Eleanor Criswell is a member of the faculty at Meridian University. She received her Bachelor's and Master's from the University of Kentucky and her Doctorate from the University of Florida. She has been a professor of psychology at Sonoma State University since 1969 and has formerly been its Chairperson. She is the editor of the journal Somatics and the Director of the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. As a Counseling Psychologist, she maintains a private practice in psychotherapy and somatics and is the author of Somatic Yoga and Somatics and Biofeedback. www.somaticsed.com

Marti Glenn, Ph.D., is a member of the faculty at Meridian University. She is the Founding President of Santa Barbara Graduate Institute specializing in prenatal and perinatal psychology and somatic psychology. Marti has been a pioneering psychotherapist for over 30 years, as well as a professor of clinical psychology, integrating neuroscience with attachment, early development, and trauma. Dr. Glenn is a board member of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health and has been chair of numerous conferences including Neurons to Neighborhoods: Preventing and Healing Trauma in Children and Adults and co-produced the broadcast quality documentary, Trauma, Brain, and Relationship: Helping Children Heal.

Rae Johnson, Ph.D., RSW, RSMT is a member of the faculty at Meridian University. She is a somatic movement therapist, educator, and researcher. She is former Chair of the Somatic Psychology Department at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, former Director of the Body Psychotherapy Program at Naropa University, and the author of “Knowing In Our Bones: Exploring the Embodied Knowledge of Somatic Educators”. www.embodimentstudies.org

Aftab Omer Ph.D., is President and Core faculty at Meridian University. His research has focused on the emergence of human capacities within transformative learning communities and his work includes assisting organizations in tapping the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and complexity.

Courtney Lubell is Core Faculty and the Associate Director of the Center for Transformative Learning at Meridian University. Her research focus is the role of ritual, affect regulation, and memory in transformative learning. She teaches courses on expressive arts and transformative learning praxis.

Melissa Schwartz Ph.D., is Meridian's Vice President of Academic Affairs and the Director of the Center for Transformative Learning. She is a Clinical Psychologist and Marriage and Family Therapist, a member of the California Psychological Association’s Continuing Education Review Committee, and is a peer reviewer for the APA journal, Psychology of Women Quarterly. Her interests include the psychology of women, adult development, and qualitative research.

Thomas Hübl is a contemporary spiritual teacher. His workshops and trainings invite people to experience a deeper dimension of self-awareness and individual responsibility. Thomas founded the Academy of Inner Science in 2008. The Academy's programs focus not only on personal transcendence but also on the active commitment to respond to the challenges of the human condition which we face in today's post-modern world.

Robert Sardello, Ph.D., is co-founder and co-director of The School of Spiritual Psychology, which began in 1992. He has written Facing the World with Soul; Love and the Soul; Love and the World; Freeing the Soul from Fear; The Power of Soul; Living the Twelve Virtues; Silence; and Acts of the Heart.

Michael Shea, Ph.D., has taught somatic psychology, embryology and biodynamic craniosacral therapy both in North America and Europe for the past thirty years. His career focus has been on treating infants and children with neurological problems and developmental delays at children's hospitals, universities, and clinics. He lives in Juno Beach, Florida.

Robert Augustus Masters is the author of 13 books, a relationship expert and spiritual teacher, and a master psychotherapist with a doctorate in psychology. His uniquely integral, intuitive work blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing embodiment, authenticity, emotional literacy, shadow work, and the development of relational maturity.

Terry Patten hosts the popular online teleseminar series Beyond Awakening: The Future of Spiritual Practice. He teaches the acclaimed 8-session course, Integral Spiritual Practice. He co-authored, with Ken Wilber, the bestselling book Integral Life Practice, and his forthcoming book is The Integral Revolution. His web sites include http://integralspiritualpractice.com and http://theispcommunity.com.

Shiva Rea, M.A. has been dedicated to the creative pulse awakened by her participation and studies in movement cultures in India, East and West Africa, the Caribbean, Nepal, and Bali. She offers Prana Flow Yoga and leads Yoga Trance Dance in festivals, collaborating with DJ's and musicians from Wanderlust to Burning Man. www.shivarea.com

Mark Metz danced his way from rock-and-roll through the rave movements and began writing about dance and culture in the early 90's while he owned the clothing store Ameba in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. He views the cutting edge of dance culture to be the froth on the leading wave of evolution, and has focused his life’s energy on translating it to the world as a cultural engineer. He is co-founder and publisher of Conscious Dancer magazine. www.consciousdancer.com www.facebook.com/mark.g.metz

Susan Aposhyan maintains a private practice and trains helping professionals internationally in her work, Body-Mind Psychotherapy. She is the author of Body-Mind Psychotherapy and Natural Intelligence: Body-Mind Integration and Human Development. Susan previously developed and directed one of the first graduate degree programs in Somatic Psychology.

