Alua Arthur is a death doula and attorney. As the founder of Going with Grace, she and her team support others through the mysteries, practicalities, emotions and spiritual considerations at the end of life. Alua also trains death doulas and those committed to shifting the cultural conversation about death.
Collective Online Healing is not about any one person, it is about all of us working together, but it had to be started by someone. Andrew Appel has been studying the potential of various healing modalities since 1994 and has worked with thousands of people and many gifted healers from around the world during that time. He has been particularly interested in large group healing for the past 7 years, and, to-date, has also hosted over 150 in-person group healing events in New York City.
Mark Matousek, an award-winning author of seven books, a blogger for Psychology Today, and a teacher and speaker on creativity and growth using the Writing to Awaken method, has written for many publications, including The New Yorker, O, Tricycle, Harper’s Bazaar and The Village Voice. After working at Andy Warhol’s Interviewmagazine, Matousek spent a decade as a freelance writer and dharma bum in Europe, India, and the U.S. He is also the founder of The Seekers Forum, an online community for nonsectarian spiritual dialogue, and co-founder of V-Men, the male arm of Eve Ensler’s V-Day movement.
Sahara Rose, host of the Highest Self Podcast (the #1 spirituality podcast on iTunes with over 16 million downloads) and best-selling author of several books, including: Eat Feel Fresh; Idiot’s Guides to Ayurveda; A Yogic Path; and her current release—Discover Your Dharma, is the founder of Rose Gold Goddesses and is a highly sought-after speaker (including as the nutrition speaker for Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign at Harvard Medical School). She has been widely covered in national media, including in such publications as Vogue, Forbes and Yoga Journal.
Howard Schubiner, MD, who attained the rank of full Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1999, is an internist and the Director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. A Clinical Professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, he has authored more than 100 publications in scientific journals and books, and lectures regionally, nationally and internationally. Dr. Schubiner has consulted for the American Medical Association, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Mental Health. He is the author of three books: Unlearn Your Pain; Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression; and Hidden From View, written with Dr. Allan Abbass.
He has collaborated extensively with Mark Lumley, a Professor of Psychology at Wayne State in a series of studies to develop psychological treatments for chronic pain, including Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), now listed as a treatment option in the 2019 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-agency Task Force Report.
Fred Luskin, PhD, founded and currently serves as Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, where he teaches classes on Positive Psychology, The Art and Science of Meditation, Forgiveness, Wellness, Flourishing and The Psychology of Storytelling to undergraduate and graduate students. He also conducts numerous workshops and staff development trainings in relationship enhancement, stress management and positive psychology through the Stanford Be Well program. He is also Senior Consultant in Health Promotion/Wellness at the Stanford University Health Center and Department Chair in Clinical Psychology at Sofia University.
He is the author of the best-selling books: Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness and Forgive for Love: The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Happy Relationship.
Vania Apkarian, PhD, a professor of physiology, anesthesiology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University in the Feinberg School of Medicine, has been a pioneer in the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the neurochemistry of the brain and the development of novel analytical approaches to studying consciousness. He has studied pain for two decades, both in animal models and in fMRI studies in humans. His current interests include the cortical dynamics of pain as well as brain plasticity. His overall goal is the uncovering of brain mechanisms underlying “pain qualia” In order to alleviate clinical pain conditions and achieve a more profound theoretical and mechanistic understanding of the brain.
Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium in the Kinsey Institute. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He is co-founder of the not-for-profit Polyvagal Institute. He served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published approximately 400 peer reviewed scientific papers across several disciplines including anesthesiology, biomedical engineering, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, psychometrics, space medicine, and substance abuse. His research has been cited in more than 45,000 peer review publications. He holds several patents involved in monitoring and regulating autonomic state and originated the Polyvagal Theory, which emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental, and health problems related to traumatic experiences. He is the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol ™ , which currently is used by more than 2000 therapists to improve spontaneous social engagement, to reduce hearing sensitivities, and to improve language processing, state regulation, and spontaneous social engagement. He is the author of The Polyvagal Theory, The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory, and Polyvagal Safety, as well as co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies.
David Hanscom, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon whose practice focused on patients with failed back surgeries, quit his practice in Seattle, WA to present his insights into solving chronic pain, which evolved from his own personal battle with it. He is the author of: Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain; and, most recently: Do You Really Need Spine Surgery?—Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice.
David R. Clawson, MD, a practicing physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor in Seattle, WA, believes in a conservative and holistic approach to treatment prior to more aggressive care. He believes that the body can frequently heal with activity modification, noninvasive therapies and modalities, safe and strategic use of medications, good nutrition, exercise, stress management and quality sleep. He is the current Medical Director of the Non-Operative Spine Care Center at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA.
