2017 Mindfulness Retreat

Deepening understanding through practice and teachings

With Timothea Goddard, Mary McIntyre, Astrid de Ruiter

Cost: See below

Dates: 8th - 13th July, 2017 (Starts 2pm Saturday - Concludes 12 noon Thursday)

Venue: Hartzer Park, Bowral, NSW (single rooms and gourmet vegetarian cuisine)

Overview

This silent retreat is suitable for anyone wishing to deepen his or her practice and cultivate further understanding of the wisdom teachings underpinning mindfulness practices. These teachings and practices will emphasize quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. This may be especially of interest to those teaching or aspiring to teach mindfulness in healthcare, psychology, education, science, government, or in the business and corporate sectors.

In the last 37 years Mindfulness-Based Programs (MBPs) have spread exponentially throughout the world. "Mindfulness" has become popular in medicine, neuroscience, psychology, education, and business and yet at times, little is known of it's origins. This retreat will explore and emphasize how the Dharma (wisdom teachings) informs mindfulness-based practice and programs.

Through the direct practice of the four foundations of mindfulness (and exploration of the four noble truths and the three characteristics of existence) you will explore how the essence of these wisdom teachings intersects and informs all mindfulness-based programs. This traditional insight meditation retreat will offer silent periods of sitting and walking meditation, yoga as well group and individual teacher interviews. Teachers will also offer daily talks and systematic meditation instructions that are embedded with the spirit of lovingkindness.

Teachers of the retreat

Timothea Goddard

BA, Dip Psych (ANZAP) Workplace Trainer, Cert V

Timothea first engaged in Goenka style Vipassana retreats in her twenties. Since that time she has immersed herself in Aikido, yoga, Zen, and the Western Insight tradition including Recollective Awareness practice. In more recent years, her way of engaging in her own practice and teaching has been profoundly effected by the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues associated with the Centre for Mindfulness. Her practice has also been informed by a deep curiosity about the body and how embodied practice can serve as a doorway for understanding and insight. She is a long-time yoga student and is training to be a yoga teacher. She values making a play-space for exploration through empathy, warmth, humour and straight-talking.

Timothea has worked in private practice for 30 years as a psychotherapist, educator and workplace facilitator, having trained in humanistic, psychodynamic and body-based psychotherapy as well many different mindfulness-based (MiCBT, Breathworks and MBCT) and mindfulness-informed (ACT) approaches. Since 2007, she has been offering MBSR training and supervision - first though Openground and now through MTI.

She is the Director of Openground – an Australia-wide network of clinicians and teachers offering MBSR and related programs. She is passionate about pedagogy – the art of teaching and learning - and brings great curiosity about this process to her teaching and training.

Mary McIntyre

B.A (Bus), Dip. Couns. MACA II , Somatic Experiencing (Int), Cert. Sandplay & Symbol Work, Cert IV Arch.

Mary’s encounter with regular meditation practice began in 1989. She initially attended retreats in France in the Vietnamese Mahayana tradition (Thich Nhat Hanh) where she took lay ordination in 1995. Subsequently Mary moved from Europe to Sri Lanka for seven years where she explored traditional Theravadan and Western Insight traditions. Since moving to Australia she has attended various Insight style retreats including Recollective Awareness (Jason Siff) which continues to inspire her. Ongoing study has extended to secular buddhist teaching , somatic trauma therapy and the intersection of psychology and biology . Mary is passionate about human change, growth and various modalities of healing . She works in private practice as a counsellor/psychotherapist and she leads MBSR groups and short retreats in South Western Australia.

Astrid de Ruiter

MSc (Physics), Grad Dip Counseling, Dip Holistic Counseling

Astrid is a certified MBSR teacher, having trained extensively with the Center for Mindfulness at UMASS (USA), and with Openground. She is a counsellor/ psychotherapist in private practice and has a background in science (physics). She has been teaching mindfulness to groups and individuals since 2006, to both clinical and non-clinical populations. Astrid's personal practice of mindfulness spans a period of over 15 years within various Insight meditation traditions. She has attended about 10 silent teacher-led meditation retreats, with a range of contemporary insight meditation teachers, and has facilitated many (short) retreats herself. Astrid teaches MBSR courses in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast. She brings a gentle yet lively and engaging presence to her teaching of mindfulness. She is strongly committed to helping participants develop their own relationship to mindfulness and mindfulness practice, so that it is personally and professionally relevant. She is gifted in her capacity to balance theory and practice, and to make the learning journey an inspiring and productive one.

Costs

Full Board Cost:

$695 in GST
This includes all vegetarian meals and single room accommodation.

Teachers Fee:

This will be added to the cost of board. You are invited to pay what you can afford from the following suggested rates:

Caterers

Lucinda's Fine Food will be catering for the event, providing gourmet vegetarian meals.

STANDARD RATE (inc GST) - $1160

($500 plus full board cost $660)

This is the usual rate for this type of event and the rate we ask you to select if you are able.

SUPPORTING RATE (inc GST) - $1280

($620 plus full board cost $660)

This rate is slightly higher than the usual rate for this type of event. Selecting this option is a way of supporting others to attend mindfulness events that they otherwise might not be able to attend. If you are able to select this option the MTIA guarantees that the additional funds will be directly channelled into supporting others to access mindfulness teaching who otherwise couldn’t afford it.

REGISTER HERE

SUBSIDISED RATE (inc GST) - $990

($360 plus full board cost $660)

This is a self-select funded rate whereby your place will be supported by other full paying participants. Please select this rate if you are in receipt of benefits or would find it otherwise inaccessible to attend due to the fee. We will not ask for evidence at this stage but may ask for evidence to support your claim in the future.
REGISTER HERE

Refund Policy

A 90% refund will be issued if cancellation is received up to two months before the event.

A 50% refund will be issued up to one month before the event.

However, in either of those two circumstances, if a substitute person can be found so that MTIA is not impacted financially there will be a full refund less 10% admin fee.

No refunds will be issued after 24 June, 2017 except in extenuating circumstances.

Notice of cancellation must be provided to MTIA via email and will be confirmed via reply email. MTIA cannot accept responsibility for correspondence that is delayed or for failure of delivery.

In the unlikely event the workshop is cancelled by the organisers, registration fees will be fully refunded. No liability will be accepted for travel, accommodation or other costs / expenses incurred by participants.