• B.A. Religious Studies: Socially Engaged Religious Traditions

    • M.A. Social Sciences in Environment and Community

    • M.A. Clinical Mental Health Counseling

    • Sustainable Compassion Training Teacher (SCT) - Trained through Courage of Care Coalition

    • Two, year-long training certificates in Vajrayana Natural Wisdom and Natural Compassion practices.

    • 18 Month GreenFaith Interfaith Climate Action Fellowship

    • Courage of Care Coalitions Courageous Leaders for Collective Liberation Professional Training Program

    • Over 400 days in silent meditation retreats over a three year period while living and working at a meditation retreat center

    • Over 1,000 hours of Peer Support Consulting helping people integrate, process, and progress from these experiences.

    • How awareness of awareness can lead to difficult cognitive, emotional, and somatic experiences

    • Somatic hyper-sensitivity and cognitive hyper-reflexivity

    • “sticky”, persistent, and intrusive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

    • Non-referential panic and terror

    • Specifically referenced panic and terror

    • feelings of unreality / altered reality and / or a lack of a perceived or felt sense of self

    • Mindfulness noting, especially around mental state change and fears around state change

    • Framework/worldview collapse and framework rebuilding

    • Loss of agency and reclemation of agency

    • non dual teachings and non dual experiences

    • Kundalini energy understaning and processing

    • Vajrayana Buddhist practices and teachings

    • Experiences around shame, guilt, and the inner critical part of ourselves

    • Ruptures with community, teachers, and traditions

    • Institutional and individual betrayal trauma within the context of meditation / spiritual communities.

    • Meditation related sleep disturbances

    • Re-engaging or continuing with practices in trauma informed and modified ways

    • Trauma Informed Compassion Training

    • I prefer to discuss my adverse meditation experience on a one-on-one basis in connecting through peer-support.

    • Trauma Informed Care

    • Compassion Focused Care

    • Person Centered Care

    • Attachment Based Approaches

    • Scaffolding / Resourcing Care Modality

    • Western Scientific Frameworks on Mechanisms of Meditation-Related Adverse Effects (MRAEs)

    • Eastern Spiritual Frameworks of Difficult Meditation Experiences as a Part of the Progression on the Spiritual Path

    • Somatic Nervous System Frameworks

    • I also hold a theory of mind framework from my training and experience as a meditation teacher and long term retreatant. This means that I understand the importance of the interlinkages of thoughts, emotions, actions, and how engaging with those interlinkages in different ways, can produce different effects within the context of meditation induced sensitizaton and desensitization experiences. This framework is essentially the same as a traditional Buddhist understanding of mind, however there are subtle changes within the conceptual framework, such as centering relative and embodied agency, which fundamentally restructures the practice interlinkages between thoughts, emotions, and actions.

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About The Caring Space

The Caring Space was founded by Dan Gilner, a leading expert in helping people navigate, integrate, and process Difficult Meditation Related Experiences. Dan holds a Master's degree in Social Sciences in Environment and Community, a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and has been actively working in the meditation field for decades.

The Caring Space embodies Dan's passion for helping people process and integrate these experiences, including Kundalini and non-dual practices, teachings, and concepts. He skillfully combines compassionate presence, various healing care modalities, and specific research around the mechanisms of Difficult Meditation Related Experiences to help people address, process, and integrate from what can be debilitating and disturbing experiences.

Dan's journey began after he experienced acute distress for two years after living at a meditation retreat center for three years and spending over 400 days in silent retreats. His journey led him to Cheetah House, the world's foremost organization dedicated to developing, collecting, and presenting resources to people experiencing Meditation-Related Adverse Effects or MRAEs. Dan refers to MRAEs as Difficult Meditation Related Experiences.  

Dan spent six years at Cheetah House, where he:

  • Actively participated in formulating Cheetah House's mission, vision, and values,

  • Collaborated with Dr. Willoughby Britton (Cheetah House's Founder) in developing Cheetah House's care services and Care Team training curriculum,

  • Served as an inaugural member of the Cheetah House Care Team,

  • Underwent an extensive training program spanning nine months that included 60 didactic units and an 80 hour practicum,

  • Served as Cheetah House's first Director of Care Services – training, supervising, and leading the Cheetah House Care Team, 

  • Provided over 600 hours of one-on-one and group peer support care services, and

  • Played a crucial role in establishing Cheetah House as a non-profit organization.

Dan is also a co-developer of the non-clinical care modality known as Scaffolding / Resourcing, a process specifically designed to help meditators integrate, process, and progress through Difficult Meditation Related Experiences. In addition to using this important modality with clients, Dan has conducted group training workshops on the Scaffolding / Resourcing modality.

At The Caring Space, Dan focuses on providing: 

  • One-on-one peer support consultancy for individuals with Difficult Meditation Related Experiences, 

  • Trauma Informed Compassion Training, and

  • Consultations for clinical and non-clinical care providers, meditation teachers, retreat centers, and training programs. 

Trauma Informed Compassion Training is a synthesis of: 

  1. Traditional Kagyu/Nyingma Dzogchen compassion practices,

  2. Sustainable Compassion Training by Dr. Lama John Makransky and Dr. Brooke Lavelle, and

  3. Dr. Paul Gilbert's Compassionate Mind Training. 

This unique approach, born out of Dan's personal practice experiences, clinical training experiences, and extensive training as a meditation teacher, provides a safe, trauma-informed path for individuals seeking to re-engage or begin with meditation.

To expand the understanding of Difficult Meditation Related Experiences or MRAEs in the Western medical and clinical mental health field, Dan co-led a training in 2023 at Harvard Medical School for Post-Doctoral Fellows in Integrative Medicine. The focus was on exploring how specific types of meditation can potentially exacerbate anxiety and dissociation, leading to experiences resembling Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Depersonalization and Derealization Disorder (DPDR). This training delved into the neuroscience underlying Meditation-Related Adverse Effects (MRAEs) and discussed optimal care modalities for managing conditions such as increased anxiety and dissociation.

For more information about Dan Gilner’s background, please refer to the resources provided below.

Testimonials

Education and Background

Publications and Trainings

The Caring Space strives to undo the nature of systemic oppression and seeks to provide safe and decolonized spaces of care and support. If you have any questions or concerns about The Caring Space, please write to TheCaringSpace.net@gmail.com

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