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Dr. Stéphane Treyvaud
For mindfulness to become the determining force in our attitude towards life, we need to practice a purposeful kind of attention that we are not accustomed to.
Through psychotherapy and mindfulness training, Dr. Treyvaud has accompanied his patients for 40 years on their long-term intensive journeys of growth and healing. He is a psychiatrist with a fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and its equivalent FMH in Switzerland. His methods have evolved to now become a virtual center for mind exploration.
His main interest included working with adults and adolescents, and providing psychodynamic psychotherapy and mindfulness training in individual and group settings. He has now shifted his professional activities to focus mostly on mindfulness meditation and mindsight training through programs for beginners and advanced students. He favors an integrative approach to medicine, mental health, and spirituality.
Dr. Treyvaud's medical expertise spans Mind/Body Medicine, Psychoanalysis, Jungian Psychology, Existential Psychotherapy, Developmental Psychology, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Interpersonal Neurobiology, sensorimotor psychotherapy, and deep brain reorienting. He first trained decades ago at the age of 17 in Zen meditation under Karlfried Graf Dürckheim in the German Black Forest. Later he trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn in MBSR, Daniel Siegel in Interpersonal Neurobiology, and other mindfulness teachers in both the Vipassana and Yoga traditions. His no-nonsense approach to mindfulness is firmly planted in science and the principles of mind training, while simultaneously addressing our existential and spiritual human need for meaning through philosophy, artistic creativity, and spiritual exploration.
Dr. Treyvaud founded The Mindfulness Centre in Oakville years ago. Over time and the span of fruitful collaboration with affiliated professionals who came, went or retired, The Center has become a virtual hub for learning and exploration in all matters of mindfulness and mindsight by providing beginner and advanced programs, personal guidance, and professional training designed to engage students in embodied journeys of personal transformation.
The Journey
Our vision respects our embodiment. It acknowledges the human tendency to get caught up in the most complex flight of ideas and lose touch with our foundations in the body.
Harnessing the power of awareness leads to transformation. Our approach is guided by these simple principles:
- Simplicity: To be found at the core of reality; our practices should reflect that.
- Complexity: Navigating reality’s infinitely creative displays requires sophisticated knowledge and experience.
- Effort: Maintaining expanded awareness is challenging, yet vital for growth.
- Unlearning: True understanding means letting go of preconceptions, getting out of our own way, and undoing and unknowing rather than hoarding more knowledge.
- Body-focused: Our bodies hold the wisdom that our minds require.
Our brain creates an hourglass phenomenon with regard to two fundamental human realities. We experience most of life in a direct, embodied, and mostly unconscious way as our organism processes its vastly creative, infinitely varied, chaotic, and unnameable energy flow unmediated by concepts. This is by far the most important kind of ‘knowing’. A small portion of this experiential substrate gets sifted through, simplified, categorized, and conceptualized by the brain’s higher cognitive functions. Much of the original immediacy and richness of unfettered life unfolding is lost in the cognitive realm of the stories we tell. Instead, this substitute conceptual world opens up a completely new realm of conceptual knowledge responsible for human civilization. This essential conceptual knowing, although secondary, is highly generative in its own right.
These two experiential realities, the bedrock of direct, unmediated experience in the present moment and its sky-like extension into the indirect conceptual world of time-bound stories, need to be consciously connected if we want health. First, we have our life, and life is the bedrock from which conceptual civilization emerges. Without living from the truth of this bedrock, we cannot possibly move towards health and liberation in civilization. Our ‘body forest’ is the place of inspiration and authority guiding our progress as we need to extricate ourselves from the tyrannical clutches of the thinking mind, and put thinking into its right context of being the emissary to its master, the body.
In body, mind, and relationships, you'll learn to observe energy flow with clarity, and then skillfully guide it towards wholeness. This is the path to transcendence.
Dr. Treyvaud’s contemporary and integrative approach to mindfulness meditation favors:
1. Integration:
Finding universal principles across separate ways of knowing (spiritual traditions, art, science, social sciences).Honoring subjective, personal experience as much as objective science. While timeless knowledge never changes and time-bound knowledge does, our approach to timeless knowledge changes with the evolution of time-bound knowledge. The way we approach the timeless principles of liberation and awakening has to adapt to the evolution of time-bound knowledge as it yields new insights.
2. Embodiment:
Without a deep connection to the body, there's no true liberation, health, or fulfillment. Our minds can isolate us, causing immense suffering. Our contemporary meditation approach begins with the body, honoring its wisdom, and recognizing that life is movement.
