Inward Bound Mindfulness Education

“The work that this organization does is definitely cutting edge and a most successful program. The adolescents that we have sent to the retreats and workshops have ALL had transformations and have been able to take on self-healing and have had tremendous changes in self-esteem and confidence.” — Candace Coffin, Director of Specialty Services, Mount Rogers Community Services Board
"Heartfelt gratitude to you for a wonderful workshop!! Folks really enjoyed and got much out of the morning with you." — Candace Coffin / Director of Specialty Services, Mount Rogers Community Services Board
“What a great endeavor! Our research demonstrates that mindfulness based programs can change brain structure and function, so a program like iBme can make a true, long-lasting impact on these students.” — Sara Lazar, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
“Mindfulness has great power to reduce stress and promote a deep sense of wellness. For adolescents today, this is an urgent need. Supporting their inner work through thoughtful and effective mindfulness programs, as they are doing at iBme, can have far-reaching consequences for the good of adolescents at this stage of their development and beyond.” — Trish Broderick, PhD, Penn State Prevention Research Center
“As a psychiatrist I have had the opportunity to see the huge benefit that a basic introduction to mindfulness practices can bring to people suffering from a wide variety of mood and anxiety disorders. What a wonderful plan iBme has to bring education in mindfulness to youths, who so often struggle to manage and tolerate their intense emotions.” — Jennifer Pasternack, MD, PhD, Erie, PA
“As a psychology professor who teaches inner-city college students, I have lost count of the number of students who told me after my lecture on mindfulness and meditation, that they wished they knew how to do that. The iBme program has incredible potential to give students the boost they need to handle some of the challenges they face.” — Orin Davis, Quality of Life Laboratory, New York
“I am excited about this growing movement and pledge 100% support to this organization, its mission and team. I have been working with youth and individuals dealing with PTSD – utilizing meditation and yoga to open pathways to awareness and mindfulness. It works. It is working, and it needs to keep working.” — Niyati Shah, Tranquil Space, Washington, DC
“I have been teaching mindfulness techniques for almost 38 years, in the US and around the world. I recognize this (iBme) as an exciting program, with integrity, compassion and intelligence.” — Sharon Salzberg, Insight Meditation Society (Barre, Ma)
“As Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA MARC and as a long-time teacher of mindfulness for youth, on behalf of MARC I wholly endorse iBme’s work. They are on the forefront of a movement to revolutionize inner development for teens and those who serve them, something desperately needed for our youth who are increasingly stressed and lost.” — Diana Winston, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC)

