Mindfulness-Based Queer Resilience

Dr. Gibson is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in California and has spent over 15 years of providing a wide range of services in student counseling, community mental health, behavioral health, and neuropsychological rehabilitation settings.

Dr. Gibson engages in an integrative counseling approach tailoring his style to the unique and specific needs of the individual or community, commonly incorporating humanistic, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, trauma-informed, and multicultural perspectives into his work. He is particularly interested in supporting the mental health and well-being of historically minoritized individuals and reducing the stigma and barriers to help-seeking.

As a queer black psychologist from the deep south, there have been many challenges that have made me more protective of my light and my warmth. Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and cultivating embodied presence has been a key to my survival. MBQR provides a set of tools and a framework to support and promote our community’s well-being and sexual health.

I am a Counseling Psychology PhD Candidate at the University at Buffalo currently completing my pre-doctoral internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, CA. With a background in rehabilitation psychology, I specialize in supporting individuals as they navigate adjusting to injury, illness, or disability and rebuilding their lives with purpose and joy. My work is grounded in principles of decolonization, collective liberation, and embodiment; I collaborate with clients to explore and heal from the ways in which oppressive systems and colonialism impact well-being. Through mindfulness-based practices (Mindful Self-Compassion, Mindful Resilience for Trauma Recovery, Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness) and body-centered techniques, I empower folx to connect with their inner resources, develop greater self-awareness, and cultivate equanimity by reaffirming a relationship with their mind and body.

I have been practicing mindfulness for eight years and, as a queer person, it has allowed me to embrace myself exactly as I am, exactly as I was. I am continuously working to establish and acknowledge presence, in this queer body, in this moment, in this place. Through mindfulness, I have learned something about how the birth of anything works. There is effort. There is energy. Then, there is a step back and letting go. Letting go of the parts of myself that no longer serve the same person as they once did. Giving these parts permission to take a new form, to become a new foundation for how new things can unfold. For me, it’s about giving myself the kindness, understanding, and compassion that I may have missed earlier in my life.

Teague is a meditation teacher and contemplative artist, weaving evidence-based methodology with his creativity and open heart. He is qualified by the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and certified to teach Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) and The Breathing Class programs.

Teague specializes in teaching meditation and developing contemplative programming in healthcare settings. He currently works at Mayo Clinic, developing a cross-divisional mindfulness collaborative supporting healthcare providers, patients, and families navigate the unique stressors of the hospital environment.

As a proud queer individual, Teague is passionate about bringing the healing medicine of contemplative practice to queer spaces. He created (Q)CEB: Cultivating Emotional Balance for the LGBTQI+ community and teaches the Q-Sangha at SF Dharma Collective. Teague supports the Mindfulness-Based Queer Resilience (MBQR) research study at Brown University, where he consults on curriculum development, taught the open pilot, and currently teaches the 10-week course for clinical trials.

Teague is an instructor at Pratt Institute, teaching his signature contemplative art courses to design students. On a warm day, you can find him on the beach creating large-scale earth art, his signature ‘Mandalynths’ (part mandala, part walking labyrinth) for passersby.