MINDFULNESS AND COMPASSION IN NATURE
TEACHERS
Mirjam Luthe
www.walk-in-beauty.org
(MA International Cultural & Business Studies, Development Cooperation & NGO Management) is a practising Certified MSC, Certified MBSR, Yoga Teacher and “Awake in the Wild” Nature Meditation Teacher. She is trained in the Mindful Schools Curriculum, and continuously exploring Council Practice and contemplative dialog as a means to invite equity and build bridges in-midst of diversity, as well as learning with OneEarth Sangha Eco Sattva Training, “White Awake” and “Cultural Healing and Restoring Kinship” course (“My Grandmother’s Hands”). She cooperates with the CMSC since 2016 in the field of international affairs and global engagement within MSC teaching. At UC Irvine Susan Samueli Integrated Health Institute, she cooperates as “Mindfulness Instructor” since 2020. She has taught MSC in Germany, Vietnam and in California, teaches for Arbor Seminare, Benediktushof, AVE Institut (Germany) and is engaged since its foundation in the core team of the European Network for Grateful Living „Dankbar leben“. She has lived in Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, California and other countries; her home base with three children is Freiburg, Germany. Mirjam has most of her work life been engaged in consultancy in development cooperation in many countries. She passionately stands for a socially engaged practice out of a dharma perspective and cherishes the power of dialog and cooperation. A lover of being outdoors, the arts, dance and befriending shakuhachi and handpan. www.walk-in-beauty.org
Helga Luger-Schreiner
www.powerful-heART.at
Helga Luger-Schreiner is a certified mindful self-compassion trainer, metta meditation teacher, an art teacher, art therapist and artist. On behalf of the City school Board of Vienna, she developed the concept of the project “Mindfulness in School and Teacher Training” and leads this project at the ZLB, University of Vienna. She is part of the development team of the master’s program “Mindfulness in Education, Consulting and Healthcare” at the KPH Vienna, and is a lecturer there. She founded and led a free school with focus on mindfulness and creativity. She is a lecturer and course instructor at Arbor Seminare and at the competence center for children and adolescents and many other Institutions. She co-authored the book “Self-Compassion Therapy Tools”. At her own institute www.powerful-heART.at she offers workshops and retreats based on the inspiring combination of artistic processes with mindfulness and self-compassion training.
Tobias Luthe
www.tobiasluthe.de
PhD, is co-founding Director of the MonViso Institute. He is specifically interested in the “overlays” and boundaries between systems. In nature, diversity is greatest where systems meet – similarly, he likes to explore the innovation potential between science disciplines, design, engineering, practice– because complex (sustainability) challenges require timely and evolving “neuronal” approaches, with regenerative design. Tobias is a mountaineering guide and adventurer, loves photography and co-founded Grown, an outdoor creativity lab designing eco skis and offering design thinking mountaineering trips. He is professor for systemic regenerative design at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Norway), visiting professor at Politecnico Torino (IT), senior research scientist and lecturer at the Institute for Spatial Development and Landscape Planning at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (Switzerland), and visiting professor at the University of Freiburg (D). Personal website: www.tobiasluthe.de
Justyna Swat
Linkedin
Justyna was born in Poland but has lived in France since 2007. She’s an architect and systems oriented designer, having studied architecture at the Lodz University of Technology.
She lectures at the French National School of Industrial Design in Paris – Ensci les Ateliers and she is a visiting lecturer at the department of “Design of Products and Futures” at Royal College of Art in London. In 2013, she began her independent practice at studio 1983F where her role goes beyond that of the traditional designer-architect: her projects are based on the methodologies of systemic and behavioural design, where project outcomes can vary from the design of an international community to a physical product, ultimately focusing on impactful solutions. Since 2013, she’s also been collaborating with Open Systems Lab on the WikiHouse project. She is an alumni and strategic adviser to the organization Ouishare, a pioneer in the field of collaborative economy. In 2015, she co-founded the POC21 project which proposed a bottom-up alternative to COP21 activities. The project was supported by the French Ministry of Environment and Ecology and is to this day known as one of the best design examples of participatory and grassroots public policy. In recent years she has collaborated with the French Space Agency CNES on the design of a community and ecosystem of space hackers and citizen scientists called the “Federation-Open Space Makers”. The aim of this project was enabling collaboration between amateur hacker projects and industry in the area of space exploration and development.
Haley Fitzpatrick
https://monviso-institute.org/about/people-team/
Raised on a rural farm in Ohio (USA), Haley’s respect and curiosity for the natural world has been lifelong. An architect by training and designer at heart, she is intrigued by the intersections of regenerative cultures, landscapes, and systems-thinking to nurture our relationships with nature. Currently she is exploring these threads as a PhD Candidate at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), using the practice of Systems-Oriented Design to investigate the regenerative potentials of mountain communities through better understanding the complex socio-ecological systems that shape alpine landscapes. At MVI, Haley further channels this energy by actively engaging in research and education, especially in mobilizing the co-production of alpine knowledge across diverse communities, from the Regenerative Design Talks to the newly initiated regional network of local change-makers Here and Now. Outside the “office,” you can find Haley enjoying the mountains’ both peaceful solace and playful energy through outdoor sport, thinking-by-drawing, and learning about the great variety of species that also thrive in alpine homes.
