Seiso Paul Cooper, PhD, LP is a licensed and nationally certified psychoanalyst; Ordained Soto Zen Priest and transmitted teacher in the Soto Zen School. He is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and the American Zen Teachers Association. He is the Co-founder and Guiding Teacher: Two Rivers Zen On-line Community; Founder, Realizational Practice Studies Group offering a monthly on-line study group on Psychoanalysis and Buddhism. He is the former Dean of Training, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis; Faculty, training analyst, supervisor: Institute for Expressive Analysis; Visiting faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies. Cooper maintains a private psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervision practice in Montpelier, Vermont. He has presented his work on Buddhism & Psychoanalysis internationally. He currently organizes, facilitates, and leads silent retreats in the formal Soto Zen style especially tailored for mental health professionals both at retreat centers and online.
Jangchup Choeden Rimpoche is former Abbot of the Ganden Shartse Norling University in South India. He was awarded the Geshe Lharampa doctoral degree in 1997, and subsequently attended Gyuto Tantric University until assuming his post as Abbot in 2009. In 2017 he was appointed Executive Director of the International Geluk Foundation by H. H. the Dalai Lama, charged with fostering the global spread of the Nalanda tradition in our age. Rinpoche is fluent in English as well as five other languages including Mandarin and is often Referred to as the “21st Century Monk” because of his understanding of global issues.
Dr. Kamilah Majied is a contemplative inclusivity and equity consultant, mental health therapist, clinical educator, and researcher. Drawing from her decades of contemplative practice and diversity, equity and inclusion leadership, Dr. Majied engages people in experiencing wonder, humor and insight through transforming oppressive patterns and deepening relationships towards ever-improving individual, organizational and communal wellness. After 15 years of teaching at Howard University, Dr. Majied joined the faculty at California State University, Monterey Bay as a Professor of Social Work. She teaches clinical practice to graduate students employing psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness-based, and artistic approaches to well-being. She also teaches research methods, social and organizational policy analysis, and community organizing through a social justice lens.
Caverly Morgan is a meditation teacher, author, nonprofit leader, and visionary. She is the founder and Lead Contemplative of Peace in Schools—a nonprofit which created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. She is also the founder of Presence Collective, a community of cross-cultural contemplatives committed to personal and collective transformation, creating spaces for wisdom exchange and belonging. Caverly blends the original spirit of Zen with a modern nondual approach. Her practice began in 1995 and has included eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery. She has been teaching contemplative practice since 2001. She is the author of The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together and A Kid’s Book About Mindfulness.
Sheryl Petty, Ed.D. is an equity & systems change consultant and has worked and taught in the fields of education, organizational development, healing, and systems change for nearly 30 years. She also teaches and is ordained in Yoruba/Lucumi & Tibetan Buddhist (Nyingma) lineages, which she has practiced since 1996. She holds degrees in Mathematics, Systematic & Philosophical Theology, a doctorate in Leadership & Change, is a certified yoga asana instructor, and is authorized to share practices based in Bön Buddhist Dzogchen. Sheryl partners with institutional clients with significant national and global footprints via her consulting firm Movement Tapestries, providing Deep Equity, Organizational Transformation & Systems Change support. She also supports the integration of equity & contemplative practice in institution-wide and field-level change. Her work aids systems to function in more rigorous, courageous, loving and healthy ways for the benefit of all. She also helps build and strengthen the field of equity & organizational transformation practitioners, which contributes to the healing of organizations and systems as far and wide as possible.
Jesse Westfall, LMFT, MS, received her master’s degree in psychology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and was certified in EMDR by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). Jesse has a private practice in Oakland, CA where she employs and supervises associate therapists, provides individual and group consultation for EMDR clinicians, and provides psychotherapy for individuals with childhood, recent traumatic experiences, sexual trauma, and more. Jesse is passionate about empowering other clinicians and providers in order to support those in need to receive the support they need and deserve.
Robina Courtin. Since being ordained as a Buddhist nun in the late 1970s at Kopan Monastery in the Kathmandu valley, Ven. Robina has worked full-time for her teachers Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and their worldwide network of Buddhist activities, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life, including her work with prisoners, has been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.
Janina Fisher, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and a former instructor, Harvard Medical School. An international expert on the treatment of trauma, she is an Advisory Board member of the Trauma Research Foundation. Dr. Fisher is the author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Self-Alienation (2017), Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: a Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021), and The Living Legacy Instructional Flip Chart (2022). She is best known for her work on integrating mindfulness-based and somatic interventions into trauma treatment. More information can be found on her website: janinafisher.com.
Chantelle Brown, MSW, LMSW is meditation teacher, graduate of Nalanda Institute’s Contemplative Psychotherapy Program, and a clinical social worker at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Chantelle received her MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and holds a post-graduate certification in Couple and Family Therapy from the Ackerman Institute for the Family. Chantelle is a cultural worker and relational therapist working at the intersection of social justice and clinical practice utilizing contemplative methods for personal and collective transformation. Her work revolves around her commitment to providing culturally attuned, trauma-informed care to patients and families while advocating for health equity within medical systems. Chantelle has a special interest in taking an integrative approach to addressing intergenerational trauma of those who have survived the Middle Passage and beyond. She currently lives in Brooklyn, with her family, where she was born and raised.
Pilar Hurtado is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist; she holds Masters’ degrees in Addictive Behaviors, Clinical Mental Health, and Severe Mental Disorders, a Diploma in Mental Health in Political Violence and Catastrophes, and a postgraduate in Psychoneuroimmunology. Pilar has trained in Narrative Psychotherapy and EMDR. She has worked with people with addictive disorders deprived of liberty and in the Exil Center, caring for people who have experienced different types of human rights violations. She has collaborated with the Psychosocial Support Unit of Doctors Without Borders, supporting team members, and currently works in public health. She is a vipassana meditation practitioner and has trained in MBCT-MSR with Fernando Torrijos, in MBCT for OCD with Fabrizio Didonna, in Compassion Focused Psychotherapy (CFT) with Paul Gilbert and in the application of mindfulness in clinical practice with the Spanish Association of Mindfulness (AEMIND). She loves to integrate neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology and psychotherapy in her work.
