The following teachers have been supporting the activities of the International Mindfulness Center JAPAN (IMCJ) and are also expected to support the activities of the International Mindfulness Center Asia Pacific.
In alphabetical order
Amir Imani
holds a Master’s degree in Counseling and Adult Education from the University of Toronto, Canada. He worked in mental health research at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Toronto and studies and practices the effect of mind-body integration in mental health and balanced living since the year 2000.
He has undergone MBSR Teacher Training at the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and has been teaching MBSR to different groups including Mindfulness trainers, corporate staff and executives since 2005.
Through his personal and professional interest in mind-body medicine, Amir has trained with Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn, founder of MBSR program and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Amir has also trained with pioneer leading teachers including Joseph Goldstein and Larry Rosenberg. He is the co-founder/director of the Indian based Omega Wellbeing, founding director of the only hospital-based MBSR program in the Middle East region, and a senior certified mindfulness teacher at UMASS Medical School.
Amir holds workshops and retreats internationally for public and private organizations.
Bernd Langohr
M.D., is an MBSR & MBCT teacher. He studied medicine in Tübingen and Jena. During med school, he helped to establish a mindfulness program at the psychiatric clinic in Weimar. He was also involved in developing and establishing mindfulness trainings at local universities from 2015-2020. He has been practicing meditation since 2002 and lived in a Theravada-Buddhist monastery in Germany for two years. He completed his certification training in MBSR and MBCT with the IMA in 2007 and 2010.
Frits Koster
born in the Netherlands, is the co-founder of Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL), an 8-week program for compassion training. He is also a teacher of MBSR and MBCT and serves as a faculty member in several MBSR & MBCT teacher training programs. In addition to being on the faculty of the IMA he teaches at the Institute for Mindfulness in Rolde, Netherlands and in the postgraduate mindfulness programme at the University College Artevelde in Gent, Belgium. He began practicing insight meditation in 1979. He ordained as a Buddhist monk for six years, practicing Vipassana meditation and studying Buddhist psychology in meditation centers and monasteries in Thailand and Burma. In 1988 he returned to the Netherlands, where he has been facilitating meditation activities ever since. He leads Vipassana retreats and mindfulness and compassion retreats for professionals. In his earlier years, he trained and worked in the field of psychiatric nursing. He is the co-author (with Erik van den Brink) of Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (Routledge, Jan. 2015) and author of Liberating Insight (Silkworm Books, 2004), Buddhist Meditation as Stress Management (Silkworm Books, 2007), and The Web of Buddhist Wisdom (Silkworm Books, 2014).
Ingrid van den Hout
is the senior coordinator of the IMA MBSR Teacher-Training Programs. She completed her study of the Science of Human Movement at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1989. She works as a psychomotor therapist in mental health care. She is a teacher of MBSR, MBCT and Breathworks. She has a background in the martial arts (Aikido) and became a practitioner of Vipassana in 2001. She trained as an MBSR teacher at the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) in the U.S. in 2004 and 2005. Continuing her development as an MBCT teacher, she participated in the Advanced-Training for MBCT offered by the University of Bangor in 2008. She acted as senior teacher and assessor during a multi-clinic study on MBCT by Radboud University. Since 2006 she has been on the faculty of the Dutch Institute for Mindfulness as a trainer of MBSR and MBCT teachers. She completed her formal training as a supervisor at the British Centre for Supervision and Team Development in 2013. Her involvement in psychosomatics led her to train as a teacher of Breathworks.
www.ingridvandenhout.nl
Jean-Daniel Rüedi
PhD worked for more than 15 years in academia and private companies as project manager, R&D manager and CEO, before starting to work as freelance coach and consultant. He is the co-founder of O’Centre Formation and now work as trainer, coach and therapist with teams and individuals. He is trained in coaching, organization and relationship systems coaching, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnosis, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), transpersonal therapy, as well as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). He trained as MBSR teacher with the IMA and as MBCL teacher with the Mindfulness Network. He teaches both these programs in Switzerland and online.
Kenya Miyamoto
is the Director of International Mindfulness Center Asia Pacific (IMC-AP), International Mindfulness Center JAPAN (IMCJ) and Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness JAPAN.
Throughout my career, I have consistently worked in the business world, earning a Master of Business Administration and focusing on how to deliver services that meet societal needs. In the process, I experienced stress and a decrease in self-esteem, and it was during this time that I began practicing mindfulness meditation as a practitioner. I found it to be a great support for myself.
Starting with MBCT training, I have taken training courses in MBSR, MBCL, and other mindfulness-based interventions, and now I offer various mindfulness courses. As the secretariat of IMCJ and IMCAP, I am committed to making mindfulness more accessible and reaching as many people as possible.
