In Mental Health Ministry/Buddhist Chaplaincy:

It is important to note I am not an expert in this field. To get the highest/purest Buddhist guidance it is best to approach a senior monastic in the tradition you follow.

In May 2023 I completed the introduction training for Mental Health Ministry with Rev. Alan Galt through The Mental Health CPE Centre, part of NSW College of Clinical Pastoral Education. And earned the entry level qualification to begin providing chaplaincy in hospitals, hospices, aged-cared facilities, schools and prisons. I decided to continue on to the foundational 400 hour unit lead by Rev. Alan Galt, with Krsnangi as my supervisor. And completed this unit at the end of 2023.

Buddhist practice:

  • I began meditation practice in the Vipassana Meditation community in 2012. I spent approx 9 years under Goenka G’s guidance, attending retreats and daily practice.

  • Approx 2020-22 I engaged in Zen practice drawn to the teachings of Kodo Sawaki and Uchiyama Kosho Roshi. I joined the Blue Mountains Zen group (another lineage) led by Jane Andino. I traveled to Japan to join sesshin at Antaiji.

  • Around the same time, approx 2020 I started attending talks and guided meditations with Bhante Akaliko and Bhante Sujato at the Lokanta Vihara, the “Monastery at the End of the World”. Also attending retreats/doing self-directed practice at Santi Forest Monastery and Wat Buddha Dhamma. At the end of 2022 I committed to the Thai Forest tradition.

  • Meditation practice looks like : breath meditation, metta, compassion, mudita, death contemplation, walking meditation, four elements meditation, recollections of generosity and virtue, recollections of the buddha, dhamma, sangha, investigation of non-self, impermanence, suffering…

  • I have engaged with many teachers through the wonderful connectivity tool of the internet.

With Post Growth Institute:

  • Offers and Needs Market: a methods for revealing local wealth, rapidly deepening connections, and regenerating economies.

With Soul Gen:

  • Placed-Based Approaches: addressing community needs and creating systemic change by bringing together efforts across the community and by harnessing the vision, resources, and opportunities of community to work towards shared long-term outcomes.

  • Assets Based Community Development: building on the assets that are found in the community and mobilising individuals, associations, and institutions to come together to realise and develop their strengths.

With IDHA:

  • TMAPS: a set of tools that provide space for building a personal “map” of wellness strategies, resilience practices, unique stories, and community resources.

  • The History of the Mad Movement & Alternatives to Biomedical Approaches

  • Our Struggles Are Intertwined- intersectional analysis and holistic healing

With Presencing Institute:

  • u.lab: Leading From the Emerging Future: introduction to method Theory U, building capacity to lead transformative change from a systems based analysis.

With Steven Mayers and Niels Buus:

  • Open Dialogue: an innovative form of mental health treatment developed in Western Lapland in the 1980s. It involves a consistent family/social network approach to care, in which the primary treatment is carried out through meetings involving the patient together with his or her family members and extended social network. See Flick Grey’s site.

With The International Bateson Institute:

  • Warm Data Lab: Group processes, which highlight interdependency and generate understanding of systemic patterns for people with no previous exposure to systems theory.

With Western Sydney University (course discontinued):

  • Social Ecology: Exploring relationships between the personal, social, environmental and spiritual. Discovering how and why everything I do affects others and decide how I can take action towards a sustainable future.

With The Miecat Institute:

  • Experiential learning: Naturally learning with our sensory based cognition system.

  • Creative Arts Therapy: Art making as an incredible tool for learning and healing.

With Roel Voorbij , Jorge Parente , Tony Osborne, Benni Seidel and the Australian Institute of Music:

  • Performance Practices: Theatre making, Performance Art, Participatory Performance, Musical Theatre, Cabaret, Comedy, Spoken word, Improvisation, Physical Theatre, Psycho-physical Awareness, Musical Performance- scored/un-scored/anything in between.

  • Improvisation: Creating spontaneously with what is available to us. Learning to be highly adaptable and inventive in uncertainty.

With Bae Il Dong:

  • Pansori: A traditional music practice of Korea rooted in shamanism.

Some of the areas I have been interested and learning in are; (with my own definitions)

  • Reflection: Contemplating with self, creative/ reflexive/ automatic writing, engaging in reflective dialogue.

  • Somatics: Listening to bodily communication to move towards ease.

  • Indigenous ways of knowing and being: listening and acknowledging the wisdom of Mary Graham, Pat McCabe, Ali Golding, Tyson Yunkaporta, Four Arrows, Bruce Pascoe, Anne Poelina to name a few.

Some of the values closest to me are;

  • Emotional understanding: self- awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

  • Autonomy and autonomous regard: engaging critical thinking to sharpen the ability to self-govern. And respecting others to do so.

  • Co-operative skills: developing communication skills, self-expression and authenticity within a group. To be together harmoniously, come to consensus when decision making, and manage and minimise conflict.

  • Creativity: playfully imagining, envisioning, and actualising.

  • Wellbeing: giving my ‘self’ the state of health, happiness, and ease it needs.