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Instructors
About the Instructors
Gael Belden began her meditation practice 30 years ago. In 2000 she was lay-ordained by Thich Nhat Nanh. She has studied koans with John Tarrant and is completing the training at UCLA for the Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation.
She has been leading Days of Mindfulness for many years and created an online mindfulness and awareness classroom for distance-learning high school students. She has worked with teens in both a retreat setting as well as educational settings. She has an MA in Mythology and weaves myth, poetry and story into her mindfulness work. She is keenly interested in the intersection of mindfulness and nature - especially water, and through her work, blueMindfulness, she hopes to help others re-imagine a deeper connection to the astonishing beauty of our planet.
Matthew Brensilver, PhD, Instructor
Matthew Brensilver, PhD, holds a master's degree in clinical social work and has done psychotherapy with adolescents, adults and groups. He received a PhD from USC, where his research investigated explanations of psychiatric comorbidity. Matthew is currently a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA's School of Medicine, where he works with a group doing addiction research. Over a period of years, he was trained to teach mindfulness and has shared the practice with thousands of people in groups at USC, UCLA and within the community.
Mitra Manesh is a UCLA certified mindfulness educator with more than 20 years experience in teaching and coaching. For over two decades Mitra has been studying and practicing a range of meditation techniques. She studied in Thailand, Canada, and the US with renowned Buddhis Monk, the Venerable Dr. Vivekananda, graduated from the Sacred Path program at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles, and is a graduate of UCLA's Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation program, as well as a certified Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) Teacher.
Mitra has served as a Commissioner for the Human Rights Commission of Ontario, Canada, a journalist with her own show & weekly program on OMNI TV and CBC in Canada, and a senior executive at numerous profit and non-profit entities. Today, Mitra brings mindfulness into workplaces, provides mindfulness-based personal coaching, teaches mindfulness living/meditation, and runs silent retreats.
Brian Shiers, BA, UCLA Certified Mindfulness Facilitator, has studied embodied mindfulness methods at the Gurdjieff Foundation Los Angeles since 1993, and Tibetan vajrayana Buddhist practices for the last seven years. He has a degree in Kinesiology and has completed a year-long teacher training program at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center under the direction of Diana Winston and Dr. Marvin Belzer.
Brian is passionate about sharing mindfulness practices with people searching for inner balance, bridging the gap between science and experience, spiritual practice and everyday life.
Tempel Smith began practicing intensive Insight and Metta retreats in 1989 under the guidance of Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. He spent a year as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw, and has been teaching since 1997. He is the founder of BASE House, a collective of Buddhist activists and service providers in San Francisco. Tempel has completed the four year teacher-training program run by Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He also leads pilgrimages to Thailand, Burma, and India.
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MARC programs are co-sponsored by the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.
