The United Kingdom arguably represents the leading front in the globalised therapeutic culture of ‘mindfulness’. Promoted predominantly as an effective therapeutic technique for the relief of stress, depression, and anxiety, mindfulness has moved rapidly from the Buddhist monasteries of Southeast Asia and into the mainstream of Western societies.

In this talk, Dr Steven Stanley, will discuss the multiple ways in which ‘mindfulness’ is made manifest across sectors of health, education, work, politics and spirituality, and analyse the mainstream turn to mindfulness against the background of cutting-edge work at the borderlands of psychology, religion, and spirituality.

Dr Steven Stanley is a critical psychologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, Wales. His academic background is in Psychology, and his research is focused on the therapeutic cultures of late modernity, with a particular focus on social studies of mindfulness.

Dr Stanley has a 20-year meditation practice, and has undertaken the two-year Committed Dharma Practitioner Programme at Gaia House, Devon, and Pāli Summer School at Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Oxford. Currently, he is collaborating internationally on a series of studies of mindfulness, meditation, and mind wandering. You can follow him on twitter @Dr_SteveStanley.

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Dr Stanley’s Bio and Publications: http://bit.ly/2KcGS28

The Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness: http://bit.ly/2G7vOzr