Retreat Teachers

	La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation and has been a member of IMCW since 1998. La’s practice and approach to the Dharma has been influenced greatly by the teachings of Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Charlotte Joko Beck, Larry Yang, Eric Kolvig, Michele McDonald, Cheri Maples, Joe Weston, and Ruth King. Since 2005, La has been the guiding teacher/leader of the IMCW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Sangha and the IMCW People of Color Sangha. She integrates the Kalyana Mitta process and the concepts of Respectful Confrontation and Non-violent Communication into her gatherings to create a sacred space for group wisdom to arise. La is a senior retreat/event manager committed to bringing diverse teachers and programs to IMCW and to making the Dharma accessible to all. La is currently in the Community Dharma Leader Program IV through the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA and produces workshops for Joe Weston in Respectful Confrontation (www.respectfulconfrontation.com). La has been a body/energyworker in private practice since 1992 and teaches mindfulness-based Reiki classes with her life partner Wendy Taylor in Adams Morgan, DC.
	Jessica Morey began practicing meditation at age 14 in the Insight Meditation Society teen retreats. She returned every year for 6 years and then participated for 10 years in an IMS young adult mentoring group. Jessica has attended longer (1-3 month) retreats in Asia and the US and is a founding board member and lead teacher for iBme teen retreats. Before joining iBme, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy and finance. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs. She is an avid yogini and skier and loves dancing in any form.
	Marv Belzer, PhD, has taught mindfulness meditation for over fifteen years and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. For many years he taught a semester-long meditation course in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green St. University, where he was a Professor of philosophy. He and Diana Winston were instrumental in developing week-long mindfulness retreats for teens in the mid-1990s.
	Joe Klein, LPC, CSAC is the founder of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme). He has over 20 years experience working with youth as a teacher, counselor and soccer coach. Joe brings playfulness and a whole body experiential integration to his work with young people. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Substance Abuse Counselor and a long term practitioner of mindfulness meditation, yoga and Chinese internal martial arts. Joe teaches a graduate level course on mindfulness and SEL for teachers, social workers and counselors at Radford University and also co-leads retreats on “Mindfulness as Self-Care” for helping professionals in Southwest Virginia.
	Jason Murphy MA has been practicing Vipassana (Insight) meditation since 1994. He is a teacher and therapist who has been working with youth and families for the past 17 years. Jason has taught mindful awareness in a variety of settings and now leads a weekly Mindfulness group for young adults in Santa Cruz. Jason has assisted at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) on a number of retreats. Jason has sat residential retreats and studied in monasteries in the U.S as well as in Asia. Jason is empowered to teach by Noah Levine MA. Author of Dharma Punx, Against the Stream, Mary Grace Orr Spirit Rock teacher and Bob Stahl, Ph.D. Teacher and Author of MBSR Workbook and Living with Heart Wide Open.
	Heather Sundberg began teaching insight meditation in 1999 primarily to youth and families. Heather has been trained to teach insight meditation through the four-year Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Senior Teacher Training Program. She was the Teacher and Director of the Family/Teen Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center from 2001-2010, and has taught Teen Retreats for a decade. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, for the last twenty years Heather has studied with senior teachers from many cultures and traditions.
	JoAnna Harper has been exploring and practicing multiple spiritual, healing and psychological modalities since 1999. Her main focus is on working with youth –at the California Department of Juvenile Justice, with the UCLA and Buddhist Peace Fellowship teen residential retreats, through her bi-weekly children and teen meditation groups, and work with ex-gang members through Homeboy Industries. She also leads adult residential retreats, teaches adult one-on-one sessions, and facilitates A Year to Live practice. Greatly influenced by Thich Nhat Hahn’s peaceful conflict resolution and the mindfulness-based Vipassana traditions, JoAnna’s favorite teaching tools include working in Council, relational mindfulness, and non-violent communication. She is a recent graduate of Noah Levine’s Against the Stream teacher training program, and holds a position on its board. She’s also an Ojai Foundation-trained Council facilitator. She is the grateful mother of CJ and Harris, her main inspirations. She holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies.
	Dori Langevin began the study and practice of Vipassana meditation in 1997 with Tara Brach and the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, where she served on the Teachers Council from 2003-2007. In 2007 she and her husband Ted moved to Spokane Valley, WA, where she now teaches classes and retreats (www.mainstream-mindfulness.com). Dori teaches residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (Young Adult Retreat) and Insight Meditation Society (Family Retreat) and completed the centers’ four-year teacher training program in Vipassana Meditation. She has also taught retreats at Southern Dharma, Omega Institute, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Dharma Zephyr IMC, and Bellingham Insight Meditation Society. She has special interests in the dance between the dharma, addiction recovery and emotional healing, grounded in the sacred feminine and embodied presence, and integrating creative expression and relational dharma into retreats. Dori also volunteers at Airway Heights Corrections Center (men’s medium security) teaching a weekly mindfulness meditation class through the Religious Activities Center.
	Tempel Smith has been practicing insight and metta meditation since 1989, including a year as a fully ordained monk in Burma. Tempel launched the West Coast teen retreat program and helped to launch the teen retreats in Virginia. He is a graduate of the teacher-training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California and regularly leads teen and young adult retreats in California and Virginia.
	Erin Hill is a senior teacher with the Niroga Institute, a non-profit dedicated to promoting wellness through yoga to underserved families, individuals and communities. A student of Tibetan and vipassana Buddhism as well as yoga, she currently teaches classes and retreats for youth locally and nationally in addition to teaching youth and adults individually in Berkeley, Calif. A student in the Mindfulness Training for Yoga Teachers program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, Erin teaches at iBme teen retreats in Virginia.
	Chas DiCapua started practicing meditation in the Soto Zen tradition in 1989. He sat his first Vipassana retreat at IMS in 1995. Since then he has practiced in the Theravada tradition in both the US and Asia. A recent graduate of the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training Program, Chas is currently the Resident Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. He also teaches regularly at sitting groups and centers around
	Michele McDonald co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 with Steven Smith. She has taught Insight meditation for thirty years. Beyond her commitment to the Vipassana Hawai’i Sangha, she teaches extensively throughout the United States, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer having being the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side with a senior monastic figure, Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with the Mya Taung Sayadaw. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed teaching three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for youth. Her style of teaching emphasizes helping individuals find entry points into stillness that are natural for them. She encourages an understanding of the path of insight and a gentle strengthening of mindfulness and concentration so that, ultimately, people can access the peaceful depths of their experience in every moment. Michele is thrilled when students begin to love their practice.
	Steven Smith co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 and in 1995 founded the MettaDana Project for educational and medical projects in Burma. Also in 1995 Steven helped establish the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma, headed by Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. This partnership helped usher in the beginnings of Vipassana Hawai’i's Fusion Dhamma approach combining traditional and contemporary teaching styles in the same retreat. Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, he was trained and sanctioned as a teacher by revered monk and meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita. Steven divides his time teaching Vipassana and the Divine Abodes (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity) meditation retreats around the world, and assisting Burmese refugee communities along the Thai-Burma border. His long term vision for preserving the Dhamma is culminating in the beginnings of the Hawai’i Insight Meditation Center (HIMC) on the Big Island of Hawai’i's remote North Kohala coast.

To read about our retreat staff members, please visit our retreat staff page.

Transformative Retreats & Programs for Teens, Parents & Professionals

Retreat Teachers

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