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Compassion and Presence - Meditation and Health 1-3 October, 2011 |
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Speakers Biographies 1. Buddhist teachers
Sogyal Rinpoche
Tibetan Buddhist master, founder of Rigpa and author of the celebrated
With his remarkable gift for presenting the essence of Tibetan Buddhism in a way that is both authentic and profoundly relevant to the modern mind, Sogyal Rinpoche is one of the most renowned Buddhist teachers of our time. Born in Tibet, Rinpoche was raised by one of the most outstanding spiritual masters of the twentieth century, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, and went on to study with many other great masters. In 1971, Rinpoche went to England where he received a Western education, studying Comparative Religion at Cambridge University Author of the highly acclaimed ground-breaking book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which has been printed in 30 languages and 56 countries, Rinpoche is also the founder and spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist centres and groups. He has been teaching for over 30 years and travels widely in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. He is a frequent speaker at major conferences in all areas of society—including medicine and healing, interfaith dialogue and the field of serving the dying.
Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche
Tibetan Buddhist master, President of Mindrolling International and founder of the Lotus Garden Retreat Center.
Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche is the eldest daughter of Kyabje Mindrolling Trichen, the Supreme throne holder of the Mindrolling lineage, one of the six main Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddism. Rinpoche was also recognized as the incarnation of the great Khandro Ugyen Tsomo of Tsurphu by His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa. In this way she holds both the Nyingma and the Kagyu Lineages. Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche maintains a rigorous schedule, teaching from both the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions in the USA and other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Greece. She has established and heads the Samten Tse Retreat Center in Mussoorie, India, which is home to thirty nuns and also provides a place of study and retreat for western monastics and lay practitioners. Rinpoche has established her North American seat at Lotus Garden in rural Virginia, USA, which offers retreat practice and the study of crucial Buddhist texts, and hosts visiting teachers from all lineages. Rinpoche is also actively involved with the administration of Mindrolling Monastery in Dehra Dun, India. Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche also heads a variety of charitable projects, including support for leprosy patients, home and healthcare for the elderly, construction of hospitals and schools and sponsoring students and monastics.
2. Scientists
Jon Kabat Zinn Ph.D
Founding Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D, is a scientist, writer and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He gives public talks and workshops throughout the world in mindfulness and its applications for moving toward greater sanity and balance in today’s multitasking, high-speed world. He is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was founding executive director of the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, and founder and former director of its world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic. He is the author of numerous books for the public: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, translated into seven languages; Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, translated into 30 languages; Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness; and co-author, with his wife Myla, of Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting. His work has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness in major fields and institutions in our society such as the law, professional sports, medicine, health care and hospitals, schools, corporations and prisons. Site of the University of Massachusetts Medical School: Site of the Stress Reduction Clinic:
Clifford Saron, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis and Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the Shamatha Project
Clifford Saron, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain and the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California at Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999 studying the electrophysiology of interhemispheric visuomotor integration under the direction of Herbert Vaughan, Jr. Dr. Saron has had a long-standing interest in the brain and behavioral effects of meditation practice. He has served as a faculty member at the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute and is currently a member of the Program and Research Council of the Mind and Life Institute. In the early 1990's he was centrally involved in a field research project investigating Tibetan Buddhist mind training in collaboration with Jose Cabezón, Richard Davidson, Francisco Varela, Alan Wallace and others under the auspices of the Private Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life Institute. Currently, in collaboration with Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace and a consortium of over 30 scientists and researchers at the University of California Davis and elsewhere, he is Principal Investigator of The Shamatha Project, a unique longitudinal study of intensive meditation training based on the practice of meditative quiescence (shamatha) and cultivation of the four immeasurables (loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity). The project, focused on changes in attention-related skills and emotion regulation, is the most comprehensive multimethod study to date regarding the potential effects of long-term intensive meditation practice on basic mental and physical processes related to cognition, emotion, health physiology, and motivation. His other primary research interest focuses on investigating brain and behavioral correlates of sensory processing and multisensory integration in children on the autistic spectrum.
Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D. Researcher at the University of California, Davis, Senior Investigator on the Shamatha Project and meditation instructor.
Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D. is an emotions researcher, health psychologist, and educator about emotional life. Her scientific research on emotion has examined how our feelings are revealed in our facial expressions, how social factors influence emotional signals, and how anger affects cardiovascular health. Currently, Dr. Rosenberg is a researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, and a senior investigator on the Shamatha Project, a multi-disciplinary study of how intensive meditation affects cognition, emotion, and neurophysiology. Erika Rosenberg has been practicing meditation for over 20 years. She serves on the faculty of the Nyingma Institute of Tibetan Studies in Berkeley, where she teaches meditation courses and holds workshops in the development of mindfulness and compassion and in working with emotions in daily life.
Sara W. Lazar Ph.D. Neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, investigating neurological changes associated with the practice of meditation and yoga.
