CHANDRA PASSERO

When I think about my work and the various traditions, trainings and life experiences that inform who I am and what I do, an 'about me' page is not complete without a bow to the teachers from whom I have learned so much and in whose presence I have been able to cultivate the therapist and healer in me. 

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• Jack Kornfield introduced me to mindfulness in 1988 when Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA., was in its infancy. Attending his talks in those initial weeks and eventually years, began what is now a decades-long practice for me and is one of the underlying foundations of who I am as a person and as a therapist. 

• From my graduate training at the CA Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA., I hold a deep respect and well of gratitude to Maryanna Eckberg (deceased), Don Hanlon Johnson, Ian Grand (deceased) Judyth Weaver and Tina Stromsted. I could never name all that I learned from this solid group of somatic practitioners, academics and theorists; all brilliant, heartfelt and committed, each in their own way, to relieving the suffering in others. 

• As an intern at one of the few somatically-informed and mindfulness-based community agencies in the country, I learned to synthesize theory into practice at the Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic in Santa Rosa, CA. It was there that I was able to ground all of the wonderful exploration and clinical study from graduate school into practice with the richness of sitting with people and their stories, wounds and celebrations. I can not express how imperative it was in my training to have access to a group of experienced and willing teachers who, though from varied backgrounds, were all deeply steeped in mindfulness and somatic understanding. I am forever grateful for Thomas Pope, Robert Hall (deceased), Ernestine Ward and Mary Reiter for their contributions to shaping me as a somatic psychotherapist with both heart and clinical prowess.