One-on-one mentorship (which can include web-based video conferencing for those not located near an approved mentor) is seen as a key component of development for new, as well as experienced, teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, providing the intimacy of a close connection with a seasoned teacher as well as the venue for an open and honest exploration of challenges, breakthroughs, insights, and possibilities that inevitably arise in teaching the program. The MBPTI has defined mentorship as: "A contractual arrangement between a mentor and mentee which focuses on a mentee's mindfulness-based teaching in secular settings and supports the ongoing development of personal practice. The purpose of this arrangement is to promote competency and best practice skills for teaching mindfulness in secular settings and to encourage the relevance of applying the principles of mindfulness in everyday life."
We have assembled the MBSR Mentorship Program to assure that each trainee has an educational and inspiring experience of the mentorship process, and have carefully chosen each of our approved mentors based on their years of experience, training, and wisdom.
The Process
Upon enrollment in the MBSR Certification Pathway of the Institute, your next step will be to identify and engage a UCSD-approved mentor from the list below. It is important that before contacting one of the mentors via email, that you carefully review the MBSR Mentorship Document Packet. In addition to descriptions of the mentorship process and best practice descriptions for mentors and teachers, the packet includes the contract that you will ultimately complete with your mentor.
Next, take the time to read each bio and consider contacting the mentor to arrange a brief phone interview to get a sense of whether you feel comfortable with this mentor. The arrangement is between you (as the mentee) and the mentor, so once you have determined that it is a good fit for both of you, you can jointly complete the contract and make arrangements for your regular mentorship sessions. Note: Your mentor will notify the MBPTI when you enter into a mentorship agreement with them, and will track the dates and times of sessions for reporting to the Institute for Certification purposes. However, it is highly recommended that you also maintain your own record of sessions.
The Finances
While your financial arrangement is between you and your mentor, we have asked the UCSD-approved mentors to agree to a standard hourly rate of $155. We understand that people have varying financial circumstances and may need some consideration for these circumstances. If the fee is a financial hardship, then you are encouraged to discuss this with potential mentors and see if you can mutually agree upon a fee that is acceptable to both parties. Keep in mind that these are highly experienced and very busy teachers and trainers, and their time is valuable and these rates are fairly consistent with others in our field.
Policy on Trainees Co-Teaching
If both co-teachers are MBPTI mentees, they are allowed to work with the same mentor throughout Phase One.
Since the teaching duties are shared and this reduces the number of times that a mentee has the opportunity to teach or guide each component of the program, certain adjustments to the mentoring arrangement will be made to compensate:
For mentees who have completed the 10-week MBSR TTP
- Two MBPTI mentees who are co-teaching and are working with the same mentor will have an additional two sessions of mentorship (a total of 20) in Phase One
- Mentorship sessions may be comprised of both individual (60 minute) and joint (90 minute) sessions, to be determined in discussion between the mentor and the mentees
- The recommended fee for the 90-minute sessions will be $260, which brings the total cost in line with the total cost of the standard number of individual sessions.
For mentees who did not attend the 10-week MBSR TTP
- Two MBPTI mentees who are co-teaching and are working with the same mentor will have an additional four sessions of mentorship (a total of 26) in Phase One
- Mentorship sessions may be comprised of both individual (60 minute) and joint (90 minute) sessions, to be determined in discussion between the mentor and the mentees
- The recommended fee for the 90-minute sessions will be $260, which brings the total cost in line with the total cost of the standard number of individual sessions.
The Documentation
Download and review the Mentor Document Packet, which further describes the mentorship process and includes an agreement that you and your mentor will complete.
The Mentors
Take the time to consider each of the mentors listed below and reach out to any that seem like a good fit. You will be spending a significant amount of time in contact with your mentor and you should choose carefully before proceeding. Mentors marked with a language badge also offer mentorship in that language.
Sheryl Bathman, MSoSc
Sheryl Bathman, MSoSc Counselling, is the founder and director of Lifesteps Singapore, and a trained psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher. An Australian living in Singapore for over 20 years, Sheryl's cross-cultural sensitivity has allowed her to navigate through a multi-faceted landscape to relate with clients from the local, expatriate, and corporate communities.
In 2010, Sheryl pioneered the MBSR program in Singapore and has expanded the positive influence of mindfulness within Asia in corporate, healthcare, and educational settings. She is also a qualified Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) program teacher, recognized as meeting the full professional teaching standards for MBSR and MSC by CFM UMass and CMSC UCSD respectively.