3. Multi-Level Processing:
Our brains process reality on multiple levels: body, emotions, thoughts, and relationships. This creates a complex symphony of experience, where awareness is key. Our meditation approach isn't just about stillness – it's about cultivating mindful awareness in every moment, through movement, thoughts, and connections.
4. Two truths:
Our brains create a complex experience of the world – this is vital to understanding health and well-being. True liberation, however, requires surrendering to the unknown, the 'numinous'. These two aspects – understanding the world and surrendering to the unknown – are the core of mindful inquiry.
If meditation feels difficult, there are two options:
1. Lack of commitment: Be honest with yourself, and focus your energy elsewhere.
2. Need for guidance: If you're committed, find a teacher to help you refine your practice.
To heal bodies, minds, and relationships, a radical paradigm shift is essential.
We need to break free from seeing our bodies as fixed objects and instead embrace them as dynamic energy flows. This means undergoing a shift from looking at the body that we have to honor the organism that we are. This simple shift revolutionizes our approach to healing in the form of participatory medicine, unlocking surprising power and inspiration for true well-being.
1. Philosophy:
Suffering is universal, but our attempts to escape it often cause more harm. True healing and wisdom demand exploring consciousness itself, not just seeking relief. Mindfulness is the key to understanding how our minds work, preventing illness, and finding inner peace.
2. Mindfulness:
Mindfulness is a moment-moment awareness without judgment. To truly benefit, we must practice focused attention. This universal practice transcends cultural boundaries and plays a key role in understanding the mind-body connection. While healthcare often reacts to illness, mindfulness helps us uncover its hidden roots and influence our well-being. Through mindfulness, we integrate our being, finding inner peace and wisdom. A healthy dose of open-minded skepticism aids this journey.
3. Medicine:
Behavioural medicine proves the mind-body connection is crucial to health. Patients must actively participate in healing and prevention for cost-effective care. Mindfulness turns out to be one of the major mainstream medical approaches to treatment that help manage stress, pain, and disease by tapping into the body's healing power. Research shows that mindfulness meditation offers lasting benefits, changing participants' attitudes and behaviors for better coping and overall well-being.
According to Freud psychoanalysis moved people from neurotic suffering to normal human unhappiness.
I like to add that mindfulness meditation moves people from normal human unhappiness to complete liberation from suffering, provided they have achieved normal human unhappiness first.
Mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy are deeply interconnected, despite being seen as separate. This connection is reflected in Zen practices where psychoanalysis may be a prerequisite for meditation. Interpersonal Neurobiology highlights this, suggesting a healthy brain requires balance across nine domains of integration. Mindfulness targets six of these domains, while psychotherapy is crucial for the remaining three. The right combination of mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy can offer a powerful path towards well-being and freedom from suffering.
Love, kindness, compassion, health, and freedom from suffering are timeless human concerns central to religions and spiritual traditions worldwide.
Today, we have potent allies in science and mindfulness disciplines to aid this timeless quest.
Neuroscience sheds light on our suffering, revealing imbalances and distortions in how we perceive and interact with reality. This 'misalignment' makes us feel unsettled and disconnected. Spiritual traditions have long recognized this problem, framing it as being out of alignment with a greater source.
The way towards existential and spiritual relief follows an almost clinical path:
1. Diagnosis:
Recognizing our suffering without denial or distraction.
2. Etiology:
Understanding that suffering stems from oversimplifying or unnecessarily complicating reality by being unaware of our mental distortions.
3. Prognosis:
Knowing that freedom from suffering is possible! Our minds can rewire our brains.
4. Prescription:
Practicing mindfulness to train our awareness, bringing us back into alignment with ourselves and the world around us.
This journey culminates in a profound understanding: Suffering and ease are not opposites, but intertwined. In accepting our present with openness, we discover that the seeds of well-being are already within us. Mindfulness meditation teaches us to cultivate those seeds, bringing lasting change.
The human brain carries enormous potential—both for destruction and for healing. Our medial prefrontal cortex (MPC) gives us the capacity for empathy, morality, and compassion, allowing us to become a force for positive change rather than destruction.
With the wisdom gained from mindfulness, we can embody love, compassion, and humility – the essential ingredients for healing ourselves and our world.
Go to the Mindsight Intensive page for further details on the transcendental journey.
Energy Flow Leads to Health and Enlightenment
You may know about the triune brain, but what about the Sixtine brain? This model expands our understanding of the brain's evolution, connecting it to our consciousness and potential for growth – just like Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes reveal humanity's cultural power. Our nervous system's wiring offers insights into the mindfulness journey.
