Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science
Contemplative Psychotherapy Program in Spanish and Portuguese:
The Compassion Year Begins Fall 2021
Leer en español / Leia em portugués / Read in English
Nalanda Institute’s Contemplative Psychotherapy Program (CPP) integrates mindfulness and compassion-based meditation practice, Buddhist psychology and ethics, with contemporary psychotherapy, neuropsychology and the practice of promoting equity. The program spans two years—one devoted to Mindfulness and the other to Compassion. Students may start in either year. This fall marks the start of the Compassion Year in Spanish and Portuguese.
Join contemplative psychotherapy pioneer Dr. Joe Loizzo, Co-Directors Mar Aige and Dr. Javier Garcia Campayo and meditation master Robert Thurman for the Nalanda Institute Contemplative Psychotherapy Program: The Compassion Year. This is a historic program offering an intensive step-by-step learning experience integrating Buddhist social psychology, the ethics of social transformation, compassion meditation and embodied meditation, with the most promising breakthroughs in contemporary neuropsychology, psychotherapy, and the practice of promoting equity.
Our guest faculty for the Compassion Year include Buddhist scholars, world-class meditation teachers, pioneer researchers and thought leaders Tara Brach, Diana Fosha, Lama Rod Owens, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Stephen Porges, Jan Willis, Richard Davidson, Emma Seppälä, and others.
Join us starting September 24th!
The deadline to apply is August 15th…apply today!
Who is This Training For?
Psychotherapists, social workers, mental health counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, physicians, creative arts therapists, business coaches, educators, yoga teachers, graduate students, entrepreneurs, artists and others in the helping professions are all encouraged to apply.
The Program
The curriculum is taught over two years. One year is dedicated to Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy and the other to Compassion-based Psychotherapy. Participants may enter the program in either year. This September marks the start of the Compassion Year in Spanish and Portuguese.
The Compassion Year is a comprehensive foundation for integrating the social psychology, compassion practice, and transformational ethics of the Nalanda tradition into contemporary relational and systems therapies, intersubjective analysis, transpersonal and self-psychology, narrative, somatic, and transformational therapies.
The Compassion Year trains professionals in 3 core modules:
- Module 1 focuses on the Foundations of Buddhist Social Psychology.
- Module 2 focuses onTransforming the Mind Through Developing Wise Compassion.
- Module 3 focuses on Embodying Compassion Through Role-Modeling Imagery and Transformational Flow State.
Compassion Year Curriculum
Areas of study and practice include:
- Foundations of Buddhist systems theory, social psychology and embodied psychology.
- Transforming the mind for compassionate social engagement.
- Equal empathy, Self-analysis, self-compassion and giving-and-taking practices.
- The neuropsychology of attachment trauma, implicit bias, and social stress-reactivity.
- Embodied practice of role-modeling imagery, breath-body flow and open non-dual awareness.
- Transforming the unconscious mind and nervous system for embodied social engagement.
- The neuropsychology of transformational affects, polyvagal theory, and flow states.
- Compassion-based therapies, embodied therapies, and integrative nuances.
- Meditation practicum: video instruction with Robert Thurman and supervision with core faculty.
Schedule
The year begins with an opening retreat September 24-26, 2021, with Joe Loizzo, Mar Aige, and Javier Garcia Campayo. There is also an intersession retreat February 11-13 with Drs. Nida Chenagtsang, Loizzo and Campayo, and Mar Aige. Both retreats will take place live online via Zoom, with simultaneous translation into Spanish and Portuguese.
This program is a hybrid learning experience. For each of the 30 weeks throughout the year, students independently watch video lectures online by our core faculty and guest speakers, maintain a daily meditation and read required texts. The English lectures are accompanied by complete text or audio translations in Spanish and Portuguese. Every two weeks (on Wednesdays from 12:00–1:30am NY time) students gather for a video conference moderated by Mar Aige, with simultaneous translation in Spanish and Portuguese. These meetings include either review and group discussion of course material with Joe Loizzo, meditation consultation and case supervision with Javier García Campayo, or occasional live classes taught by our bilingual faculty in their native language.
