About me
I am here to share practice with you, both in-person (in Ottawa, Canada) and online, inspired by the rewards of practice itself and by the insights of those I have coached, guided and taught. It is my heart’s desire to point to the unfolding of awareness in such a way that these rewards of practice become yours.
My formal mindfulness training has been with Shinzen Young‘s Unified Mindfulness system which focusses on an inclusive, secular, systematic training of attentional skills. With Unified Mindfulness I have taught as support coach, assistant instructor and lead instructor for their group coaching program. I also regularly contribute to Shinzen’s online Home Practice Program, offering 4-hour, transcendence-themed teaching and guiding sessions. My practice and teaching style are also influenced by Taoism and Zen Buddhism, and by the commitment I made to live into the Buddhist precepts (receiving the Dharma name “Zenshin”, translating to “kind-heart”). My annual retreat practice has included Rinzai-ji Zen Centre in Los Angeles, online retreats with Community for Mindful Living from Niagara Falls, Canada,, the rigorous Sesshin and koan practice at Mount Baldy Zen Centre in the San Gabriel Mountains of California, and Breathwork training in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina.
The people I coach and have coached one-on-one span many professions and backgrounds: doctors, teachers, homemakers, police officers, judges, nurses, therapists and writers… and live in many different countries: Canada, Germany, Italy, China, Syria, England, Switzerland, Mexico, India, and the United States. The reasons people seek support also vary: a desire to relieve anxiety and other suffering, to develop compassion (including self-compassion), to experience direct realization, and for a sense of accountability to keep their commitment to practice (on the Offerings page you can read what some people have to say about their coaching experience).
Perhaps my most challenging guidance sessions have been over the phone, with a young man in Syria, as a massacre unfolded outside his window and throughout his town. Over days of sustained support compassion became our teacher by its very definition: “com-passion: to suffer with”. I continue to work with refugees and organizations that support them (including Capital Rainbow Refuge), and I want to share here my gratitude for the rigour, humility and honesty they call me into as a teacher.
I have offered day-long and weekend-long in-person retreats in beautiful Quebec, Canada, and at the Botanical Gardens in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (article here). You will also find me guiding twice a week online with the Seeds Meditation Community, where you are welcome to join anytime! I cannot over-emphasize the value of practice in community.
Skills gained from my formal education in both Trauma Recovery and Breathwork inform the design of all of my workshops, trainings and retreats.
May the sharing of these words inspire your practice.
With love, Candice
