Mindfulness Meditation for Academics

In our third and final episode, we sit down with Shani Simon. We discuss how mindfulness meditation builds our capacity to pause and more skillfully respond to situations instead of reacting. We discuss the benefits of pausing, and how a mindfulness practice and deliberately increase our awareness and ability to respond. 

Shani is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Shani is a therapist embedded at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Shani also leads her own private practice based out of Davis, CA. Shani is trained in the practice of yoga and Vipasana Meditation. Shani's interests are in the mind body connection, and incorporating breath and body work to help regulate emotions and skillfully navigate relationships.

In our second episode, we speak to Dr. Margaret Lee for the University of California -- Davis. We discuss how to begin a mindfulness meditation practice, what are the emotional barriers and challenges one can expect, and we discuss some perspectives one can consider at the challenging moments in beginning meditation. 

Dr. Margaret Lee is a UC Davis Counseling Services psychologist, embedded at the School of Law. There, in addition to providing counseling and outreach services, she leads weekly meditation sessions with law students, as well as offers a Mindfulness for Law Students Workshop that runs for 8-weeks in Fall Semester. Dr. Lee has been a mental health clinician for more than 26 years, and has practiced mindfulness meditation for more than 12 years. She began meditating as part of her Buddhist practice, under the Zen tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn. She has attended several multiple-day mindfulness/meditation retreats, including retreats specifically designed for Women, People of Color, and legal professionals, at Deer Park Monastery near San Diego, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. Dr. Lee has worked at UC Davis, King Hall for four years, and enjoys bringing mindfulness as a self-care tool for law students to incorporate into their wellness arsenal to bring into their legal careers. Dr. Lee is a California licensed clinical psychologist and earned her Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree in Clinical Psychology from Alliant International University, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this podcast, we have a conversation with Patrick Champagne (LCSW). Patrick Champagne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 35 years of mental health experience. Patrick worked as a therapist at Kaiser Mental Health for many years. At Kaiser, Patrick led many group therapy sessions and classes, notably a mindfulness meditation class. Recently, Patrick has designed and led a mindfulness meditation course offered through the Davis Adult Community Education Program. We discuss generally what is mindfulness, mindfulness's relationship to any particular spiritual practice, what is mindfulness meditation, and how mindfulness can be practiced by advanced academic trainees to address anxiety and stress.