My love of meditative practice stems from a deep appreciation of its radical potential to transform how we experience our lives. Whether someone wants to increase their own inner resources (more peace and stability, less reactivity), is honoring a phase where healing work is needed, or is actively pursuing a spiritual path, I strive offer my expertise with meditative tools to support their intentions.
I have been practicing meditation since 2001 – mostly within a Buddhist/Insight meditation tradition. I currently teach meditation at a community dharma center in Southern California, as well as working with individuals to support their meditation practice. My strongest influences are my own teachers: Shinzen Young and Rob Burbea. I began studying with Shinzen in 2011. One of the most valuable gifts I received from Shinzen was a love of precision and clarity about meditative tools. His modular, clear, yet adaptive approach to mindfulness practice has fundamentally informed the way I practice and teach. My ongoing training is supervised by Rob Burbea, whose breadth of vision about what is possible to include within ideas of spiritual practice, the meditative path, and awakening has deeply inspired my approach. An artist myself (I studied painting at Rhode Island School of Design, and filmmaking at UCLA), I enjoy working with creative types who wish to deepen their relationship to creative work alongside their meditation practice. As my own practice has included pursuing intensive practice while parenting, I have a particular interest in how a vibrant meditation practice can be sustained in the midst of daily life. Many people I work with with are balancing the compelling (and sometimes challenging) terrain of the contemplative path with caring for the people and things they are devoted to.
Julianna received her BA in psychology from Duke University. As founder, president, and head trainer of Unified Mindfulness, she is dedicated to disseminating Shinzen Young’s comprehensive mindfulness meditation system through the creation and presentation of educational programs and teacher-training certification programs.
Dr. Hunter serves as associate professor of practice and is the founding director of the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University. He also serves as visiting professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he developed and co-teaches the Leading Mindfully executive education program..
Dr. Eisendrath serves as chief psychologist and president of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy, P.C., where, as a Jungian analyst, she offers psychotherapy with individuals and couples, psychoanalysis, supervision, and training.
Dr. Vago serves as the research director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the director of the Contemplative Neuroscience and Integrative Medicine (CNIM) Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is an associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Department of Psychiatry.
Stella is a psychologist, professor, and Zen practitioner. She became a formal student in 2008 in the Soto Zen tradition. She teaches courses in mindfulness based psychotherapies and the psychology of compassion at the Union Institute & University. She also co-facilitates a family program and young adult program at Shao Shan Temple, in Woodbury Vermont.
Dr. Creswell serves as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the director of the Health & Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. McCormick currently serves as director of education at Unified Mindfulness. In 1975, he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz, where he was part of Dr. Elliot Aronson’s research team that examined cooperative approaches to reducing interracial conflict and academic performance problems in newly integrated school, and made Honors in Psychology, College Honors, and Thesis Honors.
UnifiedMindfulness.com is the official teacher training platform for Shinzen and the Unified Mindfulness System.
Created over 50 years of research and testing by Shinzen Young, Unified Mindfulness is a system of meditation that’s easily researchable by science, with clear terminology and rigorous precision around concepts and procedures.
The Unified Mindfulness system is a comprehensive, robust and refined support structure that any individual at any stage of meditation practice can rely on to go deeper in their insight and their ability to share it with others. It is also a secular form of meditation, which means it’s not religious in any way so anyone, of any faith, can do it.