Dr. Brian Dower has been living mindfully since 2014 when he took his own advice. A wrist injury that year had short-circuited his ability to tend to his chiropractic patients in downtown Toronto, and concerns about both the injury and its effect on his professional future threatened to interfere with his characteristic steadiness. Brian had been recommending meditation and mindfulness practice to his patients for years, and now, recognizing his need for a more disciplined, nourishing mindfulness practice, he prescribed it for himself.
What began as an online search for a “meditation class” evolved into a progressively deeper dive into what genuine mindfulness means. Over the next few years, through various in-person and online courses, retreats and practice, Brian explored the richness of full engagement in the moment-by-moment beauty of life.
And then he discovered the Unified Mindfulness techniques and the work of Shinzen Young. Young’s systematic and accessible approach to everyday mindfulness harmonized all the seemingly random notes in Brian’s previous mindfulness efforts. Finally, Brian had found a technique that brought him clarity and calm he had been seeking.
Now a Unified Mindfulness Teacher/Trainer, Brian offers classes, one-on-one coaching, and destination retreats to those who are looking to enhance their skills of concentration, clarity, and equanimity through mindfulness. Although Brian is retired from active chiropractic practice, his experience as a healthcare provider lends itself to a studied and professional understanding of the detrimental physiological effects of a psyche shadowed with stress.
Brian’s goal? To introduce as many people as possible to the benefits of a mindful life that’s characterized by clear perception, tranquility, and joy.
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.