Katherine Bonus, MA, M R Ed
Katherine Bonus is the founding teacher for the UW Health Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (1993) at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wisconsin, encompassing 14 teachers and multiple program offerings. She received MBSR teacher certification from the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, and for 20+ years has developed and offered trainings and retreats for diverse populations including MBSR participants, patients, healthcare providers, physicians, and educators.
Since 2014, she has been a facilitator with the Foundation for Active Compassion.
João Carvalho das Neves Portuguese
João Carvalho das Neves is a professor of Leadership & Finance at ISEG, University of Lisbon, and a Certified teacher of MBSR through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. He teaches mindfulness and MBSR for the general public and in-company programs through his company ZENACTION Business Consulting & Coaching.
João trained under Florence Meleo-Meyer, Robert Smith (UMass CFM), and Steven Hickman, Susan Woods, Beth Mulligan, and Paul Sugar (MBPTI). He is also a Qi Gong instructor and ENGAGE-certified in Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence from SIYLI. A native Portuguese speaker, he is fluent in English and speaks conversational French and Spanish.
Rachel Donaldson, MSW, LCSW
Rachel Donaldson, MSW, LCSW RYT-500 is currently the Director of Community Mental Health and Supportive Services at NCJW/LA, bringing mindfulness and compassion-based practices to therapists, interns, administrators, and clients. A long-time meditator and psychotherapist, she is an MBSR and MBCT teacher certified through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
For over 10 years Rachel worked at Kaiser Permanente as a Senior Behavioral Health Educator, teaching over 30 MBCT and MBSR programs, training physician leaders, and leading an innovations grant researching the effects of MBCT on patient utilization. She also teaches Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and The Daring Way™ privately.
Pam Erdmann
Pam Erdmann started working for the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1993. Before joining CFM, Pam was Associate Chairperson of the Counseling Psychology Department at Antioch/New England University with a private therapy practice. She later worked in the Prison Project and then the Stress Reduction Clinic, working with corporations, educators, and the general public.
Since 2003, Pam has designed and taught teacher training courses at the University of Bangor, Wales, and supervises teachers for Oasis (CFM). In her 78th year, Pam's great passion is training the next generation, helping teachers bring vulnerability, courage, and expertise into the classroom — focusing on presence, not perfection.
Alessandro Giannandrea, PhD
Alessandro Giannandrea, Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychotherapist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and existential anthropology. He is a certified teacher of MBSR and MBCT by the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, and a Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) teacher-in-training.
He is a lead educator at the Master of Mindfulness and Neurosciences at Sapienza University in Rome, where he has taught MBSR, MBCT, and MSC to hundreds of individuals. He is the founder and director of the Abruzzo Center for Mindfulness, and an aikido teacher who integrates mindfulness and aikido practices.
Allan Goldstein
Allan Goldstein is a Certified MBSR Teacher and Senior Advisor on the Leadership Team of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. His passion for supporting MBSR teachers began in 1993. He established MBSR Programs of Hawaii, where he taught for 14 years, then joined Dr. Steven Hickman at UCSD CFM in 2011 as a leader in developing the Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute and MBSR Certification programs.
Allan has taught MBSR extensively in healthcare, university, Veterans Health Administration, and community settings. Mentoring current and future MBSR teachers is now his dedicated focus in the field of mindfulness programs.
Cassondra Graff, MS, LCSW
Cassondra Graff, M.S., LCSW is a Certified MBSR Instructor, Certified MSC Instructor, and Director of the Speakers Bureau at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She sees mentorship as an adventure — a relationship, a process, a rich teaching environment.
Cassondra holds a Master's in clinical social work from Columbia University and has a mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy practice in San Diego. She brings decades of experience including 10 years of mentoring therapists for their California State Licensing Exam, and currently teaches MBSR in an NIH research study on mindfulness and senior aging.
Noriko Morita Harth Japanese
Noriko Morita Harth is a Certified MBSR Instructor and Certified Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) Instructor who has been teaching MBSR and MSC since 2014. She also offers training programs and mentorships for MBSR and MSC teachers.
Born in Japan, she moved to the United States in 1985. Noriko's journey with mindfulness has allowed a more balanced life and identity between two cultures, and she feels passionate about bringing these practices to others — including to the Japanese community.
Gwénola Herbette, PhD French
Gwénola Herbette, Ph.D. is a Certified MBSR teacher trainer who completed the year-long teacher trainer training, apprenticeships, and a three-month residency at the UMass Center for Mindfulness in 2014. Trained in psychology, scientific research, and psychotherapy, she encountered mindfulness in 2003 and has been committed to daily practice and teaching ever since.