Sara W. Lazar, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying yoga and meditation, both in clinical settings and in healthy individuals, with emphasis on promoting and preserving their health and well-being. One main focus of her work is determining how yoga and meditation influence brain structure, and how these changes influence behavior. She has been practising yoga and mindfulness meditation since 1994, and is a Board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/
3. Physicians and therapists
Dr. Frédéric Rosenfeld Physician and Psychiatrist at the Lyon Lumière Clinic and author of Méditer c’est se soigner
Dr. Frédéric Rosenfeld is a physician and psychiatrist at the Lyon Lumière Clinic. He holds degrees in neuroscience and in behavioral and cognitive therapy, and combines his research with clinical experience in treating patients. This experience includes applications of meditation in a medical setting, and Dr. Rosenfeld has played a major role in disseminating these applications in France, in particular with the publication of his book Méditer c’est se soigner. He has practised vipassana, Zen and Taï Chi for a number of years.
Dr Cathy Blanc Cathy Blanc is a practising doctor, founder of the Tonglen Association and French National Coordinator of Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Programme. Cathy Blanc is a practising doctor, homeopath and acupuncturist. In 1994, she founded the Tonglen Association which translates universal human and spiritual values into secular care for those who are terminally ill or are experiencing difficulties. Besides its work with individuals, the Tonglen Association also collaborates closely with several hospital units in France to develop such values as compassion, presence and deep listening within trainings for health care professionals. In addition to serving as president of the Tonglen Association, Cathy Blanc is a Senior Instructor, French National Coordinator and International Training Manager in Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Programme, and gives many talks in this capacity. She is also invited by other organisations to lead seminars on care, as well as trainings in crisis management. She gives workshops, conferences and professional seminars for health care professionals and social workers in Europe on a regular basis. Cathy Blanc has been practising meditation in the Christian tradition since the late seventies and Tibetan Buddhist meditation since 1989. site in French only :
Dr Edel Maex Psychiatrist at the ZNA St. Elisabeth Hospital of Anvers who has pioneered mindfulness training in Belgium. Edel Maex is a psychiatrist at the ZNA St. Elisabeth Hospital of Anvers, a long-time practitioner of Zen and a student of Frank De Waele Sensei, in the White Plum Tradition. He has become well-known as a pioneer in mindfulness training in a medical setting and is the author of a stress reduction manual published in Dutch (Relieving Stress through Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Training Programme) which has been translated into French and German. Edel Maex is currently Secretary General of the Budhist Union of Belgium.
Lucio BizziniDoctor of Psychology, psychotherapist and founding member of the Swiss Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy Lucio Bizzini is Doctor of Psychology, psychotherapist and founding member of the Swiss Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy. He practices in the Department of Psychiatry of the University Hospitals of Geneva where he works in the Depression Treatment Programme. He has been treating patients suffering from depression for twenty years and belongs to the first generation of MBCT teachers trained by the pioneers of this approach. Doctor Bizzini has been organising MBCT groups since 2000 for patients suffering from depression. He offers numerous courses, workshops and retreats in collaboration with the originators of this approach (Zindel Segal et Mark Williams), and with colleagues (Guido Bondolfi, Pierre Philippot, Fabrizio Didonna) in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Italy. He is an honorary member of the Association for the Development of Mindfulness. French-language site for Mindfulness in Psychotherapy:
Ursula BatesUrsula Bates, M.A., is a Clinical Psychologist and Group Analyst with a dedicated interest in the field of psycho-oncology and staff development. Ursula Bates is currently the Director of Psychosocial and Bereavement Services at Blackrock Hospice in Ireland, and gives a clinical service to the pallative care patients at St. Vincent's University Hospital Dublin. In 2003, she introduced mindfulness-based approaches for oncology and palliative patients and bereaved carers in a publicly funded health service in Ireland, at St. Vincent's and Blackrock Hospice.
Rosamund OliverRosamund Oliver is a registered psychotherapist and has worked as a superviser and trainer. Rosamund Oliver holds a Diploma in Psychotherapy, a European Certificate of Psychotherapy and worked for many years as a UKCP registered psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. Her public healthcare work includes psychiatry with the elderly bereaved, nurse education at St Joseph’s Hospice, London and leading on a prison meditation project. She gives professional trainings for people working in the caring professions in Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries. She has been a student of Sogyal Rinpoche since 1981, is a senior instructor in Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Programme and has regularly been invited to give trainings, talks and workshops in this capacity.
Laurence BibasConsultant and coach in stress reduction
Laurence Bibas trained in MBSR and MBCT in Switzerland and the United States and has been teaching these disciplines in Paris since 2008. She is General Secretary of the Association for the Development of Mindfulness which was created in 2009. The association promotes programmes centred on mindfulness in French-speaking Europe (France, Belgium and Switzerland), offers trainings for professionals and organizes conferences and meditation retreats. Laurence Bibas has been practising meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition since 1995. Site of the Association for the Development of Mindfulness: Laurence Bibas' site: |
