Marty Cooper was born in Sacramento, and from there took a circuitous route to becoming a psychotherapist. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in English Literature, then got involved in community activism for several years before casting that off for the life of an traveler, in Asia and India. There he was exposed to vipassana meditation practice, under S.N. Goenka, which profoundly changed the course of his life. After traveling again to India in the mid-90's, he found himself confronted with the question of whether his was a monastic path, and out of the "No" that answered that question, he decided on a householder's life focused on service. Marty found out about CIIS in the basement of the Boston Public Library, and commenced the phase that resulted in graduating from the ICP program in 2001. Currently, he is a MFT in private practice in San Francisco, focusing on the treatment of mood disorders, emphasizing a mindfulness-based approach to healing chronic depression and anxiety. More information can be found at www.mlcooper.com <http://www.mlcooper.com> ."