Gwénola has been teaching MBSR since 2009, pioneering the program in French-speaking Europe. Since 2015, she has been training MBSR teachers at the Institut Pleine Conscience© that she founded and manages in Belgium.
Steve Hickman, PsyD
Steven Hickman, PsyD., is the Founding Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, a Clinical Psychologist, and retired Associate Clinical Professor in the UCSD School of Medicine. Since founding the Center in 2000, he has taught over 60 MBSR courses and numerous other Mindfulness-Based Interventions.
Steve co-created the teacher training program for Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and has trained hundreds of MSC teachers. He is the former Executive Director of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion and author of Self-Compassion for Dummies.
Lorraine M. Hobbs, MA
Lorraine M. Hobbs, M.A., is the Founding Director of the Youth, Family, and Education Programs at the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She is a family therapist, certified MBSR teacher, certified MSC teacher, and certified in CCARE (Compassion Cultivation, Altruism, Research & Education) from Stanford University.
Lorraine co-authored Making Friends with Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens & Young Adults and is a pioneer in self-compassion training for parents and teens. She is the Director of the Adolescent Mindfulness Certification Program at UCSD CFM.
Diana Kamila
Diana Kamila is a certified MBSR Training Consultant who served as a long-time educator, administrator, and Senior Teacher at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society (CFM) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. For over thirty years, Diana has taught stress reduction programs at Fortune 500 companies, colleges, high schools, correctional institutions, medical clinics, hospitals, and nonprofits.
She administered a pioneering four-year federally funded project bringing MBSR to inmates, correctional officers, and administrators across Massachusetts. Through her work, Diana has trained professionals in MBSR and mentored and supervised teachers worldwide.
Pedro Lôbo Portuguese
Pedro Lôbo is a Certified MBSR Instructor by the UCSD Center for Mindfulness and teacher-in-training in MSC (Mindful Self Compassion). He is also certified by the Mindfulness Institute (USA/UK) in the SIT method developed by Mark Coleman and Martin Aylward, and works with children using the Youth Mindfulness method (UK).
Pedro has been practicing meditation since 1998, certified by Yoga Alliance in 2004, and has spent significant time at pilgrimage sites in India. He is the Director and Founder of the Mindfulness Institute in Brazil.
Trish Magyari, MS, LCPC
Trish Magyari, MS, LCPC is a Certified MBSR teacher, mindfulness-based psychotherapist, and Insight Meditation teacher who has taught the MBSR course over 70 times, specializing in trauma, chronic pain, illness, disability, anxiety, depression, and grief. She completed the UMASS MBSR Teacher Development Intensive under Jon Kabat-Zinn in 2000.
Trish served as Director of MBSR at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine and has led MBSR interventions in clinical trials at the NIH and Johns Hopkins Hospital. She draws on nearly 1,000 hours of one-on-one supervision experience with graduate counseling students at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Kate Mitcheom, MSN, CNM, RYT
Kate Mitcheom has been practicing meditation since 1991 and teaching since 1995. She holds a Master's in Nursing from Yale University and trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1995 and 1997. In 1996 she founded the MBSR Program at the Fair Haven Community Health Center in New Haven, CT, where she teaches meditation to pregnant women and patients with chronic illness.
Kate is certified by the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical Center and has completed MBCT training, Yoga Teacher Training, and a four-year study in Energy Medicine. Since 1995, she has attended approximately 15 silent meditation retreats of 7–14 days at the Insight Meditation Society.
Gwen Morgan, MA MSW RSW
Gwen Morgan is a Clinical Social Worker with over 25 years of experience in medical settings, focused on stress management and support for people living with chronic illness. Currently with the East Greater Toronto Area Family Health Team, she facilitates MBSR and MBCT groups. She is also a Mindfulness Facilitator for the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto.
Gwen is an Adjunct Lecturer with the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and has lectured and led workshops for social workers and health professionals in Mindful Eating, Mindfulness Interventions, and MBCT.
Beth Mulligan, PA-C
Beth Mulligan, PA-C is a lead teacher trainer for the MBSR Teacher Training Intensive at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. A certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer, she has taught MBSR for over a decade to diverse populations — from the critically ill to nonprofits, the underserved, educators, and corporate leaders.
Beth is also a certified MSC Teacher and teacher trainer who was in the first group invited to MSC teacher training. She has a background as a Board Certified Physician Assistant, is a certified yoga instructor, holds a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is the Guiding Dharma teacher at Insight Community of the Desert.
