The value and power of learning comes from what people remember. Top seminars communicate broadly applicable ideas in entertaining and thought-provoking ways. Skillfully Aware^TM programs deliver eye-popping images, stimulating sounds and music, creative demonstrations, humor and active participation. These programs change people’s lives. Dr. Pirtle delivers seminars to businesses, groups and individuals, and from one-day intensives to 5-day retreats to 6-week programs. Regardless of the format, Mark Pirtle applies the Skillfully Aware ideas in entertaining and thought-provoking ways. Please find a list of memorable seminars below.

Mindfulness-based programming is shown to be among the most effective forms of self-care treatment known today. Some of the benefits of mindfulness practice include improved brain, immune and endocrine function, better concentration, enhanced self-awareness, behavioral self-regulation, and it is also associated with positive emotional states. Mindfulness is best used in the service of treating the myriad of stress-related illnesses including but not limited to mood and eating disorders, addictions of all kinds, OCD, chronic pain, and insomnia. The evidence is clear, but the power of knowledge comes from using it. That’s where Dr Pirtle’s Skillfully Aware programming excels. Skillfully Aware presents this vital information in a way that is artful, interesting and engaging to audiences. And most importantly, participants leave with the inspiration and tools to start daily mindfulness practices of their own. The Skillfully Aware curriculum will support and enhance all of your current treatment programming.

• For Treatment Professionals:
  Skillfully Aware: How to Integrate Recovery Programming with Mindfulness
  This program presents the science of self-organizing systems and evidence-based methods for positively working with dysfunctional patterns of cognition, which lie at the heart of all stress-related illnesses. Once a practitioner understands the interplay between the mind, body and the patterns of illness, and further, how balancing feedback makes the whole system self-reinforcing, he or she is able to intervene through a systematic process of patient self-care education. This curriculum can then be integrated into and enhance all of your current recovery programming.


• For Patients:
  Skillfully Aware: Working with Strong Urges and Emotions
  Strong emotions and urges are difficult to understand and work with. And it is because of them, that many people struggle with stress-related illnesses including addictions, mood and eating disorders, OCD, chronic pain, and insomnia, to name just a few. Research shows that when patients are taught the nature of these problems the better they then manage them, and with correspondingly improved outcomes. This program teaches participants the common constituent parts of all strong emotions and urges and then basic awareness techniques for examining, deconstructing and soothing them.

Corporate seminars are based on the foundational Skillfully Aware curriculum retooled to address the business concerns of executive happiness, concentration, productivity, communication, teamwork and creativity. To schedule Dr. Pirtle for a speaking engagement, click here.

• Skillfully Aware: Creative Flashes
  The mind is full of thoughts and images that never reach the threshold of awareness. This is unfortunate, because some of these subconscious musings contain the answers to questions for which you are actively searching. Learn to train your mind to see itself and its contents more clearly. Gain access to elusive and creative insights to improve your work and your life.


• Skillfully Aware: Tuning to Greatness
  Life gives you what you expect. This is not just folk wisdom, rather it is suggested by modern science. If life seems unfulfilling the problem is not with your present circumstances, but rather it is a problem with your intention and focus. This seminar teaches "the 5 Omni-Present Mental Events," how to get unstuck, and then how to “tune” to greatness at work and in your personal life.

Dr. Pirtle lectures nationally and internationally on the topic of Skillful Awareness™ and its evidence-base for the treatment of chronic illnesses such as pain, chemical dependency, mood and eating disorders and trauma. To schedule Dr. Pirtle for a speaking engagement, inquire through the “Contact Mark” section of this website.

• Skillfully Aware: Teach Your Patients to Heal Themselves
  Patients suffering from the complex combination of pain, chemical dependency and mood disorders can pose great challenges for healthcare providers and the system as a whole. Mindfulness as a treatment method is proven effective with these complex patients. Patients who learn to meditate can initiate their own self-directed healing, which has the effect of lowering healthcare utilization while at the same time improving outcomes. This workshop teaches participants how to bring the benefits of meditation into their personal and professional lives. A participant need not be familiar with meditation to begin to understand its benefits and begin teaching basic techniques.
  
  
• Skillfully Aware: The End of Back Pain
  Back pain should be like the common cold: a person gets it for a few days and then it goes away. Unfortunately, in many cases back pain tends to linger and can even get worse overtime. Such chronic cases then place the largest burden of cost on our healthcare system. It doesn’t have to be this way. Ignorance of the true causes of back pain, both on the part of the healthcare practitioner and the patient, is the primary reason for the epidemic of chronic low back pain. This seminar provides the evidence that explains the most common type of low back pain. Participants learn how to see patterns in the patient’s history, confirm probable diagnoses with clinical testing and provide individualized treatment plans. When you teach your patients these few simple concepts, you put them in a position to heal themselves. What you learn in this seminar will help your career, your patients and the healthcare system.