Introducing Nicola Smith, PgDip in CBT, DipCOT
Your MBCT mindfulness consultant in Northamptonshire
Nicola is an experienced healthcare practitioner - a British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)-accredited Cognitive Behavioural (CBT) Therapist with 18 years’ experience working in hospital, private clinic and university settings. She studied for her postgraduate qualifications in CBT at King’s College, London at the Institute of Psychiatry.
She is also a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) teacher, having done her training with the University of Bangor's 'Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice,' and then further training in the ‘Mindfulness for Life’ courses with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre - both are leading centres for training mindfulness teachers in the UK. She has taught mindfulness both individually and in groups to university students and staff, school staff and the general public, and is very enthusiastic about sharing the benefits of mindfulness through her courses!
Her aim with everyday mindfulness courses is to make mindfulness something that people can relate to and bring into their everyday lives. She knows the huge benefits that mindfulness can bring in the way we deal with life’s stresses. She feels it is a privilege to witness the changes you experience in the weekly sessions and in your life, as you travel through the sessions together.
According to Nicola, the Mindfulness for Life course offers mindfulness practices and cognitive behavioural approaches that make the course accessible to all. It is particularly effective at helping people to have a different approach to being lost in their thoughts, especially if those thoughts are full of worry about the future and over-thinking things from the past. It also helps people to savour and appreciate life, realise their potential and to flourish.
Nicola Smith is one of the very few Mindfulness for Life and MBCT teachers in the whole of Northamptonshire and has been trained to teach the MBCT programme at a BAMBA** recognised Teacher Training Organisation.
*BABCP: British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists
**BAMBA: British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches
The vision of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre is “a world where mindfulness enables greater awareness, understanding, compassion, wisdom and responsiveness” - and it’s a vision I wholeheartedly share.
“Nicola puts me completely at ease during our 1-2-1 mindfulness sessions; I’ve learnt so much about how to control my anxiety. It’s a skill I can implement anywhere and it really helps prevent a panic attack.”