Moustafa Abdelrahman, MBA, RP, is a meditation teacher and Contemplative Therapist. He is certified by the University of Toronto as an Applied Mindfulness Meditation Specialist and holds a Certificate in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Nalanda Institute/Diploma from the Institute of Traditional Medicine. Abdelrahman teaches a variety of mindfulness certificate courses at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto and has facilitated mindfulness workshops for a wide range of corporate and nonprofit organizations, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is a Senior Teacher for the Meditation Teacher Training at X-Hale Meditation & Wellness Centre and leads the Mindfulness Meditation program at the 519, a City of Toronto agency supporting the LGBTQ2S communities.
Mar Aige, BFA, MA, RYT, is an art, meditation and yoga teacher specializing in therapeutic breathing, heartful movement, and self-massage. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the Universitat de Barcelona and her MA in Humanities from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and is a certified kundalini and Tibetan yoga instructor. At the Nalanda Institute, Mar graduated from the Yoga Teacher Training and Compassion-Based Resilience programs, of which she is faculty. Mar co-directs the Contemplative Psychotherapy Program in Spanish and Portuguese, being responsible for its translations and teaching contemplative practices. Mar began teaching art to children 30 years ago in museums and schools. Inspired by progressive educational approaches such as Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Waldorf, she has worked as an educator at the Guggenheim Museum, The Met Cloisters, St. John the Divine, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. Mar founded the Rubin Museum’s Family Programs Department, which she directed for 5 years. She currently lives in Barcelona with her husband Isaac and their canine friend Tara.
Fiona Brandon, MPS, MA, MFT, is the Director of the Nalanda Institute’s Compassion Based Resilience Training (CBRT) and Embodied Psychotherapy programs. As a licensed psychotherapist, she integrates Buddhist psychology, depth psychology, expressive arts therapy, dream imagery, and sensorimotor psychotherapy in her work with adults and couples. Fiona is also a co-editor and contributor of the anthology Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation (2nd ed.). As a graduate of the Masters program in Counseling Psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Fiona’s research focused on the meditative practice of Authentic Movement and the use of symbols and dream imagery in psychotherapy. Learn more at fionabrandon.com.
Joseph (Joe) Loizzo, MD, PhD, is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and Columbia-trained Buddhist scholar with over forty years’ experience studying the beneficial effects of contemplative practices on healing, learning and development. He is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in Integrative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he researches and teaches contemplative self-healing and optimal health. He has taught the philosophy of science and religion, the scientific study of contemplative states, and the Indo-Tibetan mind and health sciences at Columbia University, where he is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia Center for Buddhist Studies.