In this episode we chatted with Alfie Wishart about addiction recovery, compassion, shame, and the role of spirituality in healing. He shares about his personal recovery journey and also discusses how he works with therapy clients. He explains codependency and how he helps people heal from narcissistic relationships. Listen in for his perspective on the connections between shame and addiction, and his thoughts on learning to distinguish between the ‘true self’ and ‘false self. Alfie is a therapist in private practice in Dallas, Texas, a long-time meditator, a licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. He is also a Trained Teacher in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self-compassion, and a member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.
In this episode, we speak with Rochelle Jaffe about working with self-criticism, emotional and physical pain, overwhelm, and anger. Rochelle Jaffe, M.S. is a mindfulness and self-compassion practitioner and psychotherapist in Ashland, Oregon. She works with individuals and groups online and in person.
In this episode we talk to Marc Lesser about how mindfulness and emotional intelligence can be integrated into our work lives- including the ‘work’ of being a human, a parent, a spouse, or other meaningful roles we inhabit. He shares essential elements of mindful leadership and discusses how he has brought this insight into corporate settings. Marc Lesser is an author, speaker, workshop leader, executive coach, and Zen teacher. He is the CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company. He helped develop the 'Search Inside Yourself' program within Google, which trains leaders on how to integrate mindfulness, emotional intelligence + business savvy. Marc founded and was CEO of 3 companies and has an MBA from New York University. He was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years, and director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the Western world. Marc’s books includeSeven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen,Know Yourself, Forget Yourself,Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less,andZ.B.A. Zen of Business Administration.
In this episode, we talk to Jon Walker about similarities and differences between relaxation and mindfulness as well as how expectations can interfere with mindfulness practice. He also describes practices that can improve our coping in a practical way in daily life, and reflects on some of the challenges of a driven and productivity-focused life. Jon Walker is a retired physician and professor of medicine and is now a teacher of mindfulness and self-compassion. He completed the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield through the Center for Greater Good at University of California, Berkeley. He has also been trained in Mind Body Medicine for physicians, Mindfulness Facilitation, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, & Mindfulness-Based Chronic Pain Management.
In this episode, David Teitelman discusses how mindfulness and self-compassion have helped him navigate chronic health conditions, body image issues, and old emotional wounds. David studied classical dance, rose in the corporate world, and cultivated self-criticism as a way of life. After being diagnosed with a progressive neuromuscular condition and finding his old approach unsustainable, he discovered that mindfulness and self-compassion provided a radical new way of looking at the world. David now shares these teachings with others as an authorized Mindful Self-Compassion teacher, a facilitator for Center for Mindful Self-Compassion’s Circles of Practice, and as theresident mindfulness teacher at Temple Micah in Denver, Colorado.
In this episode, Kristy Arbon discusses her experiences with self-compassion and her work developing somatic self-compassion to integrate body awareness more fully into these practices. Listen in for Kristy's insights on the connections between Buddhism and self-compassion and how to reconnect with your internal experience and build stress resilience. Kristy Arbon is Founder and CEO of HeartWorks, a training platform designed to teach the skills of trauma-informed mindfulness and self-compassion. Kristy worked with Chris Germer and Kristin Neff to start the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, and she is the creator of somatic self-compassion.
In this episode, we speak to Mirjam Luthe about the importance of gratitude, appreciation, deep listening, and connecting to the natural world. She shares about rituals and strategies she has used with her children to develop skills of listening, compassion, and appreciation at home. We also explore the historical roots of trauma, cultural healing, and the deliberate choices she has made to help herself and her family cope during the pandemic. Mirjam Luthe has a masters degree in International Cultural & Business Studies and spent most of her career engaged in consulting before beginning to teach mindfulness-based interventions in 2008. She is a Certified mindful self-compassion, mindfulness based stress reduction, and yoga teacher as well as an “Awake in the Wild” Nature Meditation Teacher. She is also trained in the Mindful Schools Curriculum, and continuously explores Council Practice and contemplative dialog. Mirjam has taught Mindful Self-Compassion in Germany, Italy, Vietnam and the United States. Since its founding in 2012, she is on the core team of the European Network for Grateful Living founded by Brother David Steindl-Rast. She currently lives with her three teenage children in Freiburg, Germany.
We are hard-wired for survival, not necessarily happiness. So, what can we do to strengthen our capacity for happiness? And how can we apply the principles of self-compassion as we work through challenging times? In this episode of Noble Mind, Victoria Brattini shares about her work teaching mindfulness and self-compassion. She shares how she has learned to live these principles during challenging times in her own life. She describes how to work with the worrying brain using these tools to offer kindness and create space between yourself and your worries. Victoria also discusses how she teaches the science of self-compassion to help students better understand and get inspired to give the practice a try. Listen in to learn three universal triggers of compassion that can help create inner calm in tough moments. Learn more about Noble Mind at www.noblemindpodcast.com.
In this episode of Noble Mind, hosts Alex and Kate explain where our internalized messages of self-criticism come from, exploring how it can show up up as a running negative commentary in our heads or a general feeling of demoralization. They discuss why it’s useful to identify our patterns of self-criticism, describing how the inner critic can either push us to be perfect and hyper-productive or undermine our willingness to try new things. Listen in for insight on using parts work and mindful self-compassion to acknowledge the negative emotions of self-criticism, engage in the higher thinking necessary to soothe yourself, and choose a path forward.
In this episode, Dr. Daniel Ellenberg explains how the gender roles we internalize from an early age can cause difficulty in our personal lives and even impact the world at large. He describes the “man box” and how it often ignores the complexity of individual men and diverse masculinities. He also describes his work helping men and couples develop comfort with vulnerability to cultivate more intimacy and connection. Daniel Ellenberg is an executive and leadership coach, organizational trainer, group facilitator, consultant, advisor, therapist, and researcher. He is president of Relationships that Work and directs Strength with Heart men’s groups, training, and seminars. He’s the immediate past president of the American Psychological Association’s division on men and masculinities. Daniel holds a Bachelors in psychology from Boston University and a Doctorate in counseling psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies.