Submitted
A new program called Finding Presence: A Workshop on Embodied Spiritual Practice is being offered in the Comox Valley starting in late October.
Open to people of any or no faith affiliation, it is supported by Comox United Church and the Unitarian Fellowship.
Finding Presence is the first offering within a broader vision to develop a healing and spiritual practice centre which offers a wholistic approach to health and well-being based firmly in spiritual practice and faith traditions.
The course content reflects recent developments in both mindfulness practices and body therapies that indicate that the benefits of embodied practice are critical to health and well being.
The Finding Presence program will be of interest for those who want to deepen their spiritual practice and who need tools and spiritual resources to do so. It brings together the worlds of somatics and meditation, sound and silence, movement and stillness, in exploring the work of full presence.
It will provide support to those who are overwhelmed with the busyness and confusion of contemporary times and would like resources to stay clear, focused in the present and connected with what some call Oneness, the Divine, Mystery, or Being.
Program facilitators are Denise Nadeau and Wendy McNiven. Nadeau (DMin., MDiv.), of Moving with Spirit, is a dance-movement therapist, spiritual companion, and educator whose work combines expressive arts with spiritual practice in the recovery of the sacredness of the body. She has trained in BodyMind Psychotherapy, the Halprin Life-Art Process, and Moaiku Bodynamics.
McNiven ( MDiv. M.Ed.) is a Unitarian minister and certified counsellor. She has studied energy work and has a regular meditation practice. She believes that each of us, with the right kind of support, can tap into a deep well of strength and wisdom within ourselves.
Because of high demand, this program is being offered at two different times during the week: Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Tuesdays at 3:30, both at Comox United Church.
The six-week groups begin on Oct. 23 and 28. For more information about the program, see movingwithspirit.blogspot.ca. To register, email wmcniven@uuma.org dnadeau@shaw.ca.