They also include breath-work and yoga practices offered by Mar Aige, as well as teach-backs in which participants gain vital experience offering guided meditation for peers. In addition, we offer a bi-weekly live online practice field to discuss the application and integration of meditation in one’s daily life. Throughout the year, students work on a capstone project applying what they have learned. A celebration marks the end of the year when students present their projects via Zoom. Dates for these meetings are given out at the beginning of the program.
Tuition
Annual tuition for participation is $2,500, which includes 8 months of classes, online retreats, supervision, as well as most reading materials. We offer flexible payment options as well as a limited number of partial scholarships and work-study programs based on financial need.
Please note that no refunds or credits will be issued once classes begin in September 2021.
The deadline for application is August 15th, 2021.
Certification
The Nalanda Institute’s Certificate in Mindfulness-Based and Compassion-Based Psychotherapy is awarded to those who complete all of the requirements of that year’s curriculum including: participating in one of the retreats, following coursework, participating in a daily meditation practice, completing 2 meditation teach-backs and completing a capstone project. Live Zoom meeting attendance is an integral part of the certificate requirements.
Additional Information
View our website for more information. Or contact Mar Aige, program Co-Director.
The deadline to apply is August 15th…apply today!
What People are Saying
Attending the Nalanda Institute’s Contemplative Psychotherapy Program has been a rich and rewarding experience. Not only did I deepen and concretize my understanding of Buddhist thought as it applies to clinical work, but I also made lasting friendships with other like-minded clinicians. The sense of community they provide feels like a warm embrace.
—Debra Rosenzweig, PhD, Clinical Psychologist
I can’t find words to explain how important this journey has been for me. My spiritual and professional growth has been like a flower growing slowly and steadfastly toward the sun. My experience with the people I work with has completely changed. Now I’m able to receive their struggles like a gift and together we can embark on our specific and enthusiastic path toward the awareness of interdependence.
Psychologist—Giulia Mellacca, Psychologist
Meet Our Core Faculty
Mar Aige, BFA, MA, RYT, is a painter, art educator, meditation and yoga teacher specializing in therapeutic breathwork and self-massage. She received her BFA from Universitat de Barcelona and her MA from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and is a certified kundalini and Tibetan yoga teacher. At the Nalanda Institute, Mar graduated from the Yoga, Mind & Spirit and CBRT Teacher Training programs, where she teaches yoga and breathwork. Mar co-directs the Contemplative Psychotherapy Program in Spanish and Portuguese, where she also coordinates translations and teaches contemplative practices. Mar started teaching art to children over 20 years ago in museums and schools. Inspired by progressive education approaches like Reggio Emilia, Montessori, and Waldorf, she has taught at the Guggenheim Museum, The Met Cloisters, St. John the Divine, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. She started The Rubin Museum’s Family Programs department, which she managed for 5 years. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband Isaac and her pup Tara.
Javier García Campayo, MD, PhD,is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He trained at the Hospital Clínico in Zaragoza, Spain, and at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, United Kingdom, and McGill, Montreal, Canada. He is currently Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Zaragoza. He has been chairman of the Spanish Society of Psychosomatic Medicine. He is a visiting lecturer at universities in Spain (UNED, Alcalá de Henares, Basque Country) and abroad (Rochester in the USA and Sao Paulo in Brazil). He has written more than 200 scientific articles, a number of books and chapters in books, and takes part in the main Spanish and international scientific conferences on mental health and psychotherapy. García Campayo leads the Master of Mindfulness at the University of Zaragoza, the first in any Spanish-speaking university. He has published books such as “Mindfulness y ciencia”, “La ciencia de la compasión” y “Mindfulness y educación”, with Alianza Editorial, “¿Qué sabemos de mindfulness?” y “El Guerrero Atento” with Editorial Kairós and “Nuevo Manual Práctico de Mindfulness” y “Mindfulness y compasión” with Editorial Siglantana. Every two years, he organizes the International Meeting on Mindfulness in Zaragoza with over 500 participants.
