BIOGRAPHY

Although I have engaged in a number of trainings, my teaching largely comes from my life experiences. At 2 years old I was put in the hospital for a surgery and left on my own overnight. While I do not remember the event, I am told that the trauma from that experience changed me. From the time I can remember, I felt separate from the world. Other people scared me. Strong emotions and desires of others overwhelmed me. Relationships were difficult to engage in and to sustain. My connection with my body was highly limited. My sense of self-worth was fragile.

 

The teaching I offer comes from decades of learning to resolve this early trauma. I took a self-awareness training course in my 20’s where I discovered my body-centered inner guidance. I spent a number of years in group and individual therapy where I learned the great value of embodying self-kindness (and how that leads to kindness toward others). I explored inquiry-based meditation and integrated breathwork where I learned to uncover subconscious beliefs and old hurts and start to heal them. I studied practices of moving energy in the body and learned to cultivate a deeper sense of living in my body. I am continually studying Buddhist teachings regarding lessening suffering and have been applying them to my daily life. Through all this, my sense of connection with the world, kindness to myself and others, a letting go of clinging to things being a certain way, my overall sense of well-being—all of these have grown at a lived level. These are lessons from which I teach.

 

I have been meditating since 1988 and have been practicing Insight Meditation since 2004. I am a full teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) and a graduate of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute, a two-year program with senior Insight teachers Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, Hugh Byrne, and Pat Coffey (2011-13). I trained in 2004 with Jon Kabat-Zinn in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. In 2018, I trained in the first year of Somatic Experiencing, a technique for helping to heal trauma. I trained in Integrative Breathwork with Jessica Dibb at Inspiration Community in 2017. For five years I studied Tantric Qigong, a teaching largely about moving energy in the body. I have a Masters of Social Work from the University of Maryland (1998). I taught high school physics for 32 years and learned how to take complex material and make it understandable and relevant (the picture above is of me teaching mindfulness to some of my high school students).

 

As a full-time meditation and mindfulness instructor, I have many roles. I am a full teacher for Insight Meditation Community of Washington, lead teacher Tara Brach. I am a mentor for both the Power of Awareness course and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program; these are both international online programs taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield and published by Sounds True. I am a guide for Cloud Sanga, a live online program where teachers lead personalized weekly discussion and training groups. I am also a team member of the Center for Integrative Medicine at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, MD.

 

As you peruse this website, you will discover a wide variety of teachings I offer:

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• Multi-week courses

  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

  • Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea

  • Deepening Practice for Graduates of MBSR

  • Exploring Emptiness

• Drop-in classes for Buddhist-based meditation and teaching

• Telesangha—a daily 30-minute guided meditation via phone

• Silent retreats designed to deepen meditation and mindfulness practice

• Daylong workshops, including:

  • Embodiment

  • Inquiry

  • Mindful Relationships

  • Forgiveness

  • Heart Practices

  • Deepening Presence

• Private mentoring, which allows for personalized growth and healing
   

If you find yourself drawn to this work, check out one or more of these offerings, or contact me directly for further information.

 

I look forward to getting to know you and walking with you on your journey.