I was an anxious, intense, insomniac when I was 11. I looked around the world, observing people push and pull at each other, attempting to maintain a fleeting happiness. I wanted to figure it all out, but gosh was that overwhelming! Thank goodness a kind doctor taught me simple meditation techniques to relax my body and mind. I began to feel relief from anxiety, was able to “let go” of obsessive thoughts more easily, and enjoyed normal sleep again. As I matured, my desire to understand and be of service to people grew, (with a much less perfectionistic desire to “figure it all out!”) I love people – their colorful, gritty and oh so beautiful selves. I wanted to be a psychotherapist and nothing else.
After working as a counselor for a few years, it dawned on me (duh!) that meditation might be helpful to my clients, as it had been for me. I began teaching my clients, but in often stumbling and indirect ways. I sought out more and more explicit education about integrating mindfulness into psychotherapy. I earned a Certificate from the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and shortly thereafter found Shinzen Young, and the Unified Mindfulness system. THAT was what I needed – the precision and clarity around what you’re actually doing, and why, when you’re meditating. My own meditation practice flourished and I was much better equipped to offer personalized, practical techniques to my clients. I founded a group practice, Chicago Mindful Psychotherapy, teaching and learning more and more about integrating meditation into the process of psychological healing. I sold that practice and moved to Florida in 2020, but this continues to be my passion today: Accompanying each person (client) through joys, pains and insights into themselves, as we discover together how to live in this world with grace, grit and gratitude. Mindfulness is a warm, enveloping light in this process, and I can’t imagine being a therapist, or a person, without this orientation/skill/process. I currently have a private practice, Mindful Life Full, where I see psychotherapy clients and provide trainings to mental health clinicians on the applications of mindfulness. If I can be of service to you, please reach out! And I’m so excited for you that you’ve discovered this life-changing skillset called mindfulness…
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.