• 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 600 hours of Peer Support Consulting with people experiencing Meditation-Related Adverse Effects (MRAE’s)

    • 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

    • Adverse effects of 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 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

    • Family Systems Approaches

    • Scaffolding / Resourcing Care Modality

    • Mechanisms of Meditation-Related Adverse Effects (MRAEs)

    • 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.

About The Caring Space

The Caring Space was founded by Dan Gilner, a leading expert in helping people navigate through, and recover from, Meditation-Related Adverse Effects (MRAEs). 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 those recovering from MRAEs, including Kundalini and non-dual teachings, experiences, and concepts. He skillfully combines compassionate presence, various healing care modalities, and specific research around the mechanisms of MRAEs to help people address and recover from debilitating and disturbing adverse effects.

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 suffering from MRAEs.  

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 overcome adverse effects. 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 experiencing MRAEs, 

  • 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 MRAEs in the 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