Against the Stream 2010 Kind Awareness Retreat - Teachers

Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx and Against the Stream, is a Buddhist teacher, author and counselor. He was trained to teach by Jack Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He is the founding teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, with a center in Los Angeles and over 20 affiliated groups around North America. He teaches meditation classes, workshops and retreats internationally. Noah holds a Masters degree in counseling psychology. He is also on the board of directors of the Buddhist Recovery Network. Levine lives in Los Angeles.

Matthew Brensilver began practice with Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Since 2003, he has studied vipassana with Shinzen Young, who trained him to teach meditation. He holds a master’s degree in clinical social work and has done psychotherapy with adolescents, adults and families. Matthew earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, studying childhood trauma and the development of depression. In USC's Office of Religious Life, he serves as a Religious Director, responsible for guiding the Buddhist Meditation Organization. Matthew completed “A Year to Live” practice – based on the book by Stephen Levine – and spent years sitting with hospice patients and their families. He was trained to teach by Noah Levine.

Vinny Ferraro, has been practicing meditation since 1993. He has studied with several renowned spiritual teachers including Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Sumedho, and the Dalai Lama. In 1998, he spent a year sitting bedside witht the dying through the San Francisco Zen Center Hospice Program. Since 2000, Vinny has led workshops for youth in schools internationally for a non-profit organization called Challenge Day. He has taught meditation to incarcerated youth and adults and is currently training dharma teachers to do the same for the Mind Body Awareness Project. He is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and has been teaching the weekly Urban Dharma group in San Francisco since 2004. Vinny was recently featured in the Spring 2010 issue of Tricycle.

JoAnna Harper has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999.  In 2005 her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation, which is the premise for most of her current teaching. Although her main focus is on working with youth through her bi weekly children’s and teen sanghas, teen day long retreats, residential retreats and work in the juvenile justice system, she is also co -teaching adult residential retreats as well as leading a Year to Live practice and teaching one on one sessions.  Her favorite teaching tools are working in Council and relational mindfulness.  She is a recent  graduate of Noah Levine’s teacher training program and is trained through the Ojai Foundation as a Council facilitator.  She is the grateful mother of CJ and Harris her main inspirations.

Kyira Korrigan has been a dedicated practitioner of hatha yoga and Buddhism for more than 12 years, and a social justice activist for more than 25. She has founded or co-founded several "alternative" spiritual practice communities in her home of Vancouver, BC including Vancouver Yoga Sangha (free, collaborative, self-paced yoga teacher training, Smiling Buddha Yoga Studio (valuing social justice as a part of spiritual practice), and DIY Dharma (peer-led, multi-lineage outlaw meditation gang). She began studying with Noah Levine in 2005, and in 2009 completed his first teacher training program. She writes and teaches yoga and meditation in Vancouver.