Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of Dusk Night Dawn: On Revival and Courage, published in March. She is the author of 18 more books of essays, novels including Rosie and Imperfect Birds, and long-form non-fiction including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and childrearing memoir Operating Instructions. She is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame.
Neal Allen is a coach and writer who studies and practices traditional and contemporary spiritual traditions. His private coaching practice blends standard psychodynamics with Diamond Approach and Eastern spirituality methods. Earlier careers included newspaper journalism and corporate marketing for large public companies. He lives in Northern California with his wife, the author Anne Lamott.
Tara Brach is the founder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. She is the author of several books—international bestselling Radical Acceptance, True Refuge, Radical Compassion and Trusting the Gold—and her popular weekly podcast is downloaded over 3 million times a month. Along with Jack Kornfield, Tara leads the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP), serving participants from around the world. Tara’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world.
Lara Riggio is an Energy Intuitive. Her videos, classes and sessions have helped tens of thousands discover and heal the mind/body, ancestral and past life blocks which sabotage health and happiness. She is based in New York City, and works out of her Central Park Energy Center in Columbus Circle.
Robert Peng, founder of Elixir Light Qigong, began his qigong apprenticeship with the legendary monk Xiao Yao when he was a boy. He teaches internationally and is the author of The Master Key: Qigong Secrets for Vitality, Love and Wisdom, and producer of The Master Key companion CD and DVD series.
Richard Schwartz, PhD, began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief and in asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called “parts.” These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationship that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence and compassion. He called that inner essence the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s.
IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families and more recently, corporations and classrooms.
In 2013 Schwartz left the Chicago area and now lives in Brookline, MA where he is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Daniel Orlansky, MA, E-RYT 500, is the Director of Boston University’s Yoga Teacher Training and a member of The Association of Vision Educators. A yoga teacher since 1992, he is certified in Jnana Yoga, Kali Ray TriYoga and Kundalini Yoga and is the creator of Meridian Yoga, a yoga style which combines shiatsu, yoga asana and the meridian system for a practice that opens the body as it strengthens. He holds a masters degree in Expressive Art Therapy/Dance Therapy from Lesley University and has been a visiting lecturer in movement studies at Tufts University. He is also a graduate of the Boston Shiatsu School. Daniel teaches regularly at the Kripalu Center, the Omega Institute, and in centers across Europe and he also directs yoga teacher trainings worldwide.
Dr. Marc Grossman, O.D., LA.c, is an influential pioneer, leader and practitioner in integrative eye care. Founder of naturaleyecare.com, the largest consumer eye care resource of its kind, and a respected author of 5 books, he most recently co-authored the acclaimed Natural Eye Care, Your Guide To Healthy Eyes and Healing. In practice since 1980, his comprehensive background includes degrees in Optometry, Biology, Physical Education and Learning Disabilities, coupled with yoga, nutrition, Chinese medicine and acupuncture. This orientation provides the foundation for an integrated approach to vision and its influence on the body, mind and spirit of each patient. He is dedicated to helping those with a wide range of conditions from myopia and dry eyes to potentially vision threatening diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma. He also teaches workshops for health care professionals and physicians and is a frequent guest on local and national media. Medical Director of www.naturaleyecare.com
Carolina Rubio-MacWright is guided by a simple principle: anything is possible when inspiring ideas and passionate people come together. She has been developing workshops that mix legal rights empowerment and hands-on experimental arts mediums, such as clay and cooking. These workshops have now developed into a platform for mixing unlikely communities together, the name is Touching Land. Through this artistic practice, the participants share a storytelling platform, bringing our humanity to the forefront as common traits and experiences are highlighted. This, in turn, enables participants to re-sculpt their political, social and cultural barriers.
