Contemplative Psychotherapy Educator

I am a contemplative psychotherapy educator and group facilitator, and core faculty member at the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, where I direct the Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) program and teach within the Embodied Contemplative Psychotherapy program. Since 2016, I have been training clinicians, MDs and healing arts practitioners in ways to bring the wisdom of Buddhist psychology and contemplative practice into the heart of clinical work.

I lecture on the intersection of contemplative and Western psychotherapy at educational organizations including Mindful Exercises, the San Francisco Dharma Collective, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), and Marin CAMFT. I moderated Tricycle Magazine’s 2023 online panel Interpersonal and Social Healing Through Wise Compassion and was a recorded speaker at the 2023 CAMFT annual conference.

Roots in Buddhist Psychology and Western Psychotherapy

For almost 2 decades I have been a student of Tibetan Buddhism (in the Gelug lineage) and Buddhist psychology in tandem with contemporary western psychology and neuroscience. Some of the teachers who have greatly impacted my understanding of contemplative ideas and practices include: Ven. Robina Courtin, Lama Rod Owens, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Ven. Thubten Chodron, Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche, Dr Nida Chenagtsang and Robert Thurman. 

This long immersion in both contemplative and clinical traditions shapes the questions I bring to my teaching and my therapeutic practice. How can we develop consistent internal felt experiences of love and belonging to nourish our psychological and physiological wellbeing? How can we skillfully hold our own psychological complexity, along with that of others, so that we have the capacity to care for ourselves and be in healthful and discerning relationship with others? How can we use contemplative practices to give us the skillful means to collaborate with others to fight oppressive social biases and systems?

Publications

I am co-editor of Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation (Routledge, 2023), the most comprehensive introduction to integrating contemplative practices into mental health treatment, featuring contributors including Robert Thurman, Tara Brach, Lama Rod Owens, Daniel Siegel, and Sharon Salzberg. I also authored a chapter on mindfulness as a self-healing mechanism for Oxford University Press (2025), and serve as managing editor of the Compassion-Based Resilience Training student manual used in the CBRT program at Nalanda. You can learn more about my published work on my Books & Articles page.

Below are excerpts from some of my classes. They will give you a taste of what I teach. Enjoy!

Selected Talks About Contemplative Psychotherapy & Building Healthy Relationships

 

Embodied Psychotherapy 

This video excerpt is from a lecture I gave for the Nalanda Institute’s Embodied Psychotherapy Program entitled Active Imagery: Co-Creating a Congenial Vision that Mirrors the Client’s Potential.

You’ll get a taste of why Lama Yeshe finds Tibetan Buddhist Guru Yoga to be a powerful practice for healing.

I use active imagery and mentor bonding practices in my individual therapy work and in my guided meditations.

Love and Belonging: A Contemplative Psychotherapy Approach to Building Healthy Relationships

This is a lecture I gave to the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. The full lecture is on the CAMFT website, and MFTs can watch it to receive continuing education credits. In the excerpt I begin to discuss the two root causes of relationship stress. 

These relational dynamics are central to my work with clients navigating codependency and intimacy challenges

Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT)

I teach a couple CBRT groups a year through the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. This group was created specifically to help mental health professionals address burnout. In this video excerpt I share why the Buddhist contemplative practice of mentor bonding builds compassion and resilience.

I also offer clinical consultation for therapists experiencing seeking to integrate contemplative practices into their work.

Love and Belonging: 3 part lecture series

I developed a 3-part lecture series called Love & Belonging to explore where social stress comes from and what we can do to prevent it. Using neuropsychology and compassion practices as frameworks, the class investigates reactive relating dynamics and ways to build healthy relationships. 

This series draws on the same neuropsychological and contemplative frameworks that inform my approach to psychotherapy.

If you are a therapist interested in deepening your contemplative practice or integrating Buddhist psychology into your clinical work, I offer clinical consultation as well as ongoing trainings and classes. I also maintain an active psychotherapy practice in Noe Valley, San Francisco, specializing in codependency, trauma, grief, perimenopause, finding intimacy, high achievers and psychedelic integration. I can be reached at 415.721.3355 or by email.