New Developments in Mindfulness Practice for Professionals

Awareness of our experience in the present moment begins in the body, yet for many of us, it is difficult to stay present in the body when experiencing strong emotions, painful sensations, or turbulent thoughts. The same is true when encountering deeper holding patterns associated with loss, trauma, anxiety, and depression. Without the tools of mindfulness, the momentum of chronic holding patterns appears over and again in the form of addiction, anger, anxiety, stress, and other common symptoms. Mindfulness gives us the framework to deconstruct our patterns of reactivity and aversion. When we experience pain, we usually expend so much energy trying get out of our pain rather than learning the skills necessary to be with our immediate experience, especially in the context of relationships.

Michael Stone is well known for his ability to juxtapose different viewpoints without oversimplifying them, and in this symposium we will alternate back and forth between Eastern and Western theories of mind and body.

In this course you will learn —

Michael Stone, MA, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Toronto. He leads workshops in conference, academic, and clinical settings internationally. Michael has academic degrees in philosophy, religion, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy, and has recently collaborated with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama on the intersection of Yoga, Buddhism, and psychotherapy. Michael runs the Mindfulness for Clinicians year-long study program for Leading Edge, and co-leads Centre of Gravity Sangha. His most recent book, The Inner Tradition of Yoga, will be published this spring. For more information, visit www.centreofgravity.org.