I am an acupuncturist and meditation teacher living in New York City. I started meditating in the 1960s under the deluded belief that by just concentrating on my breath I could somehow avoid dealing with the emotional turmoil of my teenage years. This is a common reason why many begin practice, and is known as "Spiritual Bypass" - a term coined by John Wellwood . Fortunately, over time, I encountered more skillful approaches to practice, and attended my first retreat in 1988. Since then, I have been dedicated to the practice and study of meditation, mindfulness, and Dharma.

I became interested in MBSR in 2004 after over a decade of practicing acupuncture and 16 years of dedicated meditation retreat and daily practice.  The path to teaching became a powerful way to share the benefits of practice I had personally experienced with my clients and others.  Since starting to teach in 2005, I have taught over 100 cycles of the MBSR program. In 2009 I co-founded the NYC MBSR Teacher Collaborative. I am also trained to teach the Interpersonal Mindfulness Program which was developed for MBSR graduates.

I was certified as an MBSR teacher by the UMass Center for Mindfulness in 2012. In 2018 I was authorized as an MBSR teacher trainer by both the Center for Mindfulness at the UMass Medical School and the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. I am happy to be a part of the Mindfulness Teacher Training Alliance as well as the Global Mindfulness Collaborative. It brings me great joy to be part of communities of dedicated practitioners and teacher trainers, and to offer training and support to aspiring and developing MBSR teachers.

I am also member of the Teachers Council at New York Insight Meditation Center. I have been involved in NYIMC’s DEI efforts for over a decade, serving on the Diversity Committee, as well as helping to develop, adapt and co-teach courses on awakening awareness of our racial conditioning - especially for those conditioned as white.

Over the decades I have learned that the power of mindfulness is that happiness and insight arise from turning towards rather than away from life experiences. It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that I have a deep interest in and commitment to helping students integrate mindfulness practice into daily life and to mentoring aspiring MBSR teachers.