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IN-PERSON: Healing the Father Wound: Drama Therapy and the Dharma

January 20 @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

January 20, 2024 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Open to male-identified participants

with Melvin Escobar and Armand Volkas

Many of us come to the practice of meditation to undo karmic knots – traumas that build up in our bodies, minds, and hearts. The father wound is a major kind of karmic knot that, when addressed, can help us heal individual and collective wounds. We will start the day with a dharma talk that provides context about how patriarchal masculinity distorts our relationships to ourselves and others, and then use drama therapy techniques (including improvisation, acting, psychodrama and Playback Theatre) to help us connect to our true nature and needs as men on a spiritual path. No previous experience in theater needed – shy people are welcome!
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Registration: Registration is required and space is limited to 20 participants.

Cost: There is no registration fee for attending this event, nor most EBMC events. However, EBMC is not independently funded. The Center and the teachers will be sustained only by your voluntary donations (the practice of generous giving, or “dana”). Please donate generously, in proportion to your ability:

* Either online (you will be offered an opportunity during the online registration process to donate to EBMC; the teachers will not receive any part of this online donation).
* Or at the event, in the two baskets at EBMC, one for the Center, the second for the Teacher.

Thank you for your generosity. EBMC will be only be sustained through our collective generosity.

Teacher Bio:

Melvin Escobar is a bilingual-bicultural Dharma teacher, licensed psychotherapist, and certified yoga instructor. He is a graduate of EBMC’s Commit to Dharma, and for more than a decade has served EBMC in a variety of roles, including on the development team for Resilience, Refuge and (R)evolution, a six-month leadership program for People of Color. He is a U.S.-born bilingual-bi-cultural Salvadoran who has walked the path of service for most of his life, drawing on his life experiences as a working-class queer man of color. Having encountered the priceless wisdom embodied in Buddhism and Yoga, he continues daily to learn the revolutionary potential of body-centered contemplative practices for personal and social healing.

To support the teachings, please do so via:

Venmo: @Melvin-Escobar

Armand Volkas, MFT, RDT/BCT is a psychotherapist, drama therapist and theatre director. He is Clinical Director of the Living Arts Counseling Center in Emeryville, Associate Professor in the Drama Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy Programs at CIIS, Director of the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble and founder of Healing the Wounds of History, an approach that uses the power of drama and expressive arts therapy to heal generational, historical and collective trauma. Volkas is the son of Auschwitz survivors and resistance fighters from World War II. He was moved by his personal struggle with this legacy to address the issues that arose from it: identity, victimization and perpetration, meaning and grief. Healing the Wounds of History helps participants work through the burden of such legacies by transforming their pain into constructive action. At the heart of Armand’s work is a respect for the power of personal story to build bridges between people and cultures.

 

Fragrance-free: In order to protect the health of community members with environmental illness, please do not wear fragranced products (including “natural” fragrances) or clothes laundered in fragranced products to EBMC.

EBMC is wheelchair accessible.

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please do so via our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. Thank you for the gifts of your generosity and for supporting the work of East Bay Meditation Center and our beloved teachers who have volunteered their time.

All registered participants will receive a link to join us via Zoom with their EventBrite confirmation email.  Those who can attend in person need to be fully Covid vaccinated and wear N95 or KN95 masks. If you feel ill, we ask that you stay home and participate via Zoom, in order to support the health of the Sangha (community). Questions: admin@eastbaymeditation.org

Details

Date:
January 20
Time:
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Event Categories:
,

Venue

East Bay Meditation Center
285 17th Street
Oakland, CA 94612 United States
+ Google Map
Phone:
510-268-0696

Details

Date:
January 20
Time:
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Event Categories:
,

Venue

East Bay Meditation Center
285 17th Street
Oakland, CA 94612 United States
+ Google Map
Phone:
510-268-0696