Florence, April 7th, 2010
In the period autumn 2009 – spring 2010, we organized in the University of
Florence, Italy, a series of seminars on Transformative Mindfulness.
The main teacher of the course was Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw, with Valentina Dolara
as the translator and assistant and with the academic and organizational supervision of
myself. About 15 professionals enlisted for the course, made up of psychiatrists,
psychotherapists and hospital MDs of various specialties. Some of the classes were
done directly in Florence with Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw, others remotely using a Skype
connection from Canada or the USA.
During the classes, the participants were given general instructions about the theory
and the practice of Transformative Mindfulness, assigned various exercises on self
practice with the body scan and transforming problems techniques. The exercise
material was examined jointly buy Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw and by Valentina Dolara,
both on site and remotely through the Skype connection. The Participants were also
instructed to select case studies, to be followed using the practices learned during the
course. Informal group exercises were organized in Florence, in which the participants
used the various techniques amongst themselves.
The group developed a very close inter-personal connection and a good working
relationship with the teachers. At the end of the course, all the ones who attended
regularly and submitted case reports were evaluated by Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw and
given an attendance certificate.
As a whole the experience was a real success. The participants quickly learned the
essentials for approaching the chosen cases, and eagerly applied them. In the last
session of the course, they reported the results obtained. These results were mostly
very satisfactory. In fact, the techniques employed were accepted eagerly by all
patients with no exception, who documented mostly an improvement of the pre-
existing condition. In one case, a strong panic reaction was totally cured. Given the
relatively short teaching experience received, the results indicate that the method of
Transformative Mindfulness can be transferred from the main teacher and inventor of
the approach to specialized professionals and applied with promising clinical results.
This opens also the possibility of organizing future clinical trials to verify the
applicability of such methods to different medical and psychological problems as a
promising complementary therapeutic approach. In conclusion, I strongly recommend
the implementation of such teaching methods elsewhere.
Prof. Piero Dolara,
Professor of Pharmacology
DEPARTMENTO DI PARMACOLOGIA PRECLINICA E CLINICA
MARIO AIAZZI MANCINI
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
50130 FIRENZE
Viale G. Pieraccini 6
Tel. (055) 421.287
diretto: 4271323
Fax: (055) 4271.280
Piero.dolara@unifi.it