Holly Nelson-Johnson, MSN, APN, FNP-BC
Holly Nelson-Johnson is a Family Nurse Practitioner, Senior MBSR teacher, Interpersonal Mindfulness Teacher, Insight Dialogue Facilitator, and Certified Yoga Teacher. She holds MBSR teacher certification from the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is the founding President of the Illinois Mindfulness Consortium and the Illinois Insight Dialogue Association.
Holly served as medical faculty at Cook County Hospital, teaching mindfulness in Primary Care and Behavioral Medicine Residency programs. She is the Executive Director of Mindfulness for Living.
Hugh O'Neill
Hugh O'Neill is co-owner of Mindful-Way.com and has studied and practiced meditation and yoga for more than 20 years. Combining extensive experience in international media production with intensive mindfulness training, he skillfully relates mindfulness concepts to a wide range of populations. Hugh has taught more than 80 MBSR courses at universities, medical centers, corporations, and government agencies including the US Navy.
Hugh is a presenter at the International Scientific Conference on Mindfulness, has trained directly under Jon Kabat-Zinn, and is Certified as an MBSR teacher through the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.
João Palma Portuguese
João Palma is a Certified MBSR Instructor by the UCSD Center for Mindfulness and CMRP Bangor University, and a Certified Breathworks – Mindfulness for Health instructor. He has been practicing Buddhist meditation since 2004 and teaching mindfulness since 2008. He is the Director of Budadharma in Lisbon, Portugal, where he teaches and leads meditation and silent retreats.
João has been inspired by teachers including Steven Hickman, Susan Woods, Patricia Rockman, and Vidyamala Burch. His desire is to inspire others to awaken to their lives with more joy, openness, connection, and compassion. Bio in Portuguese
Catherine L. Phillips, MD, FRCP(C)
Catherine L. Phillips, MD, FRCP(C) is the Founding Director of The Mindfulness Institute.ca, a Scholar of the Integrative Health Institute at the University of Alberta, and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry where she supervises psychotherapy. Her clinical work includes psychotherapy with traumatized individuals and psychiatric consultation to the Canadian Military.
Catherine has run over 45 MBSR programs in diverse settings and is certified through the CFM University of Massachusetts. She is involved in North American and international networks to establish integrity in mindfulness teaching and teacher training.
Megan Prager, MA
Megan Prager, MA is the Compassion Programs Director at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness and Co-Founder of Mindful Labs. She is a Certified MBSR Instructor, Certified MSC Instructor, Certified Compassion Cultivation Instructor (CCT), and Adjunct Faculty at San Diego State University and UCSD Rady Business School.
Megan is a Teacher Trainer and Mentor for UCSD MBPTI and the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. She specializes in developing mindfulness and compassion trainings for Fortune 500 companies and educational, healthcare, and academic settings.
Diane Reibel, PhD
Diane Reibel, PhD. is the Director of the Mindfulness Institute at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine at Jefferson Medical College. She has been teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction for 18 years to patients, healthcare professionals, medical and college students, and school administrators.
Diane completed advanced teacher training under Jon Kabat-Zinn and holds MBSR teacher certification from UMass CFM. She studies the physiologic effects and health outcomes of mindfulness training and is co-author of Teaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators.
Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is an associate professor with the University of Toronto, Department of Family and Community Medicine, cross-appointed to psychiatry. She is the lead educator for the Level C MBCT Facilitation Certificate Program at Factor-Inwentash, University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work.
Patricia has been educating healthcare providers in stress reduction, CBT, and mindfulness-based practices for over 20 years and is the director of education at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.
Karen Schwisow, E-RYT
Karen Schwisow, E-RYT is the Director of MBSR Teacher Training and a Senior Teacher for Mindfulness Northwest; Co-founder and Director of Yoga Teacher Training for Three Trees Yoga. She creates safe learning environments that empower trainees to recognize their strengths and areas of growth. Karen has been teaching yoga and meditation since 2005, MBSR since 2011, and is certified through the Center for Mindfulness at UMass.
She teaches MBSR and MBIs in hospitals, medical clinics, and community organizations, and was a member of the Physicians Insurance Clinician Wellness Advisory Board where she developed an MBI curriculum for clinician burnout. For over a decade, she has mentored teachers as they develop their ability to support others in this profound work.
