New Mindful Life is a San Diego based therapy practice with a focus on mindfulness based therapeutic techniques. By approaching therapy from a mindfulness-based perspective, and incorporating behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches, sessions and courses can be tailored to the specific needs of each client, group or organization.
Dr. Rochelle Voth, Owner and Clinical Director of New Mindful Life, wanted to build a site with a dual function – as both a mindfulness resource guide with information about her practice and membership site for her students and website visitors. Firstly, she wanted a site that contains a wealth of information about mindfulness practices, mindfulness courses offered at her private practice and an articles section through which she could share new and current research in the field. Additionally, she wanted a membership-based aspect to the site, through which students enrolled in her courses or those wishing to access mindfulness based meditation audio and course materials could join the site to access those materials.
The New Mindful Life site incorporates a blog (Articles section) through which Dr. Voth and her associates post content related to upcoming courses, mindfulness research, mindfulness practices and other information. These posts are then syndicated and sent to the New Mindful Life Twitter feed and Facebook pages, allowing contacts through those social media avenues to stay updated. The website is structured for search engine friendliness, and uses dynamic sitemaps which are automatically updated. Each post on the site includes quick links to social sharing via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to encourage viral sharing of content.
The homepage has a featured slider, which can be easily edited to highlight the upcoming mindfulness courses and workshops. At the bottom of the page are small features, which showcase all of the courses and mindfulness meditation audio files available. The top menus were created for optimal user friendliness, and each page on the site is accessible directly from the home page (and each additional page of the website). The home page also contains a Login or Register section, giving visitors the opportunity to log directly into their membership portal, where they may access their members-only course materials and audio files. The register button gives site visitors one click access to registering for any of the courses/workshops/audio offered by New Mindful Life.
There is a mindfulness class calendar, which gives up to date information on course offerings and locations. The Resources section contains a wealth of mindfulness related information, which is available to both members and non-members to the website. Some of the information included in the Resources section includes: Mindfulness Articles, Links to other mindfulness websites, and FAQ section, a list of Mindfulness Books and information on obtaining the free and paid Mindfulness Audio Files.
Registration for upcoming mindfulness courses, classes and workshops are done through the website, and payments are processed online via PayPal. Alternatively, students wishing to pay offline via check or other means can be added to the online system easily by New Mindful Life. Once students are registered for a course they will have access to the protected audio and course materials associated with that course. Registered members receive an unique login and password via email upon registration, and can access special “members only” sections of the website.
The membership functionality also allows Dr. Voth and associates to email members of particular courses regarding coursework and upcoming course events. By incorporating this membership aspect to the site, mindfulness course and workshop attendees have an enhanced course experience, allowing them to perform further study and/or easily review course materials outside of the structured class times.
