Mindful Connections™ for Wellness - Online

Mindful Connections is Awaken Pittsburgh’s proprietary program designed to help you create a space for mindfulness and meditation in your own life. We are adapting it here to provide tools to deal with the stress and uncertainty during this unprecedented time of physical distancing. You will learn tools to help you stay focused and grounded and, in turn, positively impact your relationships with others. In addition to mindfulness we will also incorporate somatic and embodiment practices each week.

Learn tools to help you:

• Cope with daily stressors
• Become more resilient
• Increase compassion and empathy
• Develop your own regular mindfulness practice

The course includes the following topics:

• Basic introduction to mindfulness
• The research that supports mindfulness
• Dealing with difficult emotions and events
• Understanding and improving relationships
• Mindful communication
• Forgiveness and gratitude

Each participant will also have the opportunity to have two one-hour long individual sessions with tender, the course facilitator, who is a somatic practitioner focused on healing trauma and affirming queer and trans existence using somatic experiencing and other traditions.

Somatic Experiencing is a body oriented therapeutic modality applied in various capacities for healing trauma and working to access more aliveness. The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

Individual sessions will use the SE approach and other somatic practices to gently work together to contact the lived experience. Each session looks different depending on the individual, and is co-created with tender to move at the speed of trust without going into overwhelm.

When? 9 Wednesdays 6:30pm-8:00pm, September 20 - November 15 via Zoom online video conferencing.

How Much? This is Free thanks to a generous grant from the Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation! But we will cap registration at 25

Facilitator: This course will be facilitated by tender tierney. kalen tenderness tierney (aka tender) is a person (also known as a multispecies assemblage) navigating the world in a gender expansive practice, working at the intersection of somatics, meditation and social/ecological justice. tender is a facilitator, educator, ceramicist, queer philosopher and builder for social change. they are currently studying and practicing somatics with both generative somatics and Somatic Experiencing. Additionally, they are a student of the Great Perfection tradition of Tibet. tender is a sharer, space holder and collaborator rather than an expert. their somatics practice is focused on creating possibilities for care and healing for people who are queer, trans, and gender expansive. tender loves wild blueberries, the ocean, rocks, trees, sky, animals, tea, far out theory conversations, fire, reading and being in the forest. Learn more at tenderspaceelementalsomatic.com.

What past participants have shared:

“The sessions were so informative and helped to keep the energy going with my own practice. The content was rich and relevant.”

“This course opened up my life to a new approach, to a life of kindness, gratitude, and peace.”

FAQs

Is there a minimum age requirement to join the course?

This course is for people age 18+.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Feel free to email KT@awakenpittsburgh.org with any questions.