I am a baby doctor (neonatologist), a university associate professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Alberta, and the author of EAT, Transform Your Relationship with Food Through 20 Mindful Exercises to Feel Better and Become More Fulfilled.
I initially began meditating in order to decrease stress, but I quickly experienced other benefits that fueled my practice.
It was not only decreasing stress, but it was changing my relationship to stress altogether. I also immediately saw meditation as a fantastic tool to discover myself at a deeper level. Moreover, I found that it deepened my relationship to my patient where I found myself more present and more empathic. Those were the main threads that I followed in the beginning.
I have explored few different kinds of mindful awareness approaches, but have mainly studied and practiced Shinzen’s Unified Mindfulness paradigm – which I discovered serendipitously.
Integrating mindfulness training into my work — with parents, students, and colleagues — is now one of my passions. I conducted a research project studying the effects of mindfulness on stress of mothers of sick neonates.
I also teach mindfulness to medical students as an elective. This is very well received. Shinzen’s system is complex in a way, but easy and accessible in another way. You always feel that you are on track, whatever happens to you. You never feel like you’re a failure or you’re not good enough. There’s always something for you.
I am always touched to hear students opening up about their stress and sharing their stories. I am a witness of the suffering that we all experience through the lens of our own life and I hope people can find ways such as mindfulness to decrease their suffering, whether it is physical, emotional or mental.
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.