About

My contemplative approach is grounded in an integrative model that incorporates healing insights and methods of the ancient Nalanda University tradition of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism along with neuropsychology, positive psychology, stress and trauma research.  As a pluralistic education system of the ancient Indian sub-continent, Nalanda and its sister institutions were the first known universities of the world.  They were open to individuals of a variety of spiritual traditions and worldviews, and were also repositories of the rich and sophisticated mind sciences of ancient India which were preserved in Tibet.  Here, yoga and meditative practices offered people not only ways to heal physical and mental suffering, but also to help individuals grow and evolve to more readily face the inevitable challenges of the human condition and live happier lives.  The fact that these methods and insights offer reproducible positive results and can be flexibly adapted to a variety of different worldviews and cultures is perhaps most evident by the current use and popularity of yoga and mindfulness practices that are ubiquitous across our secular and science-based culture today.   As seen within the fields of neuroscience, positive psychology, and clinical psychology, research on mindfulness has yielded exciting findings in our understanding of the brain, healing, and well being.  Additionally, the efficacy and effectiveness of clinical research and practice of mindfulness-based treatment protocols such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), has led mindfulness to becoming an evermore important tool for clinicians.  While the clinical benefits of mindfulness represent just a small slice of the breadth and depth that the Nalanda tradition offers, more recent  research on compassion and embodiment practices, also derived from this tradition, continue to yield important outcomes that are especially relevant for our society today.  For example, compassion practices are intended to improve one's relationship to the social world via healthier interpersonal relationships, greater interpersonal efficacy, helping to reduce psychopathology as well as increase personal  happiness, which has been supported by research.  

I have been a daily meditator for over 13 years.  I have found these healing insights and practices to be profoundly helpful and transformative in my own life.  I am also a graduate of the Four-Year Program in Sustainable Happiness of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science where I have been directly mentored by Joseph Loizzo, MD, PhD, a leading voice and pioneer in the emerging field of contemplative psychology and  psychotherapy.  I am also a certified teacher of Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT).  I have had the opportunity and good fortune to learn from leading experts in the filed  of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism such as Robert Thurman, PhD,  Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus of Columbia University and Thomas Yarnall, PhD, translator, researcher and executive editor of Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CUCBS).  Additionally, I have had the great privilege and honor of learning from incredible masters of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition who truly embody the sincere application of and development resulting from these practices.  This includes the late great Gelek Rimpoche of Jewel Heart, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Nida Chenagtsang.  

Currently, I am a core faculty member at the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science in their Contemplative Psychotherapy Program.