Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Learn the what, how and why of mindfulness, a skill that changes the lives of those who practice it. Over the last 40 years, this adaptation of the ancient Eastern practice of meditation has been spreading across the world, increasingly taught in “third wave” therapies like Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Modern neuroscience has proven its effectiveness in coping with life’s challenges, particularly those related to problems with anxiety and depression, anger and emotional dysregulation, suicidal ideation and addictions, and other serious mental health problems. By learning how to control our animal brain, we can improve our relationships, make better choices, increase positive emotions, and achieve our goals.
Speaking on this topic, our featured speaker will be Danny Firestone. Danny is a Registered Psychotherapist with over 30 years of clinical experience working with people struggling with psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, addictions, eating disorders, PTSD and complex trauma, suicidal behaviors, and more serious mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, antisocial and borderline personality disorders, and psychosis. Over the past 15 years, he has had intensive training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), a modification of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy developed by Marsha Linehan out of the University of Chicago, designed and adapted specifically to treat Borderline Personality Disorder. He has taken a lead role in consulting with and developing a DBT residential treatment program, and has developed and delivered training and workshops in DBT for other service providers. In 2017, after a 35-year career in the public mental health system, Danny quit his job to start a private practice, providing DBT skills training, workshops, and individual or family therapy, while spreading the wisdom of DBT. His website is PEACEpsychotherapy.ca.
Our musical performer will be singer songwriter Dana Sipos. www.danasipos.com
Originally hailing from the industrial landscape of Hamilton, Ontario, Dana Sipos inhabited the far Canadian north – Yellowknife, Northwest Territories – for many years before going nomad. Her captivatingly nuanced songs continue to be infused with a wild wind and a haunting, slightly hypnotic surrealism akin to the mysteries of the North. Her 2015 release, Roll Up the Night Sky, was nominated for a Canadian folk music award in the Pushing the Boundaries category celebrating innovation in creating new folk sounds. She has a new album, Trick of the Light, released earlier this year, in spring 2018.
To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.
For this long-weekend Sunday, join us for a potluck lunch! Come share your food, stories, experiences and insights!
David Burman is a graduate of the Faculty of Dentistry and PhD in community health from U of T. He has spent several years working in Cree communities along the coast of James Bay. His interests include indigenous environmental issues, spirituality, and the social determinants of health. David has been active in the peace and environmental movements for over 40 years. He was a candidate for the Green Party in 4 elections, and helped start Toronto’s first local currency system (LETS). He is an active member of Ecologos and Transition Toronto and has served on the boards of directors of ICA Canada, a community development organization, the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition and Science for Peace.
For our musical performance, we will have The Spanish Waiter, a guitar/violin duo featuring Mike Hopkins and his musical partner. Mike Hopkins, B.F.A., has studied Classical guitar for twenty years. In that time, he has performed a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary pieces.
So begins the story our featured speaker David Bramwell will be here to share. David has had a lifetime of building and fixing, a lifetime of exploring and visiting new places. For David, it started at age 8 with water-based activities when his parents bought their cottage. Sailboats were a common feature. In his twenties and beyond he went on week-long wilderness canoe trips. The longest were in the range of 150 km.
Our featured musical performer will be Cassie Norton. We are always so enthused to have the very talented Cassie return to our stage! Cassie is the music director of Toronto Oasis and a Toronto based singer-songwriter, classically trained violinist/folk leaning tunesmith with a punk rock heart. She has recorded two full length albums, Little Strength (2009) and Quiet Wilderness (2010). She teaches a variety of private and ensemble classes at Regent Park School of Music, and at her private studio. Check out her website: 
Broadly defined, experiences that could be categorized as “mystical” have been described across millennia of human history and by virtually all religious traditions. Mystical states of consciousness, specifically a personal spiritual experience of union with an aspect of “Divine reality” has long fascinated interest and frustratingly resisted inquiry. Recently published studies on the fringes of contemporary neuroscience has shown that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and LSD, given under supportive conditions, can reliably occasion experiences that are phenomenologically similar to those experienced spontaneously by the mystics of history. In combination with cutting edge brain imaging technologies (such as MEG and functional MRI) and along with advances in biochemistry and receptor pharmacology this research has opened mysticism to rigorous scientific investigations into the causes and consequences of mystical states, and may allow for a future understanding that naturalizes mysticism.
Martin Frith
