Self-Healing Through Mindfulness, Insight, and Loving-Kindness

Instructor(s): Dr. Pilar Jennings, Dr. Joe Loizzo, and Sharon Salzberg

Program Description:

Grounded in the rich soil of mindfulness, this program focuses on how its careful cultivation naturally yields the flower and fruit of contemplative life: the unfolding of profound liberative wisdom and the nurturing embodiment of unconditional love and compassion. If you’d like to revitalize and deepen the roots of your daily practice, join contemplative psychotherapists Joe Loizzo and Pilar Jennings and beloved Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg (Pilar and Sharon will be joining remotely) for this intensive and welcoming residential weekend program.

Take part in a vibrant cross-pollination between the Tibetan and Insight traditions, between Buddhist psychology and contemporary psychotherapy, and between engaged Buddhist ethics and today’s grass-roots movement towards social justice, climate justice and beloved community. Together we will explore the depth and breadth of what living mindfully with the wisdom of selflessness and the spirit of altruism can mean for us individually and collectively, here and now.

Reframing the foundational teachings and methods of the four scopes of mindfulness and the seven modes of loving kindness practice as the basic grounding we need for the everyday work of awakened living, we apply our collective mind-and-heart power to uncovering and sharing the deeper meaning we see for our precious human lives and to unlock the fuller potential our humanity holds for thriving together with one another and all life on planet earth. All are welcome!

This program is co-sponsored by The Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.

Noble Silence:

Noble silence will be observed following each evening session through breakfast the following morning.

Experience Level:

Suitable for beginning and experienced practitioners.

Continuing Education:

Information on Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for Health Professionals

12 CEUs for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA), which is co-sponsoring this program. The Spiritual Competency Academy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Please confirm with your licensing board whether the CEUs offered are applicable for your licensure before arrival.

The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CEUs for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association. LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CEUs by the American Psychological Association. SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN Provider CEP16887) for licensed nurses in California. RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years after the program concludes.

About the Instructor(s):
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  Dr. Pilar Jennings

  Dr. Pilar Jennings is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She has been a Buddhist practitioner for 40 years; a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism in the Sakya lineage; a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; and a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. Her publications have included "East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice," "I've Been Waiting for you: Reflections on Analytic Pain," “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” and Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism released through Wisdom Publications. Her most recent book: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism & Psychotherapy in Action, is a psychoanalytic memoir exploring her entry into clinical work as a practicing Buddhist.

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  Dr. Joe Loizzo

  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.

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  Sharon Salzberg

  Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, where she sits on the guiding teachers’ Founders Council, and she is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her forthcoming release, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom, is set for release in April of 2023 from Flatiron Books. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed six million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond.