The Meditation Experts Interview Series
Explore the Benefits of Meditation and Tips from the Experts with Vivek Rajan
Dr. Ronald Siegel
Chad Foreman
Cara Bradley
Dr. Elisha Goldstein
Paula Tursi
Dr. Christopher Willard
Susan Piver
Dr. Rick Hanson
Sharon Smith
Vivek Rajan
Dr. Ronald Siegel
Dr. Ronald D. Siegel (PsyD) is Assistant Professor of Psychology, part time at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught for over 30 years. He is a long-time student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the board of directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.
Dr. Siegel teaches internationally about mindfulness and psychotherapy and mind–body treatment, has worked for many years in community mental health with inner-city children and families, and maintains a private practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He is the coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain, which integrates Western and Eastern approaches for treating chronic back pain, coeditor of the acclaimed books for professionals, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, and coauthor of the new professional text, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy.
Dr. Siegel lives with his wife in Lincoln. He regularly uses the practices in this book to work with his own busy, unruly mind.
Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman has been teaching meditation classes since 2004, and has maintained his own daily meditation for over fifteen years. Chad is an ex professional tennis player and tennis coach and due to his interest in the power of the mind became involved in Buddhist meditation. He trained full-time for six years studying and practising Tibetan Buddhism in a retreat hut in a monastery in the jungles of Queensland and was eventually ordained as a Buddhist monk in 2003.
Chad created The Way of Meditation website to offer the highest quality of meditation training and resources derived from the most powerful meditation techniques of Buddhism.
Cara Bradley
Cara Bradley, a best-selling author of On The Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine, is a former pro skater and the founder of Verge Body-Mind Center in Philadelphia.
As a speaker and body-mind expert, Cara teaches executives and athletes how to live in flow using strategies integrating movement, breath, and mindfulness training to optimize wellbeing and performance.
Dr. Christopher Willard
Dr. Christopher Willard (PsyD) is a psychologist and educational consultant based in Boston specializing in mindfulness. He has been practicing meditation for 20 years, and has led hundreds of workshops around the world, with invitations to more than two dozen countries. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and is the president of the Mindfulness in Education Network. He has presented at TEDx conferences and his thoughts have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, mindful.org, and elsewhere. He is the author of Child’s Mind (2010) Growing Up Mindful (2016) Raising Resilience (2017) and eight other books for parents, professionals and children, along with six sets of cards and therapeutic games, available in more than ten languages. He teaches at Harvard Medical School.
On the personal side, he enjoys traveling, hiking, cooking, reading and writing, and being a father.
Dr. Elisha Goldstein
Elisha Goldstein, PhD is founder of the mindful living collecting and co-founder of The Center for Mindful Living in West Los Angeles and creator of the 6-month coaching and mentorship program, A Course in Mindful Living. A psychologist, and international speaker and mindfulness educator, his books include Uncovering Happiness and The Now Effect. He’s also co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook and MBSR Everyday. Elisha synthesizes the pearls of traditional psychotherapy with a progressive integration of mindfulness theory and practice to help his clients and students thrive. In an increasingly fragmented society, he is working to bring people together so they may motivate and inspire one another in far-reaching ways.
Paula Tursi
Paula Tursi is a partner, mother, counselor, teacher and public speaker. Founder of Reflections Center for Conscious Living & Yoga and the internationally renowned Reflections Yoga Teacher Training Program, Paula developed Reflections as a way to integrate what inspired her about various practices with her own personal truth.
Paula has been traveling and teaching internationally for over twenty years, and began her training at Integral Yoga, where she studied Hatha and Restorative Yoga. Her studies continued with esteemed teachers Rodney Yee and Angela Farmer, as well as Leslie Kaminoff and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen who guided her learnings in the art of yoga, breath work, anatomy, and movement awareness practices.
Paula offers yoga, meditation and counseling as a way to facilitate structure, guidance and a more conscious lifestyle. Her classes are a candid blend of artful alignment and attention cues targeted to your body, mind and heart.
Paula Tursi, MS, ERYT and is certified at the 500-hour level with the Yoga Alliance. She has been named one of Well + Good’s Top 5 Meditation Teachers, and she is a contributing author on the book Happy Gut with Dr. Vincent Pedre
Susan Piver
Susan Piver is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including the award-winning How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, and Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation. Piver has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995 and graduated from a Buddhist seminary in 2004. She is an internationally acclaimed meditation teacher, known for her ability to translate ancient practices into modern life. Her work has been featured on the Oprah show, TODAY, CNN, and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MONEY, and others. In 2011, Piver launched the Open Heart Project, the largest virtual mindfulness community in the world.
Dr. Rick Hanson
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books are available in 28 languages and include Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture.
A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA and founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he’s been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and other major universities, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. In 2016 he gave a keynote address at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
His work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, Radio New Zealand and other major media. His free offerings include the Just One Thing newsletter (over 120,000 subscribers), Buddha’s Brain Facebook (over 650,000 likes), and Being Well podcast. His online Foundations of Well-Being program helps people use positive neuroplasticity to grow key inner strengths like resilience, self-worth, and compassion, and anyone with financial need can do it for free.
Dr. Hanson has spent decades helping people turn everyday experiences into lasting happiness, love, and inner peace, hardwired into the brain. He enjoys wilderness, taking a break from emails, and time with his wife and two adult children.
Sharon Smith
Sharon Smith has been practicing Qigong, Tai Chi, & other Taoist spiritual and healing arts for 40 years & teaching them for 35. Her influential teachers include Masters Mantak Chia (she was in his original class of western students in 1981), Li Junfeng, Ming Chan, and T.K. Shih. Other important teachers include Jeanette Chi, Gilles Marin, Don Ahn, Carol Anthony, and Livia Kohn as well as many other Tao masters. In 2011, she attended the Wudang Martial Arts Internal Kung Fu Academy in China.
Sharon is certified by Master Mantak Chia’s Universal Tao system as a Senior Instructor and Chi Nei Tsang Practitioner. She is also certified by the International Sheng Zhen Society to teach Sheng Zhen Gong, the work of Master Li Junfeng.
Vivek Rajan
Vivek Rajan is a software engineer in the Boston area, and he is also a certified meditation instructor for the international non-profit, the Art of Living Foundation. He has been teaching meditation since 2009. Various universities and civic institutions, such as Rice University, MIT, Northeastern University, the Framingham District Court, and the Morse Public Library, have invited him to teach meditation courses and workshops.
Meditation and yoga transformed his life, and he is excited to be sharing its secrets with others. He now has taught hundreds of adults and students. His favorite part of teaching meditation is seeing other people like himself learn how to deal with their anxiety and stress at a life-changing level.