Currently, I am enrolled in the Master Program of Bangor University, where I am learning about the scientific aspects of mindfulness.
is the founder and Managing Director of International Mindfulness Center Asia Pacific (IMC-AP), International Mindfulness Center JAPAN (IMCJ) and Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness JAPAN. I have undergone extensive training at various institutions, including the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches (IMA), Oxford Mindfulness Foundation (OMF), University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the Mindfulness Network. I am a teacher in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL), and breathworks.
My journey into mindfulness began in my early twenties. Until that point, I had lived my life guided by cultural and educational norms that dictated a particular state of being as desirable. However, I came to realize that adhering to these values only led to suffering. This epiphany occurred while caring for my ageing grandfather and other elderly individuals in my community. I found that in the face of life’s uncertain and ever-changing nature, the ability to accept and savour each moment as it comes and to exist fully within those moments is a critical aspect of our journey until our ultimate return to the earth.
From then on, I have dedicated myself to practising yoga and mindfulness.
Linda Lehrhaupt
PhD, is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches/Institut für Achtsamkeit. She is acknowledged as a pioneer in introducing MBSR and mindfulness education in several European countries and is known for her depth of knowledge and expertise in the integration of mindfulness in education, health care and its social applications.
She began teaching MBSR in Germany in 1994 and has taught within the Institute’s MBSR teacher-training program since 2002. She began her MBSR teacher training at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, with Prof. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues in 1993 and completed its MBSR teacher certification program.
She has practiced Zen meditation since 1979 and is a Zen teacher (Roshi) in the White Plum Lineage founded by Taisan Maezumi Roshi. She has also completed a training and is certified to work as an interfaith spiritual director (companion).
Dr. Lehrhaupt earned a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University in 1990 with a specialty in ritual and traditions. She earned an M.A. in Drama (NYU) and a B.A. (Hofstra) in English and Secondary Education. In her early teaching career, she worked as a secondary school teacher before moving into adult education and professional training in mindfulness-based programs, where she has taught for more than 40 years. During these years, Dr. Lehrhaupt had led many hundreds of workshops and retreats.
She has written several books, including co-authoring a highly regarded introduction to MBSR that has been translated into 9 languages.
Born and raised in New York City, she has been living in Germany and France since 1983.
Rene Ryorin Slikker
René Slikker is a psychologist and physical therapist. His specific interest is mind-body medicine and personal development. As a psychologist, he combines mental and physical well being with return-to-work programs. He has worked in the United States, Great Britain and Germany as a physical therapist. When he learned about MBSR and Jon Kabat-Zinn, he was immediately inspired and still is. He was one of the first students to train in MBSR with Johan Tinge and his teaching staff at the Institute for Mindfulness in Holland in 2008. He has worked as a mindfulness teacher trainer at the post-doc program of the Hogeschool Utrecht. He has taught numerous MBSR courses and guided several retreats. He started practicing Zen Buddhism in 1998 and has integrated this into his work. At present, he works as a Buddhist psychologist in his own practice in Amsterdam. He and his wife have also founded and teach in a small Zen temple.
Ted Meissner
started meditating in the Zen tradition in the early 1990’s, and is a Certified MBSR Teacher from UMass Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness. He is the host of the podcast Present Moment: Mindfulness Practice and Science, has been published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, Mindful, and The International Journal of Whole Person Care. He mentors MBSR teachers for UCSD and IMA, has held Masterclasses for Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and is the Executive Director of Mindfulness Practice Center. He plays the Shakuhachi flute as part of his meditation practice.
Wolfgang Schröder
born 1962, is co-leader of the (Mindfulness Practice)’Achtsamkeitspraxis Berlin’ since 2012. His interest in spiritual development and meditation was awakened in 1985. When he trained as a bookseller in the Rhineland, he made a fundamental decision to dedicate his life to practicing and deepening the Buddhist practice. During a stay of several years in the Triratna Sangha in Great Britain, he was able to intensify his practice and study of Buddhism. At that time, he worked in cooperatively run companies and certified as a yoga teacher in 1994. Since he became familiar with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book ‘Full Catastrophy Living’ in 2005, he continued to practice and train as teacher within the context of MBSR. In 2008 he certified as MBSR teacher, in 2009 as MBCT teacher and also trained as MBCL teacher. He continues to widen his experience and offering in the direction of ‘mindfulness at work’, for example at the Potential Project. He feels fortunate to meet people in different ways and to support them on their way to more awareness, clarity and kindness.