Brian Theriault

Brian Theriault (M.Ed., C.C.C.) completed his master's degree in counselling psychology and embraces a nondual-transpersonal approach in his clinical work counselling clients. He has worked as a therapist in a number of counselling environments, including addiction and mental health agencies, and has co-facilitated nondual groups with Gary in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He is also an associate editor for Paradoxica: The Journal of Nondual Psychology (www.paradoxica.ca) and has several published articles illustrating the transforming power of nondual psychotherapy. He utilizes the work of nondual psychologists Gary Nixon and A.H. Almaas, and the profound Zen and mystical teachings of Osho and Lao Tzu.

Through many years of spiritual seeking and self-striving for the golden prize of enlightenment, a sudden shift in identity occurred in the most ordinary of events. While on vacation reading a newspaper in the hotel room, the sense of "me-ness" suddenly dropped and revealed the luminous empty nature of self-existence and ushered in the always already unifying connection of all of existence. The suddenness was striking. There was a sense of resting as an awesome vast spaciousness in which everything arose and fell. There was a clear seeing that the moment held everything in an accepting embrace. All of my cherished concepts about awakening and how life should be fell away. There was a sense of waking up out of the idea of awakening. The moment was all there was, and a flood of emotions emerged. Interestingly though, the sense of "me-ness" appeared to return, but what was noticeably absent was the energetic charge of self-identification and seeking. The personality, characteristics, and preferences related to Brian returned but the magnetic identification with them had left. There was an incredible sense of freedom in this realization. It was boundless and fluid, and allowed for a full participation in life. Nothing had to be avoided. Since then, Brian has been on a moment to moment paradoxical journey of awakening, where the peaks and valleys of ordinary life do not have to be sought for nor renounced but met with an open clarity and acceptance of the present moment.

The invitation is to relax beyond the pressure of identifying as a separate bound entity, and to notice the already awake nature of who and what we are as human beings.