Cheryl Shah
Cheryl Shah brings over 20 years of Finance corporate leadership experience to her mindfulness teaching. Having witnessed the negative impacts of stress and pressure in high-demand careers, she is passionate about translating mindfulness and compassion into a language relevant and applicable to corporate life.
Cheryl discovered MBSR in 2005 and deepened her practice through the MSC program, a 10-day Vipassana retreat, and ongoing annual retreat practice. She is the founder of Simply Pause, dedicated to helping others change their relationship to stress and respond with wise compassion.
David Spound, M.Ed.
David Spound, M.Ed., is the Director of Valley Mindfulness in Northampton, Massachusetts. Certified in MBSR and MSC, he trains and mentors new teachers of both programs. David was certified in MBSR by the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School and worked there from 2006–2013, teaching MBSR and managing the MBSR teacher training and certification program.
For UCSD and the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, David trains and mentors new MSC teachers, leads online programs for MSC graduates, co-leads a men's program based on MSC, and co-leads silent meditation retreats for those in MBSR and MSC teacher training paths.
Paul Sugar
Paul Sugar is the Founder and Director of the Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine. He completed advanced MBSR teacher training in 1994 at the UMass Center for Mindfulness and is a Certified MBSR instructor through UCSD CFM. He has taught over 100 MBSR and MBCT 8-week programs and delivered hundreds of mindfulness-based workshops over 25 years in healthcare, corporate, academic, sports, and private sectors.
Paul created The Attention Academy school program in 1998, has spearheaded multiple mindfulness studies in healthcare, and has been practicing and teaching meditation, yoga, and tai chi for over 45 years.
John Taylor
John Taylor is a Certified MBSR Teacher with a long meditation and retreat practice, committed to fostering a more mindful and awake world. In addition to MBSR, John is an active member of the Greater Richmond community where his work focuses on racial equity and reconciliation initiatives and facilitated community dialogues.
He currently serves on the board of the Richmond Peace Education Center, One Common Unity (Washington D.C.), and an advisory committee for the Chrysalis Institute. John has a background in the nonprofit sector with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Bonner Foundation, and is a food security activist who initiated urban farming programs in Newark, NJ.
Carmen Teo, EdD, MMH
Carmen Teo, EdD, MMH is a Certified MBSR Teacher, Certified MSC Teacher, and MBSR Teacher Mentor with UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She started her mindfulness journey in 2007 and has sat in at least 15 silent meditation retreats. Her root practice is Vipassana (Insight) meditation in the Theravada Thai Forest tradition.
Carmen holds a Master's from Cornell University and an EdD from NTU-Singapore, researching reflexive teaching practice and the mechanisms of mindfulness. She founded Mindful Insights in 2015 and teaches in universities, schools, social welfare agencies, corporations, criminal justice settings, and government agencies. Currently based in Singapore.
Anne Twohig
Anne Twohig is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer based in Greystones, Ireland. She is the founder of the Centre for Mindfulness Ireland (established 2007) and trained with the UMass Center for Mindfulness, serving as a member of their professional teaching faculty since 2014. Anne has hosted and led professional teacher trainings in Ireland, Europe, and the US.
She has extensive experience teaching mindfulness in healthcare, education, nonprofits, prison services, and the corporate and banking sectors, and was the recipient of a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland award for her work in Mindfulness in Education.
Zayda Vallejo, Mlitt
Zayda Vallejo, Mlitt was born in Colombia and holds a BS in Psychology from Loyola University Chicago and a Master's in Political Economy from Oxford University. She has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1978, and her keen interest in meditation took her to Japan, India, Burma, and Nepal, where she lived for three years.
Zayda is adjunct faculty at the Cambridge Health Alliance Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC) and the Mindfulness Center at Brown University School of Public Health. For 18 years she served as an MBSR instructor and supervisor at UMass CFM. In 2014 she co-founded The Heartwell Institute in Worcester, MA, and leads 5-day and 7-day silent retreats.
Helen Vantine, PhD
Helen Vantine, Ph.D. is the founder and co-director of the Atlanta Mindfulness Institute with a private mindfulness-based psychotherapy practice. She is credentialed as an MBSR teacher through the Center for Mindfulness at UMass and is trained as an MBCT teacher through UCSD. She has taught mindfulness and MBSR extensively in corporations, healthcare, universities, and government agencies, and has taught over 500 individuals in MBSR courses.
Helen has maintained a meditation practice since 1971 and for 20 years has studied Buddhism in both the Zen and Theravada traditions. She is currently enrolled in the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock.
