"If you shove that emotion down and push it away, it waits for you and, in fact it accumulates... it's getting ready to come back at you so it will be acknowledged." ~ Niels Petersen

Niels is a polymath with an engineering background. He has worked as an engineer, brewer, ski designer, sailor, math teacher, rigger, book editor, and more. His current focus is on mental health and addiction recovery. His exploration in that area has taken him into men's work and shadow work. Niels has suffered from chronic pain since a nerve injury in 2009, and through research and experimentation on his own body, he has been able to transform his experience of pain and regain an able-bodied lifestyle. He believes that chronic pain, mental health and addiction can share a common root, and that doing the recovery work can be so beautiful an experience that a person can become grateful for the injury in the first place.

Music courtesy of Aaron Handford.

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"You can do masculinity howerver you want to do it. But, it's about getting the people around you to be alright with it, to be on board with it, and having the difficult conversations with them.... because that's the thing that holds us in these really hard roles: the people around us."

~ Oliver

Oliver is a Psychology student at the University of Victoria and a practicing Clinical Hypnotherapist. His training comes from various sources: college, university, and private classes. He has been working in clinics as a support person for over 10 years and continues to develop his compassionate listening skills. He is a passionate reader of many topics: philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. His training includes clinical hypnotherapy, reflexology, and aromatherapy. His active studies include Co-regulation and self regulation strategies; boundaries; intersectionality; gender studies; attachment; post traumatic stress disorder; and trauma informed care. Oliver’s life experiences have given him skills in; LGBTQA+ issues; borderline personality disorder; diverse-abilities; neuro-divergence; somatics; and poly-vagal theory.

Image: Dr Alan Hart, pioneering radiologist and epidemiologist, and transman.

Music courtesy of Aaron Handford.

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"When movement and dance isn't happening, what's left? Are we sitting around at home or at a coffee shop acting as talking heads on top of bodies that have lost the ability to be at ease?.....

The path towards being whole beings— not just whole men— is to include movement."

~ David Yates

An internationally known musician, teacher, performer and dancer, for over twenty years David has been offering liberating and transforming experiences through his workshops and lessons. For the past four years he has also facilitated non-violence workshops for teen boys. As a student of orthobionomy, he has been led to explore more about Somatics and the deeper layers of the mind-body relationship.

You can find more of David's work at Breathwood.

Photo by Marilyn Grubb 

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