Cultivating Mindful Awareness - Transforming Depression and Anxiety | Befriending Emotions

Ryushin Paul Haller

Ryushin Paul Haller is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He left home in 1971, lived in London for a year, then traveled throughout Europe, the middle east, Russia, and Afghanistan. He ended up in Japan, where he lived for a year and was introduced to Zen. Paul was ordained by Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1980, who gave him the name Ryushin Zendo, “Dragon Heart, Zen Way.” In 1993 he received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman.

As founder and former Director of Outreach at SFZC, Paul is interested in finding ways of expressing our practice in society, both as compassionate service and making it available to as many people as possible. He became abbot of Zen Center in 2003.

Myogen Steve Stücky

Myogen Steve Stücky has been practicing Zen for 35 years and received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993. He became co-Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in February 2007 and also serves as guiding teacher of Dharma Eye Zen Center in San Rafael (www.dharmaeye.org). Steve also is a co-leader of the San Quentin Buddhadharma Sangha. For many years he supported a family as a self-employed landscape designer/contractor. He has three adult children and one grandchild and currently lives with his spouse, Lane Olson, in Rohnert Park. Over the past several years, Steve has been in training as an Internal Family Systems Therapist and Pastoral Counselor, and was a previous board president of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

Martina Schneider, M.S.

Martina Schneider has been a student of the Dharma since 1996. She has studied and practiced Vipassana meditation in the United States, India and Burma, where she was ordained as a nun. Inspired by the teachings of the Buddha she has combined her spiritual practice with social engagement and has worked extensively with homeless and underrepresented populations, counseled people who are incarcerated and has volunteered with the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. Having been trained as a teacher by Jack Kornfield, she is presently one of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s teachers. Martina is interested in the combination of mindfulness practices and psychotherapy and uses this approach as a private practice Marriage and Family Therapist Intern in San Francisco.

Kansan David Zimmerman

Kansan David Zimmerman has been practicing Zen for 20 years, over half of which have been in residence at San Francisco Zen Center. He was ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi by Rev. Teah Strozer in 2006, and spent eight years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, where he held a number of positions including monastery director and Head Monk (Shuso). David is now Program Director at City Center/SFZC and also serves on the SFZC Diversity and Multiculturalism Committee, is a co-facilitator of Queer Dharma, and supports Dr. Lee Lipp with classes and workshops on "Transforming Depression and Anxiety."

Seguin Sellars Spear

Seguin is a licensed clinical social worker integrating mindfulness practice & psychotherapy. She has helped people with chronic pain conditions & life-threatening illness, chronic and persistent mental illness, substance abuse issues, troubled adolescents, and people impacted by HIV/AIDS. Seguin, a mobile psychiatric crisis team clinician for 4 yrs, worked at the University of California, San Francisco. She began meditating in 1996 living at San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center as a resident practitioner for 6 years. In 2008, Seguin was ordained in the Soto Zen Buddhist lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She supports Dr. Lipp by facilitating Transforming Anxiety & Depression practice classes and offers mindfulness coaching and psychotherapy via Skype at http://seguinspear.com.

Mushim Ikeda-Nash

Mushim Ikeda-Nash is a Buddhist meditation teacher, writer, and social justice community activist. She is one of three women portrayed in the documentary film, Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America, distributed by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. She has done both monastic and lay Zen Buddhist practice over the past twenty years, in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and S. Korea. Mushim teaches meditation retreats for people of color and social justice activists nationally. She is a core teacher at EBMC and member of the EBMC Leadership Sangha.

http://mushim.wordpress.com/

Dr. Ernest Brown

Dr. Ernest Brown who has held leadership roles in many Go organizations, teaches the Asian game of Go at the City Center site of the San Francisco Zen Center. Dr. Brown received a Ph.D. in East/West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He has worked for the past twenty years with youth in San Francisco and presently is the clinical director of Youth Treatment and Education Center. In addition to Zazen his other mindfulness activities include Tai Chi Chuan and Japanese Tea Ceremony. He has served on the boards of the New College of California, the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, the American Go Association, the San Francisco Go Club and the SFZC’s Board of Directors.

Marty L. Cooper M.A., MFT

Marty Cooper is a practitioner of Vipassana meditation under S.N.Goenka since 1994, and student of Zen teacher Adyashanti. He is a licensed psychotherapist (MFT 42185) and has a private practice focusing on treating depression and anxiety from a mindfulness perspective. Marty has taught MBCT classes for the last several years.

Dana Velden

Dana Velden is a Zen Buddhist priest and former resident of the San Francisco Zen Center where she lived and studied for 15 years. Today, she continues to teach at Zen Center, where she offers classes on Zen and Cooking and functions as a practice leader for year-long, non-residential study programs. She is excited to explore how meditation and mindfulness can be helpful for people living in the larger world, with a particular interest in brining mindfulness to the kitchen. You can read her weekly blog, Weekend Meditation, every Sunday on The Kitchn.