Jennifer Sharpe
Rockaway,NJ, USA
Registered Nurse
Certified UM Trainer/Teacher
I came to meditation after getting sober from alcohol. I was relieved and grateful to have finally stopped drinking, but what I found underneath wasn’t so pretty. I was like a raw nerve, anxious, fearful, couldn’t sleep, unmanageable emotions… yep, my life was pretty unmanageable. I was doing the recovery thing, therapy and AA, but I needed more. I began working with a therapist who also taught mindfulness. She was a Zen practitioner for many years and had a certain serenity that I was attracted to. I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable and even defiant when we were working together in those early days. She was asking me to work with, even conjure up difficult emotions in myself so we could work through them. As someone who had spent a lifetime doing the opposite this was terrifying. Nevertheless, I persisted. And my ability to hold and feel difficult emotions slowly improved.
Then I found UM in 2020 through Immersion. I was intrigued. This was a different approach, different than anything I had encountered in the mindfulness worlds. Then I heard Shinzen talking about happiness independent of conditions. My first reaction to this was disbelief; I didn’t think it was a real thing. But I was hooked, so I stayed. I stayed that weekend in Immersion, and I rolled right into Foundations. I started doing retreat with Shinzen, quite a few actually, and my practice transformed. I was starting to experience the benefits of relief and. I did Pathways in 2023 and Compass in 2024‑2025. Along the way I became a Zen student and have a committed trainer/student relationship with ZMM in NY. So over the last six years or so since I found UM my life has gotten better. I no longer suffer from the anxiety, insomnia, crippling depression and fear. I still experience these things, but they no longer own me. I have more freedom and peace than I’ve ever had. I am still working on the happiness independent of conditions but I’ve loosened the grip on conditional.
My background is in behaviorism (I was a therapist for 15 years); presently I am a registered nurse working in psychiatric nursing. My coaching draws on both of these fields for strategies and knowledge. I specialize in addiction recovery, anxiety, depression, insomnia and ADHD. I work primarily in the UM format but bring some Zen as well as somatic techniques to complement. I also incorporate my knowledge of food and sleep and exercise to give a whole mind/body approach to my coaching.
Through mindfulness training I have found a peace and a happiness that I never thought was possible. I want this for you too; I want this for everyone. Contact me at [email protected] — I look forward to meeting you!
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