External virtual contribution for course 1
Christiane Wolf
https://www.christianewolf.com/
Christiane is a physician turned mindfulness and compassion teacher and teacher trainer. She is an authorized Buddhist teacher in the Insight (Vipassana) meditation tradition, teaching classes and retreats worldwide. She is the co-author of “A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness” and author of the upcoming “Outsmart Your Pain – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind”.
Cassondra Graff (M.S., LCSW)
is a Certified Senior teacher of MSC and MBSR. She taught at the University of California at San Diego Center for Mindfulness and was the Director of the Speakers Bureau and teaches MBSR for a long-range National Institutes of Health (NIH) research study evaluating the potential benefits of mindfulness in the senior aging process. Cassondra works closely with the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, CMSC. With over 22 years of experience as a mental health practitioner, Cassondra had a private practice as a licensed psychotherapist and also mentored therapists for the California state licensing exam. Her work transformed over the years, becoming mindfulness and compassion based. “I cannot, not do this work. It is tied to the way I live, truths I cannot deny. It is a joy to witness us humans discover our own strengths and capacities, and in this, become more alive and thrive. MSC offers skills and wisdom needed to effect real growth, real freedom.” She offers Mindfulness and Compassion Training in the USA and worldwide, is currently based in Arizona, USA, but she also is aware of her Greek heritage.
External virtual contribution for course 2
Mark Coleman (TBC)
info@markcoleman.org
www.markcoleman.org
is an inner and outer explorer, who has devotedly studied mindfulness meditation practices for three decades. He is passionate about sharing the power of meditation and has taught mindfulness workshops and meditation retreats in six continents for the past twenty years. Mark is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught there since 2000. Mark holds a MA in Clinical Psychology and draws on his extensive experience in working with people as a therapist and coach. Through the Mindfulness Training Institute Mark leads Professional Mindfulness Teacher Trainings in the US and UK annually. Mark likes to share the fruits of meditation to wider audiences and founded The Mindfulness Institute, where he has brought mindfulness training programs to companies and the non-profit sector across North America and Europe. Mark is a trainer for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, developed at Google and teaches on their teacher trainings. Mark is an unabashed nature lover and, through his organization Awake in the Wild, he shares his passion for integrating meditation and nature. He leads wilderness meditation retreats from Alaska to Peru, taking people on inner and outdoor adventures. Through Awake in the Wild, Mark also leads year-long meditation-in-nature teacher trainings in the US. Mark is the author of From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness, Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic and Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. Mark lives in Marin County, California and enjoys spending his free time hiking, biking and kayaking.
Mark Coleman, Author, From Suffering to Peace
Susan Eirich, PhD, Earth Fire Institute, Idaho
https://earthfireinstitute.org/our-team/
Known as a pioneering conservationist, spiritual ecologist and practical visionary, Susan B. Eirich, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, biologist, educator, writer and sought-after speaker. Twenty years ago she founded the Earthfire Institute, a unique wildlife sanctuary and retreat center located on forty acres just west of Grand Teton National Park. Earthfire was named after a passionate earth-mother wolf with a fire in her belly to protect anything vulnerable. Ever since she can remember, Susan had an instinctive understanding of the value of all living beings and how important it is to treat them with respect, for our sake as well as theirs. She founded Earthfire Institute with a mission to change how we humans see and therefore treat wildlife and nature, by helping us make an emotional, heart-opening connection with the rescued wild animals of Earthfire. Connecting deeply with individual animals serves as a portal into the wonder and magic of all living beings.
Susan has taught at universities around the world; worked as a psychologist in maximum security prisons; developed a university counseling center; directed a Nature Conservancy Preserve; and spent time with peoples in remote corners of Nepal, the Northwest Territories, and the Amazon rainforest, always seeking to see through other’s eyes. Then she founded Earthfire as a way to explore seeing through non-human eyes. She knew that loving wild animals deeply shifts our perceptions and helps us feel the power and companionship of a more-than-human-centered perspective.
Michaela Emch, Eclosions and Biomimicry Switzerland (tbc)
Linkedin
Communication specialist and biomimicry practitioner. Bioinfused strategy, branding, marketing, project management and corporate culture mediation. Founder of Eclosions: Communicating, (re)connecting, inspiring, transforming and training (biomimetic and holistic approach to communication and business processes) for organizations wishing to achieve their highest future potential. http://eclosions.ch/?page_id=187&lang=en
Author of the book “From Nature’s mouth: The Handbook for Bioinfused Human Communication”.
Philip-Alexander Svobodnik
svobodnik@gmx.at
Mindfulness Tours, Systemic Experiential Pedagogue, Trekking guideAs a leader of mindfulness journeys, Philip considers himself as a companion of people on their inner and outer journey of discovery. Through self-awareness in nature, he want to inspire people to live a conscious, healthy and fulfilled life.