Lisbon, Portugal
Conhecer-Se
A FEW FIGURES
- Created in July 2013
- 9 board members including 5 certified Mindfulness teachers: Inês Águas, Anne-Sophie Dubanton, Amélia Novo, Jorge Magalhães Nunes, and Teresa Ranieri
- 20 active associate members
Conhecer-Se is a non-profit association promoting the development of consciousness and awareness, active citizenship and social responsibility, through mindful awareness programs and practices, namely Christiane Águas’ programs ‘Aprender a Ser’ (introduction to meditation) and ‘Consciência pelo Vocabulário’ (mindfulness of speech and thoughts), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindful Self Compassion (MSC), Mindful Eating and The Fundamentals of Mindful Attention (SIT).
Conhecer-Se is committed to fostering Mindfulness and providing high quality, affordable and sustainable mindfulness practices and programs. Conhecer-Se has nine volunteer board members, including five certified Mindfulness teachers and twenty active associate members who make key contributions by participating in specific projects and tasks.
In the first 5 years, Conhecer-Se focused on promoting mindfulness in Portugal, as there was very little available, and facilitated regular mindfulness awareness practices and programs for the general public in its own venue: 60 one-day workshops (Sept-Jun), 5 SIT programs, 3 MBSR programs, 2 Mindful Eating programs, 5 Mindful Self Compassion programs, 2 weekend retreats, 5 one-day silent retreats.
From 2017, as MBSR, MSC & MBCT teacher trainings started to be available in Portugal with a consequential increased offer of programs, Conhecer-Se took the opportunity to refocus on our original intention – promoting mindfulness in the education, justice & health sectors – and on forming partnerships. In 2018 and 2019, Inês Águas and Anne-Sophie Dubanton were part of the initial team implementing mindfulness practices in the French Lycée in Lisbon.
In 2019, Conhecer-Se organised a free 3-hour conference with mindfulness teacher Martin Aylward in Lisbon, with the support of the UNESCO Chair on Education for Global Peace Sustainability.
In terms of partnerships, Conhecer-Se have very strong ties with Calm Mind (Mindfulness in Education movement in Portugal) which aims at creating and validating a national Mindfulness teacher-training curriculum and master programs. In 2019, Conhecer-Se jointly co-facilitated a yearlong U.LabS pilot to support school directors, teachers, students and home-schooling associations implement mindfulness practices within their educational communities, an opportunity to establish connections and partnerships with other stakeholders in the education sector.
Conhecer-Se also has well-established international partnerships, namely with Antares in Belgium and Le Fil de l’Être in France. Currently, Conhecer-Se is partners in two Erasmus+ project application, MP4s and the Wise Bodies project, to co-create new ways of improving the pedagogical relationship between teachers and students in primary and secondary education through mindfulness and embodiment practices, as a means to counter pre-burnout and early career drop-out levels.
A FEW PICTURES