Ann Harper Campbell, MSN, MPH, NP, CYT, is a Nurse Practitioner in occupational health at The Rockefeller University, where she specializes in mindfulness-based approaches to wellness. Ann has been involved in contemplative practice for over 20 years, including as a Certified Yoga Teacher and a graduate of the Nalanda Institute Contemplative Psychotherapy Program. In addition to her clinical practice at Rockefeller integrating mindfulness as a fundamental pillar of wellness, she explores research areas including stress, mindfulness and gene expression within the Pathways to Awareness research group she founded with the late Bruce McEwan. A 2019–2020 Nalanda Institute Fellow in contemplative science research, Ann has a particular interest in the stress effects of racism and how we can counter racism as a public health challenge that impacts us all.
Rahshaana Green, MBA, PMP, RYT, is a business consultant with expertise in Business Development, Marketing, and Strategy in Healthcare and Science. She is also a yoga/meditation teacher specialized in working with injured, aging, and perinatal clients. Green received her BA in Biophysical Chemistry from Dartmouth College, her MBA from University of Texas-Austin, and her foundational yoga training with Ana Forrest. She is Nalanda Institute’s Director of Equity and Strategic Parternships, a certified teacher of Nalanda Institute’s Compassion-Based Resilience Teacher Training, is the Co-Director the Contemplative Psychotherapy Programs in New York and Switzerland. She has taught mindfulness meditation and yoga in corporate, group, and private settings and is passionate about empowering others to cultivate well-being and resilience.
Pilar Jennings, PhD, is a psychoanalyst focused on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation who has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2004. She was awarded her PhD in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary, a Masters in medical anthropology from Columbia University, and a Bachelors in interdisciplinary writing from Barnard College of Columbia University. Dr. Jennings is the author of Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism and To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action. Currently, she is a researcher at the Columbia University Center for Study of Science and Religion and Co-chair of the Columbia Faculty Seminar on the Memory and Slavery, where she explores the intergenerational transmission of trauma.
Geri Loizzo is Nalanda Institute’s Director of Programming. She is also a meditation faculty member and has served on the Institute’s board of directors since 2007. She’s had a regular practice of Hatha Yoga since 1982 and since 2006 has studied with Nalanda Institute Yoga Faculty, Mary Reilly Nichols. In addition, Loizzo has been studying and practicing Tibetan meditation since 1999, and has been leading weekly morning meditations at the Institute since 2011. Her mentors include Khyabje Gelek Rimpoche, Venerable Robina Courtin, and Kathleen McDonald.
Joe Loizzo, MD, PhD, is a Harvard-trained contemplative psychotherapist, Buddhist scholar, and author with over four decades experience integrating Indo-Tibetan mind science and healing arts into modern neuropsychology, psychotherapy, and clinical research. He is founder and director of the Nalanda Institute, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a clinician in private practice in Manhattan. Joe is the author of numerous scholarly review articles on contemplative neuropsychiatry and psychotherapy. He is the author of the comprehensive textbook, Sustainable Happiness: The Mind Science Of Well-Being, Altruism, and Inspiration. He is executive editor of Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation, a groundbreaking collection of essays by pioneers of the fast-emerging and highly promising new field of contemplative psychotherapy.
Robert Thurman, PhD, is a recognized worldwide authority on religion and spirituality, Asian history, world philosophy, Buddhist science, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of the Tibet House U.S., Spiritual Director of Menla, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. Dr. Thurman received his PhD from Harvard and has studied extensively with many top Tibetan Lamas including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Dr. Thurman is the author of many books, including The Central Philosophy of Tibet, The Jewel Tree of Tibet, and, most recently, with William Meyers and Michael Burbank, Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
The deadline to apply is August 15th…apply today!