Think of your brain as a 'Brain Forest' – a place of mystery, rich biodiversity, and potential both wild and healing. Beyond the triune brain's three layers, we find six levels of neuroprocessing. Meditation invites us to explore this inner forest, surrendering to the body's wisdom and discovering a world beyond thought. Let's dive into the depths of this forest!
1. The 'Gut Brain
Our heart, lungs, and intestines are surrounded by complex nerve networks – think of them as a 'gut brain' capable of learning and processing information. This is the source of our intuition, making it deeply connected to the body. (Octopus symbol)
2. The Reptilian Brainstem:
This ancient structure, fully developed at birth, controls basic survival. It handles bodily regulation (heart rate, temperature) and fight-flight-freeze reflexes for protection. (Frog and lizard symbols)
3. The Emotional Limbic System:
Also known as the 'social brain', it handles emotions, motivations, memory, and attachment. This is where early relationships shape our neural wiring. (Bird and tiger symbols)
4. The Thinking Neocortex:
This outer layer creates abstract representations of the world. It's more developed in the front, where we handle abstract concepts like freedom and reason. (Gorilla symbol)
5. The Human Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPC):
Uniquely evolved in humans, the MPC allows us to think about thinking. It is connected to everything – brain, body, and social networks – creating the sense of 'self' and our capacity for culture. (Human figure symbol)
6. The Social Brain:
Mirror neurons within the MPC attune us to others, forming the basis for empathy and communication. This is where we connect on a deeper level. (Dancer symbol)
Mindfulness meditation trains our attention through the medial prefrontal cortex (MPC), promoting inner harmony. Understanding the 'Sixtine brain' model reveals the need to integrate all six levels of our being – from instinct and survival responses to emotions and thoughts. This integration involves both body-to-mind and mind-to-body influence. Somatic attention (mindful focus on the body) is crucial within meditation, especially since modern education often disconnects us from our bodies' wisdom.
Would you ever dream of not brushing your teeth daily? Why are you not brushing your brain daily?
Think of brushing your teeth. You do it daily for healthy teeth, right? So why neglect your most important organ – your brain? Brain hygiene is crucial for well-being, yet often overlooked. The Healthy Mind Platter developed by Dr. Daniel Siegel and Dr. David Rock offers a simple framework for these needs. It's like a weekly menu of brain-boosting activities.
The USDA's (US Department of Agriculture) "My Plate" promotes healthy eating. But what about our minds? In a world driven by stress, isolation, and information overload, many of us lack a balanced 'mental diet'. Interpersonal neurobiology suggests that a healthy mind thrives on integration – connecting different parts of ourselves and fostering meaningful bonds with others.
So, what's on the "Healthy Mind Platter"? Dr. Daniel Siegel and Dr. David Rock propose seven essential activities to nourish our minds and relationships. These activities aim to strengthen internal connections within our brains and our connections to the world.
One key point: While the platter includes mindfulness ("Time In"), mindfulness is more than just an activity. It's a fundamental attitude of being present, a foundation for healthy living. This mindset matters as a basis for all the other mind platter activities.
Students often ask how long they should practice daily. Formally, about one hour a day is a good cruising velocity, and informally the opportunity to expand mindful awareness exists 24/7, always NOW. As your mindful attitude strengthens, being present becomes a natural, effortless state. The old 'autopilot' way of living will feel more exhausting!
Seven Daily Activities for Brain Health and Well-Being
1. Focus Time
Challenge yourself with goal-oriented tasks to strengthen brain connections.
2. Play Time
Embrace spontaneity, creativity, and new experiences to spark fresh neural pathways.
3. Connecting Time
Nurture personal relationships and connect with nature to activate your brain's social circuitry.
4. Physical Time
Get moving! Aerobic exercise (if possible) offers numerous brain benefits.
5. Time In
Mindfulness meditation. Quietly reflect on your internal sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts for better brain integration.
6. Down Time
Allow your mind to wander and relax. This recharges your brain.
7. Sleep Time
Adequate sleep is vital for learning, recovery, and overall brain health.
Remember:
Consider these activities like a weekly menu to balance throughout your days for optimal brain health!
We don't need rigid timetables – the goal is awareness and balance. Just as a varied diet is key to physical health, a mix of these mental activities is crucial for well-being. By consciously engaging in each area, we can cultivate a healthier, more integrated mind throughout our lives.
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