Using Mindfulness to Reclaim Your Power and Heal Trauma

Please Note: This live online conversation was recorded on our CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel. 

Born in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, mindfulness teacher Sister Dang Nghiem is an inspiration for anyone who has ever suffered from abuse, life-changing loss, severe illness, or the aftermath of war. Her work brings together her experience as a survivor, certified MD, and ordained Buddhist teacher to offer a body-based, practical approach to healing from life’s most difficult and painful experiences.

Offering insights from Buddhist psychology and simple somatic practices for tapping into our Five Strengths—our inner faculties of self-trust, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and insight—Sister D’s approach to healing trauma is radically accessible. Her latest book, Flowers in the Dark: Reclaiming Your Power to Heal Trauma with Mindfulness compiles these practices, offering a progression of guided reflections, exercises, and a helpful guide for moving through trauma in the body.

Join CIIS Integrative Health Studies Professor Megan Lipsett for an evening of conversation with Sister D about her life, her work, and her newest book to learn how the practice of mindfulness can help us access our strength as survivors and tap into the joy of being alive. 

Learn more about Sister D's new book, Flowers in the Dark, and order a copy starting January 26, 2021 here.

Please note that this conversation will be hosted live online and includes an audience Q&A. Instructions on how to join the conversation will be included in your event confirmation email. If you need additional assistance finding or joining the event, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu.

Sister Dang Nghiem ("Sister D"), MD was born in 1968 in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. She lost her mother at the age of twelve and immigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen with her brother. Living in various foster homes, she learned English and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. After suffering further tragedy and loss, she quit her practice as a doctor to travel to Plum Village monastery in France, which was founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, where she was ordained a nun in 2000. She is the author of two books: a memoir, Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun (2010), and Mindfulness as Medicine: A Story of Healing Body and Spirit (2015).

Megan Lipsett is a CIIS core faculty in the Integrative Health Studies department, where she teaches courses such as "Mindfulness and Stress Physiology" and "Sustainable Health and Ecological Resilience". Megan holds an MA in Integrative Health Studies from CIIS and is a doctoral candidate in Social Health Psychology, conducting research in the Social Affective Neuroscience Lab. As a research psychologist, Megan examines how our perceptions impact physiology (such as inflammatory biomarkers and cortisol), social connection, and long-term health behaviors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Megan has extensive training in Yoga Philosophy and Ayurveda, including a yoga therapy teacher training ("Yog Pravesh") from Yoga Vidya Dham in Nasik, India with Guruji Dr. Vishwas Mandlik. Megan has studied Ayurveda, the "science of life", with Dr. Sarita Shrestha, MD, Dr. Scott Blossom, and Jennifer Taylor. Megan's personal meditation and mindfulness practice is rooted in the Vipassana tradition. Megan has a thriving integrative health coaching practice and is the founder of COPIA Health, a company dedicated to teaching integrative, mindful, and sustainable lifestyle practices for individual, community, and environmental flourishing. Megan has done program development and facilitation for diverse organizations, including integrative medicine centers, transitional women's homes, social worker training centers, environmental awareness groups, benefit corporations, and health and wellness centers. Megan's courses focus on both experiential and scientific knowledge, supporting students in establishing meditative practices, integral lifestyle practices, social and cultural awareness, personal and community empowerment.