Interview: Brian Dean Williams

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jeff Warren. Jeff Warren is a meditation teacher, author, and speaker offering practical mindfulness and meditation for mental health, stress, and everyday life—through writing, guided practices, retreats, and organizational teaching.https://jeffwarren.org/ 

Jeffrey C. Fracher, Ph.D., a retired Clinical Psychologist, was in practice as a clinical psychologist for 45 years in New Jersey and Virginia. He has practiced Buddhism since 1992 when he took the lay precepts, committing to the Buddhist path, in the Sangha of the late Thich Nhat Hanh. Upon being exposed to Stephen Batchelor, a strong shift to secular Buddhism quickly occurred. In 2013 he completed a 2-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Meditation Teacher Training Institute in Washington, D.C. He was a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville for 10 years, where he was also president of the IMCC Board of Directors, before his retirement in early 2022. In 2022, he founded Serenity Sangha of Charlottesville, a far-reaching virtual community of Buddhist practitioners which emphasizes Practical Dharma, the synthesis of modern psychology and ancient Buddhist wisdom. Jeff, a native Virginian, lives in Charlottesville, VA, with his wife of 53 years, Kay, and his two beloved rescued Golden Retrievers, Kaiya and Khema. He has two adult sons, Eli and Luke. In addition to leading Serenity Sangha, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He is a volunteer bereavement group facilitator at the Hospice of the Piedmont. He also serves on the City of Charlottesville Police Civilian Oversight Board. He is the founder and Chair of the Charlottesville Parks Foundation. Link to Substack: https://jeffreyfracher.substack.com Link to YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SerenitySanghaofCharlott-oi3ze Link to Sangha: https://www.serenitysangha.org/home

Joining us today is a brilliant philosopher of cognition and cognitive scientist: Dr. Mark Miller. Mark earned his PhD and Master’s degrees in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh under the legendary cognitive philosopher Andy Clark, focusing heavily on the embodied and predictive brain. Today, his work spans across multiple prestigious global institutions. He serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies in Australia, is an Instructor and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto within their Psychology and Cognitive Science departments, and acts as a Visiting Researcher at Hokkaido University’s Centre for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience in Japan. He is also the Lab Manager for U of T’s Consciousness and Wisdom Lab. Alongside his frequent collaborator, Dr. John Vervaeke, Mark works directly at the bleeding edge of 4E Cognition and Predictive Processing—exploring how our brains act as active, prediction-generating engines rather than passive observers. Whether he is breaking down the rigid cognitive loops of addiction and despair, hosting The Contemplative Science Podcast, or leading his groundbreaking 8-week course, Generations of Joy on The Lectern, Mark is dedicated to bridging rigorous computational neuroscience with ancient contemplative wisdom. https://lectern.johnvervaeke.com/ https://www.markdmiller.live/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-john-vervaeke/id1680606350?i=1000755047363

Mitch Takefman has spent more than fifty years in contemplative practice, drawing from dharma, mindfulness, ethics, and the wisdom traditions of multiple lineages. He is the author of six books, including Authentic Connection: The Art of Communicative Mindfulness, and the creator of the Tailored Mindfulness Experience, a structured curriculum that guides students into progressively deeper practice. Mitch is also the founder of Wisdom Path Press, a  cooperative publishing house dedicated to transformational literature, where he works personally with authors to bring books on mindfulness, wellness, and personal growth into the world. His teaching is practical, honest, and rooted in decades of lived experience rather than theory. He believes the most important thing a person can do is learn to pause before they react, and he has built both his teaching and his publishing work around that conviction. When he is not writing or teaching, you will find him cheering loudly for the Montreal Canadiens and enjoying every moment with his two grandchildren. The best place to find me is wisdompathpress.com. There's information about our authors and books there, and if anything we talked about today resonates with you, you can reach out to me directly through the site. https://www.wisdompathpress.com/

"David Garcia is the founder of Off-Grid Retreats, a San Francisco nonprofit aiming to make nature practice accessible to all. His inspiration comes from his own practice in the Insight tradition, especially a yearly retreat held in the remote wilderness of the Lost Coast. An entrepreneur, land artist, and software developer, he splits his time between LA, SF, and his native country, Mexico."

