More about the IMP
The Interpersonal Mindfulness Program is a secular entryway into relational mindfulness for those who have taken other mindfulness based programs or who have prior meditation experience. The program cultivates our capacity to integrate everyday life and meditation by bringing together mindfulness and the power of deep listening and mindful attuning to our inner worlds and outer relationships in moments of relational contact. During the class we actively practice skills of pausing, relaxing, opening, attuning to emergence, listening deeply, and speaking our subjective truth. We contemplate core experiences of our shared human condition.
Supported by a well-trained IMP teacher* and the mindfulness practice of other class participants, insights into the ongoing causes, conditions, and release of stress can become accessible. Compassion is a natural outflow.
The IMP format was initiated in 2003 when Gregory Kramer invited a few senior MBSR teachers to Orcas Island to explore the possibility of creating an interpersonal mindfulness program similar to the eight week MBSR program. Subsequently, Phyllis Hicks and Florence Meleo Meyer refined and developed the curriculum for the program and the teacher training pathway. The curriculum has been updated numerous times incorporating the contributions of many IMP Instructors. A dedicated group of international IMP teachers called “the Gardeners” guide ongoing program development.
The IMP is taught by MBSR, MBCT, or MBP instructors who have completed the Interpersonal Mindfulness Program Teacher Training and Supervision. Participants generally pay a fee to enroll. The program has been offered internationally in universities, private psychotherapy practices, integrative medicine departments, community learning programs and businesses.
