (MBLC) for both adults and young people, having been doing so for the past 6 years.
Her mindfulness journey began over 10 years ago and Val regularly invests in the cultivation of her own practice in order to bring embodiment, empathy, and authenticity to her work as a facilitator.
She has a long track record of supporting young people and communities, having been Chief Executive of the Care and Learning Alliance (CALA), and since retiring, she has chaired the Go Golspie Development Trust, focussing on economic regeneration and wellbeing within her local community. She views her mindfulness facilitation as a critical component of this. 

Catherine Lavelle

Catherine has been a mindfulness facilitator with Highland Mindfulness since 2018 and she is the current Chair of the charity. She has undertaken her training with the NHS and gained her teaching qualification with the Mindfulness Association. She has extensive knowledge of the MBSR and MBLC programmes and has developed her facilitation practice to intermediate level and currently helps to facilitate insight courses, meditation days, morning sessions and retreats. As an Occupational Health Nurse with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service she has a particular interest in stress prevention and wider wellbeing initiatives and has developed mindfulness techniques within the Fire Service to highlight mental heath issues and support employees. As a result of her own lived experience with chronic pain, Catherine has also developed mindfulness techniques to help and support those suffering with chronic pain conditions. She is available for one to one and for small groups sessions.