2009 Classes/Courses

Meditation

Qi Gong

Relational Mindfulness Practice Class

Andrea Warnick: Talking to Kids Workshop

Lysa Toye: Dancing in the Darkness Workshop

2009 Weekly Classes

All classes are held at Gitche M'Qua Centre

69 Heathdale Road, (Bathurst & St. Clair), Toronto


Tuesday Night Meditation Practice

6:50pm - 8:00pm (Dana/Donation)

We will sit for 2 periods of zazen or "just sitting" with a walking meditation.  All are welcome.  Instructions for beginners at 6:45pm, please arrive promptly, as our first sitting practice begins at 7:00pm sharp!

Please call in advance if you plan to attend:  416-654-8905

 


Wednesday Qigong Practice (resumes September 9th, 2009)

11:00am - 12:15pm (Suggested fee $18.00/class)

Sheng Zhen practice is moving meditation that cultivates the heart of joy, love and compassion.  In this U-tube video you can view Master Li performing the first 5 movements of one of a series that we practice, called Healing Qigong at : www.youtube.com/watch?v=p12vknxpz_o  Each session includes a brief period of meditation, where we offer prayers to those who are ill or in need of healing.  All are welcome. 

Please call to let us know if you are attending: 416-654-8905.

 


THURSDAY NIGHT RELATIONAL MINDFULNESS PRACTICE - WILL RESUME IN MARCH 2010

This new and exciting class based on Gregory Kramer's, Insight Dialogue, will explore the foundations of mindfulness practices in the context of relationships. Periods of sitting will be interspersed with dyads, triads, and group sharing.  Each sharing will be grounded in Kramer's methods of Insight Dialogue, alongside contemplative themes.  Working from the practice of pausing into the moment, opening to our experience, trusting what emerges, and speaking from the heart, we move into relationship with others, without whom there would be no existence at all. 

7:30pm - 9:00pm (Dana or Donation)

Call Andrew in advance:  416-654-8905

 


BEING WITH OUR DYING COURSES

 

BWOD courses are held at Gitche M'Qua Centre,

69 Heathdale Road, Toronto, ON

By talking about death, by studying some insightful practices in working with the dying, and by exploring contemplative and healing approaches, we learn valuable lessons about death & dying: we learn to live each moment consciously.  Our BWOD courses are designed to support professionals and laypeople. 


Saturday, October 17th, 2009

1:30pm - 4:30pm

Dancing in the Darkness:  Creative Encounters with Death

Lysa Toye, MSW

Cost:  $ 40.00

For many of us, death brings us face-to-face with the deep seed of what it means to be human; that we are born, we live, and we die.  But how do we understand this passage, and how do we use it?  For all people, from children through adults of all ages, creative practices offer an experiential and exploratory space that awakens an investigation into our ideas and wonderings about the meaning of dying and death.

This three hour workshop will explore creativity and the arts as a vehicle through which to engage questions of life and death and locate and/or re-imagine the self within our experience of dying, death and grief.  This program designed for health care professionals, volunteers, caregivers, and anyone interested in creatively exploring their relationship to death and what it can teach us about how to live fully today.

Lysa Toye, MSW.  Lysa is an Expressive Arts Therapist and a Master's trained Social Worker who believes in the power of creativity, play, art, ritual and the natural world to ground us in and awaken us to the full experience of being human. She works at the Max and Beatrice Wolfe Centre for Children's Grief and Pallative Care at the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, Mount Sinai Hospital, where she provide psychosocialspiritual support and education for children and their families living with the experience of dying and death.

To Register: https://www.securewebexchange.com/innovative4you.com/bwodlysatoye2009.htm


 

Saturday, November 28th

10:00am - 4:00pm

Talking to Kids About Death:  Confronting our Fears and Theirs

Andrea Warnick

Cost: $ 90.00

This workshop will identify common barriers for both family and healthcare providers regarding talking to children and adolescents about an impending death.  It will include stories and important messages from children and their families that illustrate "best practice" guidelines for supporting children through the death of a loved one.  In addition, the workshop will offer practical suggestions regarding how to move from a model of 'protecting' children from death to a model of 'preparing' children for a death.  This workshop is appropriate for healthcare providers, volunteers, caregivers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles - any adult who comes into contact with a grieving child.

Andrea Warnick, RN.  Andrea is a Registered Nurse with a Masters of Arts degree in Thanatology.  She has extensive experience domestically and internationally with ill, dying and bereaved children and adults.  Andrea's passion lies in both working directly with the dying and their families, and in teaching others how to optimize their care of the dying, particularly when children are involved.  Andrea travels internationally teaching about children and grief, and works with children and families as a grief counsellor in Toronto.

To Register https://www.securewebexchange.com/innovative4you.com/bwodandrea2009.htm