Mirabai Bush is an American author, social entrepreneur, teacher, and spiritual leader, recognized for her pioneering role in integrating mindfulness and contemplative practices into secular sectors of American life, including business, higher education, law, and social activism. As a student of Neem Karoli Baba (often affectionately known as Maharaj-ji), Bush became part of a notable spiritual lineage alongside influential figures such as Ram Dass, Krishna Das, Larry Brilliant, and Daniel Goleman, significantly shaping the contemporary understanding and practice of contemplation in the Western world. Bush’s contributions include co-founding influential organizations such as the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind) and Seva Foundation and co-developing Google's widely recognized mindfulness-based emotional intelligence program, Search Inside Yourself. https://mirabaibush.com/

Mike Slott from the Secular Buddhist Network joins us again, for another discussion. https://secularbuddhistnetwork.org/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secular-buddhist/id333093081

The Cult of Trauma: Evaluating Negative Impacts on Addiction Treatment Efficacy Currently, there is a trend in addiction treatment services to view recovery as unobtainable without first ‘resolving trauma’. Definitions of trauma are vague, poorly defined, and often trivial. This practice flies in the face of traditional recovery wisdom which sees recovery as possible despite ongoing mental health issues, and that such issues should be treated sequentially, not concurrently. In this debate, Dave and Alastair discuss possible motivations for this growing trend, including commercial self-interest on the part of treatment providers and therapists. Theories of ‘trauma’ being biologically embedded and treatable via a range of ‘somatic’ therapies are also critiqued. Alastair Mordey is one of the world’s premier addiction treatment specialists. Alastair has founded some of the world’s largest treatment centres, and is recognized as one of the pioneers of Thailand’s thriving addiction treatment industry. Alastair founded the first rehab in the world to use Thai boxing training regimens to help young men overcome their addictions. To date he has overseen the treatment of more than 6,000 addicted people and continues to pioneer cutting edge treatment methods in behavioral health and addiction recovery for people all over the world. https://onesteprehab.com/  

To sign up for upcoming sessions, you can do so HERECurrent understanding of the meaning crisis argues that contemporary Western society is facing a deepening and pervasive psychological distress. This is not merely an issue of individual failings but a widespread cultural phenomenon, manifested by an increasing sense of loneliness, incoherence, and insignificance, which directly fuels the rise in mental health issues like anxiety and depression.This crisis traces this crisis back to a historical and cultural rupture: the erosion of the traditional "worldview" that once provided a deep, communal sense of connection, purpose, and wisdom. The ascent of the modern scientific, secular perspective has effectively undermined these traditional sources—such as religion and community—without successfully establishing systematic, communal, and scientifically grounded alternatives for the cultivation of meaning, wisdom, and self-transcendence.https://www.jaymichaelson.net/  

Brian Dean Williams is a meditation teacher, registered clinical counsellor, and approved clinical supervisor. With a background in activism and community organizing, he went to his first meditation retreat in 2002, and began engaging with Buddhism and eventually teaching. Brian has worked on the frontlines for 28 years with folks struggling with mental health, substance use, housing, and marginalization. Brian trained with Dave in LA as a meditation facilitator in the early 2010s. Brian's main modalities are narrative therapy and Buddhist psychology, although he also draws from other collaborative forms of counselling and community work. Brian lives on the Sunshine Coast in Canada (BC) with his wife and three kids, where he loves mountain biking, playing hockey / basketball, and singing with his community. www.briandeanwilliams.comwww.facebook.com/briandeanwilliamswww.instagram.com/briandeanwilliamstherapy