Jill Satterfield

Guest Teacher

Jill Satterfield has been a quiet pioneer in the integration of embodied awareness practices and Buddhist teachings for over 30 years.

Her heart/mind and body approach developed from somatic and contemplative psychology, 35 years of Buddhist study, extensive meditation retreat time and decades of living with chronic pain.

At the invitation of her primary teacher, Ajahn Amaro, Jill was the first to offer mindful movement and somatic practices on silent retreats first at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and then the Insight Meditation Society 30 years ago. She has since developed teacher trainings and mentoring programs that integrate embodied awareness with Dharma ever since.

In addition to teaching embodiment and Dharma with Ajahn Amaro, she was also invited to teach on Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s retreats in the US and Nepal. It was at his urging that she teach subtle body practices to his students. She contributed movement practices to his brother Mingyur Rinpoche’s retreats and was a consultant for his 2 best-selling books.

Jill’s Applied Embodied Mindfulness Trainings were part of UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. She was on the faculty for Spirit Rock’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation Training, and she is currently a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Teacher Training. She was the scholar and teacher in residence at Kripalu Center in 2003 and is a graduate of the Sati Center’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Training.

Her organization School for Compassionate Action was a training and service organization that taught mindfulness and somatic practices for chronic pain, illness and post 9/11 trauma in NYC hospitals and at-risk facilities for over ten years. She has been featured in and has written for numerous publications such as Tricycle, Lion’s Roar and the NY Times.

It’s time for us to be more in our bodies. In this culture, many of us are not really taught or invited into our bodies, at least in a somatic way, in a felt sense way. With the speed of life right now, the body is a great balancing element in our lives. It can bring us into the present moment instantly! And it can help us understand our own minds and bodies because it is a mirror. The body is a mirror to the mind, a mirror to the heart.
 
Jill Satterfield, Somatic Exploration of Emotions

Jill Satterfield's Upcoming Programs

Class Series Online Dharma Institute

March 28 - April 25, 2025 Friday - Friday | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Anxiety: It's Not All in Your Mind

10 CE Credits. The body senses before the mind cognizes, so discovering aspects of anxiety in the body is just as important as investigating thoughts in the mind. When it comes to anxiety, thinking exacerbates it, whereas sensing it in the body can calm our thoughts by clearing the body of contraction. Using skillful means, together we will create a more open, calm frame of mind which will expand our capacity to examine the thoughts and beliefs that are often behind our anxiety.

Jill Satterfield

Jill Satterfield

Dharma Library

Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Jill Satterfield through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.

Picks from the Library