Ronald Alexander, Ph.D., is a mind-body psychotherapist, international trainer, mindfulness expert, leadership coach, and author of the acclaimed book, Wise Mind, Open Mind and a CD meditation series. His unique teaching methods combining ancient wisdom with positive psychology and creative thinking develop greater awareness and transformational growth.

Siegmar Gerken, Ph.D., has pioneered body-oriented and mindfulness-centered therapy and teaching since 1971. He is the founder of the Energy & Consciousness programs and the Core Evolution professional trainings for therapist and coaches. Siegmar has taught at the SBGI, JFK University, and Esalen Institute, and he currently lectures and teaches at universities and private institutes on four continents. Siegmar's research in documenting the energy field of psycho-emotional states opened new horizons to scientists and practitioners.

Alan Sheets is co-founder of New Equations, a body-based system that promotes the development of humanity's spiritual nature. He is a former research scientist, bodyworker in the Feldenkrais Method®, and is an accomplished martial artist. He also holds a black belt in Aikido.

Saniel Bonder: Through the Waking Down in Mutuality work he founded, Saniel Bonder has helped hundreds of everyday people stably embody non-dual Awakening. The author of many books including Healing the Spirit/Matter Split and Great Relief, Saniel is also co-founder of Human Sun Institute with his wife and full partner, Linda Groves-Bonder. www.WhyWDMWorks.com

Linda Marks, MSM, is the creator of Emotional-Kinesthetic Psychotherapy (EKP), a psychospiritual body psychotherapy method rooted in the power of the heart. She has worked with individuals, couples, families and groups for over 27 years. Linda holds degrees from Yale and MIT, has written two books, taught nationally and internationally, and in 1988 co-founded the first state-wide body psychotherapy professional association.

Judy Gantz, M.A., CMA., is the Director and Founder of the Center for Movement Education and Research. She has taught at UCLA, specializing in Laban Movement Analysis, dance kinesiology, and creative dance/movement education, and has also taught at USC, Dominican University, University of Washington and internationally, in Moscow, England, and India. Judy also served as the former fitness editor for Shape magazine, and Co-Editor of Kinesiology for Dance. More information at www.cmer.info or http://movement-education.org.

Serge Prengel, LMHC is in private practice in New York City. His work integrates experiential, relational and systems-oriented approaches. He is certified in Focusing, Core Energetics, and Somatic Experiencing. He wrote Scissors: A Whimsical Fable About Empowerment and other books, and is the editor of Somatic Perspectives on Psychotherapy series.

Chungliang Al Huang, philosopher and inspirational speaker-teacher-Tai Ji Tao Master, president of Living Tao Foundation, director of International Lan Ting Institute in the Sacred Mountains of China and in Gold Beach, Oregon. Best-selling author of Embrace Tiger, Return To Mountain, co-author of Tao: The Watercourse Way; and Thinking Body, Dancing Mind. www.livingtao.org.

Stanley Keleman, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Energetic Studies in Berkeley California, where he teaches the Formative approach to human development. He has been a somatic educator who has been researching and developing the Formative principles an original method for influencing inherited behavior. He is the director of research in Formative Psychology at the Center of Form and Development in Zurich and Germany and visiting lecturer at Spectrum, School of Humanistic Psychology in London. He is the author of the pioneering books: Emotional Anatomy, Embodying Experience, Your Body Speaks its Mind, Insults to Form, Living Your Dying and Myth and the Body, and other books.

Anne Isaacs, MSW, LCSW, therapist, leader of trainings for Bodynamic Somatic Developmental Psychology for 20 years. For past 10 years her focus has been on integrating attachment into work. She has presented at Esalen, SBGI, JFK, CIIS and trained with Mary Main in AAI, and 1 1/2 years in Diana Fosha"s AEDP. She is a founding member of USABP, co-planned first three conferences and is in private practice in Los Angeles

Raphael Cushnir is a leading voice in emotional intelligence and present-moment awareness. He has authored six books, written for the Oprah Magazine, and currently lectures and consults with individuals and organizations worldwide. Raphael is a faculty member of the Esalen Institute, the Omega Institute, and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

Marjorie L. Rand, Ph.D., MFT, has been a licensed psychotherapist for 36 years and was a dancer and dance/movement therapist before becoming a somatic psychotherapist. She was a founding member of USABP in 1996. She has co-authored three books and many published articles, including Body, Self and Soul with Jack Rosenberg, Getting In Touch with Christine Caldwell, and Helping The Helper with Babette Rothschild.