Healing the Inner Critic with Mindfulness & Love

Most of us notice an inner battle with ourselves – the critical mind that too often berates us and tells us we’re not doing things right, that we’re a failure – or worse…

This inner critic is a natural human evolutionary pattern that is, believe it or not, trying to help us! The trouble is it can be overactive due to the conditioning of our childhood and our life experiences.

The Buddha’s teachings of mindfulness and compassion can help us find freedom from the relentless inner critic, and even cultivate kindness towards ourself.   

This one day retreat will help you with:

• Understanding our neurobiology and conditioning that gives fuel to the inner critic;

• Bringing kindness to the negativity bias of our thoughts - and to ourselves;

• Reducing and shifting the habitual stream of critical thoughts; and

• Working skilfully with our thought patterns to attune to wisdom and compassion in our daily lives. 

• This daylong online retreat will include guided meditations, contemplative reflections, dharma talks, and small and large group discussions.

Date and Time of Retreat (Full and Half-Day Options): 

• In Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (AEDT): Sunday 17th May 2026, 10:00am to 1:00pm; 2:00 to 4.30pm 

• In Pacific Time (PT): Saturday 16th May 2026, 5:00 to 8:00pm; 9:00 to 11.30 pm 

Participants may register for the first half or for the whole day. 

All sessions will be recorded and shared with you afterwards so, if the times don't work for your timezone, you can listen to the sessions later.

Registration Fee: This amount covers basic administrative costs and does not pay the teachers. In the Buddhist tradition of dana (generosity), your support for the teachers will be requested in the form of dana (donation) after the event.  

Teachers’ Biographies:

Suzie Brown is an Insight Dharma teacher and Mindfulness trainer. She completed Dharma Teacher Training in Australia with the Insight Meditation Institute and also with US Insight teacher, James Baraz (co-founder of Spirit Rock).   

Suzie founded Melbourne Insight Meditation (MIM) in 2009 where she led sitting groups for over a decade. She now also teaches with Sydney Insight Meditators and offers retreats around Australia and online. Suzie has been a mentor in Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Mentor Teacher Training Program (MMTCP) - she now teaches weekly in their online meditation platform, Banyan.

Suzie is also trained as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and has taught mindfulness for anxiety and emotional resilience in the face of the climate crisis. A long-time environmentalist, Suzie also founded the national group, Parents for Climate.

Zoe Zohs has been teaching and mentoring meditation and movement practices since 2006 after beginning to practice in 2001.

Zoe is a certified dharma teacher, completing her training through James Baraz, co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Centre. Zoe is also a Senior Yoga Teacher and Yoga Teacher trainer and has been training yoga and meditation teachers since 2014. Zoe mentors in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program offered by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield and offers spiritual care to those at end of life in aged care. She is slowly completing her social work degree. Zoe also co-teaches a weekly dharma group in Adelaide. 

Nadine Levy, PhD, has been practicing Buddhism for 20 years across the Zen and Insight traditions, and she has undertaken dharma teacher training with James Baraz and with the Insight Meditation Institute. By day, Nadine works as an academic at a Buddhist higher education institute in Wollongong, Australia, where she teaches mindfulness and compassion science to teachers, health professionals, and post-graduate students.

Nadine has led multiple meditation groups, retreats, Buddhist study groups, and compassion courses over the last decade and is passionate about the wisdom of the body and other ways of knowing. Her teaching style is intuitive, organic, participant-centered, and inquisitive. She enjoys adventures with her two sons and partner and taking in the mountains she is lucky enough to live close to, as well as taking time out for silent retreat practice.