Michael Waupoose, LCSW
Michael Waupoose (Māēc-mahwāēw), LCSW is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and an 8-year veteran of the United States Air Force. He began his meditation practice in 2009 through the UW Health Mindfulness Program and has been teaching in the UW Mindfulness Program since 2012, offering adult MBSR classes, MBSR classes for the BIPOC community, and a MBSR Teacher Training Intensive he developed.
Michael is a certified MBSR teacher through the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness and holds a Master's in Social Work. His interests include offering classes for the BIPOC community and exploring how mindfulness can support skillful responding to the harm of racial and social injustice.
Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW
Note: Char is currently unable to accept new MBSR mentees. Spaces are available for new ME-CL mentees.
Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist certified to teach MBSR, MBCT, and Mindful Eating-Conscious Living™ (ME-CL). She holds MBSR teacher certification from the Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical School. As a senior trainer for UCSD's MBPTI, she is a lead facilitator for ME-CL Levels 1 & 2 trainings and mentors teachers-in-training.
Char specialized in working with women who experienced childhood abuse/trauma and struggled with depression, anxiety, and disordered eating. She co-created and teaches the ME-CL protocol with Jan Chozen Bays, MD, and travels internationally to train professionals in this work.
Korantema Pierce Williams, MS, CMT
Korantema Pierce Williams is a Certified MBSR Teacher who has long served as a bridge between traditional and modern practice through ConjureWorks, the health and wellness practice she co-owns in Richmond, Virginia. With degrees from Howard University (BS) and Saybrook University (MS, Mind-Body Medicine), she facilitates MBSR training at the InnerWork Center, Richmond, VA, where she serves as Board member and faculty.
Korantema also provides teacher trainer facilitation for MBSR and MBSR Teacher Training at UCSD CFM. As a Spiritualist trained in the Akom Tradition of Ghana, W. Africa for over 20 years, she facilitates audiences of all ages in mindfulness and MBSR as approaches to stress reduction, surviving trauma, and disrupting stagnant thoughts and actions.
Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD German
Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a Buddhist teacher in the Insight (Vipassana) meditation tradition. She is a certified senior MBSR teacher and teacher trainer, adjunct faculty at the Center for Mindfulness at UMASS Medical School, and a certified Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) teacher.
Christiane is a lead teacher and program developer for the first national mindfulness facilitator training for clinicians at the US Veterans Administration and a senior teacher at InsightLA in Los Angeles. She lectures and teaches workshops and silent retreats in the US and Europe, and is co-author of A Clinician's Guide To Teaching Mindfulness.
Valerie York-Zimmerman
Valerie York-Zimmerman has been teaching MBSR in Miami since 1998 and is a CFM Certified MBSR Teacher from the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical Center. Since 2002 she has also been teaching her own adaptation, Inner Journey ~ Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (IJ-MBSR), which incorporates MBCT elements focused on difficult emotions and disturbed thinking.
In 2011, Valerie and her husband co-founded Mindful Kids Miami (MKM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, where she served as Senior Teacher/Trainer and Executive Director. She now focuses nationally on excellence in teaching and fostering high quality Mindfulness-Based Programs in education and the Miami-Dade community.
Lisette Atala-Doocy Spanish
Lisette Atala-Doocy is a Certified MBSR Instructor who also holds a Certification from The Mindfulness in Schools Education Project and a Certificate of Attendance from the Omega Institute on Radical Acceptance with Tara Brach. She is Co-Founder of the Bilingual Center for Mindfulness, promoting mindfulness courses in Spanish and English.
Lisette has been teaching MBSR, Mindful Yoga, and Mindful Living in Spanish and English for several years in the San Diego–Baja California region, including at the School of Medicine, Baja California State University, and a Scripps Clinic women's group. She has also practiced classical music and linguistics, contributing significantly to the San Diego art world.
Allan Barboza Spanish
Allan Barboza is the Founder and Director of the Centro Costarricense para Mindfulness (Costa Rican Center for Mindfulness) in Central America, a certified MBSR Teacher, and a Mindfulness Based Psychotherapist. He is also trained in MBCT and received curricular training from Mindful Schools, initiating the first educational institution in Costa Rica to include a mindfulness-based protocol in its curriculum.
One of Allan's main interests is spreading MBSR to Latin American communities, a task he has pursued by translating key material to Spanish, co-teaching in South America, and serving as a Spanish-speaking MBSR Mentor. As the pioneer of MBIs in Costa Rica and a committed Zen meditation practitioner, Allan is a supporter of maintaining the integrity and ethics of this practice. Bio in Spanish