I love finding ways to bring mindfulness into everyday experience, from sneezing to bird watching to sitting in the dentist’s chair.
Like many, I came to meditation during a time of great emotional suffering. After a morning of guidance from Shinzen Young, I was hooked by the relief I didn’t know was possible. That was in 2008
In 2023, I went through most of the major life stressors all at once. It was hard and I did suffer, but I turned out to be amazingly resilient, which I know is the result of nearly two decades of practice. This was just one of at least seven major re-starts in my life.
In my thirties, I acquired an impressive title from a prestigious consulting firm, but gave up the grind decades ago to create a business and life that works for me – one with more flexibility and far fewer hours. During one of my re-starts, I learned the real reason why: I am an HSP, a highly sensitive person. I’m also an ENFJ, an Enneagram 7, with the following StrengthsFinder themes: Connectedness, Strategic, Activator, Maximizer, Belief.
In addition to teaching meditation, I still enjoy a career as a communications consultant, which includes strategy, ghostwriting and presentation coaching for C-level leaders and luminaries, who I invite to tap into their natural storytelling strengths. I also help people uncover, discover and sometimes recover what makes them extraordinary and help them communicate that.
With all my coaching, including mindfulness, I always strive to help people become who they really are, perhaps more than they’ve ever been before.
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.