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Markus Bohlmann, PhD
Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher
“We need to train the heart before we follow it” ~Joseph Goldstein
Markus Bohlmann, PhD, is a certified teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion through the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (CMSC). He has had the privilege to train directly with world-renowned mindfulness teachers including Christopher Germer, Kristin Neff, Steve Hickman, Michelle Becker, Zindel Segal, Patricia Rockman, Susan Woods, and Dawn MacDonald.
Markus is the team leader of the 2SLGBTQ+ Affinity Group of the Circles of Practice, a public meditation offering at CMSC. Recently, Markus has also taken on the role of world-wide translation co-ordination with CMSC and is a member of their DEIB committee (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging), promoting the inclusion of minorities, especially the 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
Feel free to learn more about Markus at www.markusbohlmann.com and reach out to Markus at markus.bohlmann@mindfulnesseveryday.org
More about Markus....
When I first took my MSC training, it was transformational. I felt at ease and, moreover, I felt there were practical tools that I learned that would help me reduce my suffering. And as transformational as the course was for me, it did not reflect my experience as a gay man, did not reflect the issues I was dealing with as a gay man. It did not embrace my experience as a gay man (yes, we all suffer, but we suffer differently). The course felt aloof.
I nevertheless felt the need to bring MSC to the 2SLGBTQ+ community and Mindfulness Everyday supported me in offering the first MSC course for gay men in Toronto, Canada. We started off with a bunch of gay guys that would later gather in my living room every week, and we would go through the program and learn MSC together and what it meant for us. A few rounds of teaching and then later also co-teaching MSC to the 2SLGBTQ+ community with two fellow MSC teachers and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, I have now co-adapted the MSC program with them for the 2SLGBTQ+ community to better meet 2SLGBTQ+ needs, to reflect their diverse experiences, to make MSC accessible to this minority population.
The Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (CMSC), in particular MSC co-founder Christopher Germer, was very supportive of this initiative and invited us to create this adaptation, which has now launched for the first time through CMSC. It was wonderful to see a community of MSC curious people come together where we were able to learn and practice MSC not only within an inclusive community of practitioners, but within a community of belonging. For it is only when we are with people of our own kind, with kindred spirits, that such a genuine feeling of belonging emerges. We need more spaces like that, I find, also within the mindfulness community, to foster such a sense of belonging within a culture that so often tells 2SLGBTQ+ folx that they do not belong, that they are unworthy and unlovable.
Here's to more love and belonging in 2023! We all are worthy. We all belong! |