A Non-Residential Meditation Retreat for Caring Professionals and Family Members
with Melissa Berry Appleton and Brian Dean Williams

Friday, September 27th 7pm - 9pm
Saturday, September 28th 9am - 4pm
Sunday, September 29th 9am - 4pm
Capilano University 2055 Purcell Way, Birch Building 126
North Vancouver, BC
Sliding Scale $180 - $400
When we are at the edge, in danger of falling over the precipice into suffering, compassion is the most powerful means I know for keeping our feet firmly planted on the earth and our hearts wide open. Joan Halifax
Compassion calls forth our best human capacities - balance, generous care, insight, and ethical engagement. In the turbulence of extending care to others, sometimes we lose touch with these natural human virtues.
This workshop is an opportunity to gather for restoration as caregivers, parents, professionals, partners, and allies.
Together we will strengthen our capacity for compassion through educational tools, Buddhist meditation and yoga techniques, collective dialogue, as well as hikes and outdoor therapy.
Melissa and Brian met through their good friend Michael Stone. The first time they met, they all shared a great meal together in Vancouver at Nuba Cafe. At the next they stepped onto the hiking trails of the Okanagan BC and began a path of Dharma friendship. Brian and Melissa have led Dharma Inspired Wilderness Expeditions for Teens, Mindfulness Meditation for Clinicians, Educators and Front-Line Workers, and Reconnection - Recovery Retreats. They take family vacations together, are children of the 1970s, and deeply love the wilderness, dharma, and community life.
Brian Dean Williams is a local registered clinical with a thriving private practice in and teaches meditation workshops widely for health professionals to sustain themselves. He started teaching mindfulness in the downtown eastside for frontline workers and his teaching practice grew from there. www.briandeanwilliams.com