Online MBCT Course
Get Off Autopilot and Develop a New Relationship with Your Thoughts, Emotions and Body
What if it’s not about fixing what’s wrong—but more about gently shifting how you meet what’s already here?
Rather than trying to fix, resist or avoid a problem, what if you were able to be with it with awareness, kindness, steadiness and choice?
If you often find yourself caught in cycles of worry, low mood or self-criticism—especially when life gets hard—you’re not alone. All of us default to autopilot, and patterns take over. But we now know—thanks to ongoing developments in neuroplasticity—that patterns are not permanent and that our brains are wired for change.
We don’t have to keep getting swept up by the same thought loops or emotional patterns. But, we do need to learn and practice new skills to rewire our brains, gently lean into what’s uncomfortable, and stay open to creating the change that we want in our lives.
MBCT Online Course: Eight Weeks To Choose You
A core intention of MBCT is to gently shift us from automatic pilot into intentional presence. Automatic pilot is not wrong—it’s adaptive and often helpful. But, over time, patterns of thinking and behavior can become habitual and unconscious, narrowing our awareness and keeping us stuck. When we operate on automatic pilot, we’re not fully present. We go through the motions, disconnected from the richness of experience, often unaware of what we're thinking, feeling or sensing.
The 8-week online MBCT course invites us to wake up to our lives—moment-by-moment—and to see how much of our experience we miss when we’re caught up in doing, reacting or mentally rehearsing. Through mindfulness practices, we begin to experience what it's like to fully inhabit the moment, as if for the first time. This gradual shift lays the foundation for cultivating presence, curiosity and choice in how we meet our thoughts, emotions, and the world around us.
Rooted in both ancient mindfulness practices and modern cognitive therapy, and based on the work of mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBCT helps us create change. It’s designed to help us develop a new relationship with thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations—one that’s not based in control or avoidance, but instead grounded in awareness, choice and compassion. We begin to notice ingrained patterns, and relate to them differently—with more awareness and spaciousness, and less reactivity.
The online MBCT course may be beneficial to you if you:
Experience frequent worry, rumination, or mood shifts
Feel stuck in patterns of reactivity or self-criticism
Want practical tools to support emotional balance and nervous system regulation
Are interested in deepening awareness and compassion toward yourself
Want a group experience to deepen the therapeutic work you’re already doing
Are drawn to mindfulness and benefit from a structured approach
The online MBCT course can help you:
Ease symptoms of anxiety or depression
Navigate stress or burnout with more skill and softness
Release patterns of overthinking or harsh self-talk
Reconnect with a grounded sense of self
Cultivate inner steadiness through change and transition
How It Works
This MBCT course is offered online, in a small group format with live weekly sessions. Over 8 weeks, you’ll be gently guided through core MBCT practices and frameworks, including:
Mindfulness of body, breath, and thoughts
Working with difficult emotions and reactive patterns
Feeling more embodied/experiencing your body as an ally
Shifting from automatic pilot to intentional responding
Cultivating self-kindness and cognitive flexibility
Each session includes guided practices, group reflection and supportive teachings. The full curriculum follows the standardized MBCT protocol used in clinical and therapeutic settings, thoughtfully adapted for an online course.
A Mindful Invitation
This course is not a quick fix. Rather, it’s an invitation into a different way of relating—to your thoughts, your emotions, and your inner life.
Instead of trying to change your experience by force, MBCT teaches you to meet it with presence, allowing space for insight and choice. It is a path of deep inner listening, gentle inquiry and steady transformation.
Whether you are navigating a particularly difficult challenge or transition, or seeking greater clarity and emotional steadiness, this online MBCT course offers a safe, supportive space to learn, mindfully reflect and grow.
You do not need prior meditation experience. You simply need curiosity, openness and a willingness to show up for yourself in a new way.
Next Course: June 4 - July 23, 2025; Full day retreat on July 20
Facilitator: Dr. Karen Walant
Format: 8 live weekly sessions via Zoom + full-day retreat
More information can be found on the 8-Week MBCT website page.
Dr. Karen Walant has been a practicing psychotherapist for almost three decades and holds a MSW and PhD in Clinical Social Work from New York University. Karen supervises other clinicians in private practice and has given lectures around the country on issues related to attachment, mindfulness, meditation, addiction and recovery, deepening the therapeutic relationship, parenting with kindness, and fostering compassionate relationships. She is the author of Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addictions and the Alienated Self. A long-time meditator and teacher, Karen is a 2021 graduate of the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program (taught by meditation experts Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield), is certified as a Mindfulness Meditation Mentor, and is certified as a Level I Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher through Brown University, and completed her Certificate in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy from the Institute for Mindfulness and Psychotherapy in 2022.