Name Valerie Mason-John Role Author | Education University of Leeds | |
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Books Detox Your Heart, Borrowed Body, Eight Step Recovery: Using the, Brown Girl in the Ring, Making black waves | ||
We are what we think valerie mason john at tedxrenfrewcollingwood
Valerie Mason-John (born 22 November 1962) is the co-founder of Eight Step Recovery - Using The Buddha’s Teaching to Overcome Addiction, an alternative to the 12 steps programs for addiction. Since the publication of the book by Windhorse Publications in 2013, it has won the Best USA Book awards 2014 and Best International book Award 2015 in the self motivational and self help category. Eight Step Meetings are now taking place in the UK, USA, Canada, India and Finland. She also is the co-creator of Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery (MBAR), which was inspired by Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression book by John D. Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindal Seagal. She is author of eight books and works as a public speaker in Mindfulness for Addiction and Emotional Well Being and is a trainer in anti-bullying and conflict resolution. She is also the chairperson of Triratna Vancouver Buddhist Centre. Her Buddhist name is Vimalasara which means she whose essence is stainless and pure. She used to be a freelance feature writer for the Voice Newspaper and was also a performer and spoken word poet using the stage name "Queenie". Black British by birth, she has now become a Canadian.
Contents
- We are what we think valerie mason john at tedxrenfrewcollingwood
- Valerie Mason John
- Biography
- Publication broadcasting and academic work
- The Great Black North
- Published works
- Prizes and awards
- References
Valerie Mason John
Biography
Born in Cambridge, England, Mason-John spent her childhood "in care" — in foster homes and childcare facilities, including the Barnardo's Orphanages in Britain with the exception of a short time spent living with her mother in her early teens. She dropped out before receiving her undergraduate degree in the 1980s, but has continued to pursue post-graduate education and training into the present. Since the early 1990s, she has worked as a writer, performing artist and lecturer. She received a teaching certificate from South Bank University, and currently conducts seminars in anger management and conflict resolution.
After 18 months of studying philosophy and politics at Leeds University during the 1980s, Mason-John studied post-graduate journalism, earned an MFA in creative writing and diploma in theatrical performance at Sussex University and The Desmond Jones School. By 2003, her interest in counseling and her ordination into the Western Buddhist Order led her into writing and performing, and on training herself and others in anger management and conflict resolution. In December 2007, Mason-John was named Honorary Doctor of Letters by The University of East London. Mason John continues to write, work as a self-awareness trainer; she performs and lectures internationally.
Publication, broadcasting, and academic work
Mason-John’s work has appeared in UK and international journalistic and scholarly publications such as The Guardian The Voice, Curve Magazine, The Morning Star, Pink Paper, Girl Friend Magazine and Wasafiri. She has also contributed to Half the Earth: Women’s Experience of Travel Worldwide (second edition, Pandora Rough Guide, 1990), Frauen Zimmerim Haus Europa (Papyrosa, 1991), Assaults on Convention (Cassell, 1995), Words from Word Up Café (Centerprise Publications, 1993), and Tell Tales (Tell Tales/Flipped Eye Publications, 2005).
Mason-John was the editor of Feminist Arts News from 1992 to 1997. Additionally, she was the artistic director of the London Mardi Gras from 1997 to 2000, and spent four years as the director of the Pride Arts Festival. Her television credits include freelance work for BBC, Channel 4 and Vis International TV; she has also been featured on British radio broadcasts for the BBC World Service and the regional programmes Mid Week, Woman's Hour and The Shelagh Rogers Show Next Chapter on CBC Radio.
In addition to her work in broadcasting and journalism, Mason-John embarked on a career in theatre, having studied at the Desmond Jones School of Mime and Physical Theatre, she began performing and writing for the stage by 1998. Focusing on one-woman plays, Mason-John developed a body of work including Sin Dykes, Brown Girl in the Ring, The Adventures of Snow Black and Rose Red and You Got Me among other works.
Her first novel Borrowed Body (2005) which was later relaunched as The Banana Kid (2007) received the Mind Book of the Year Award. Since, Mason-John has authored six books including her spiritual non-fiction Detox Your Heart (2006), which is slated for revision in 2017.
The Great Black North
In 2012, Mason-John alongside spoken-word artist Kevan Anthony Cameron co-edited the anthology The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry, published by Frontenac House featuring over 90 poets. The Great Black North was one of the first complete poetry collections of contemporary Black Canadian poets. Notable poets in the anthology include George Elliot Clarke, M. Nourbese Philip, Wayde Compton, Sylvia Hamilton, Olive Senior, Fredrick Ward and d'bi Young. The anthology is unique in the way it categorizes "page" and "stage" poetry, as a means to honour both the written and oral traditions of poets from the African Diaspora.