About this program

This program was recorded live on April 5, 12 & 19, 2023.

This program is now closed to new registrations.


Mindfulness is a quality of awareness in which our perception of the present moment’s experience is not distorted by biases such as old fears, assumptions, or projection into the future. It shows us what life looks like when we see through the lens of universal conditions such as impermanence and interconnection. Mindfulness spearheads the path of understanding our lives by helping us to notice what causes us suffering and what brings us freedom from suffering. It is the root of living our lives more fully and more truly. 

This program explores the meditative techniques of mindfulness applied in a variety of contexts, including wrestling with dukkha, making ethical decisions, seeking wisdom, coping with trauma, communicating, practicing lovingkindness, exploring equanimity, the commonality of science and mindfulness, and the role of mindfulness in everyday life.

Whether you use mindfulness to manage stress or difficult emotions, improve relationships, increase engagement, or enhance your overall well-being, these discussions can help you further live your mindfulness practice. This nine-month program features IMS teachers from many generations and backgrounds. You can participate in all nine months or pick and choose the topics that interest you most.

Suffering, and the wish to be happy are two common human experiences. Mindfulness and the Dharma are ideal for transforming suffering, including the suffering that can be generated by trauma. The Buddha is often referred to as the first psychologist and as the great physician. He worked with all types of people in many conditions. Such as those who suffered the traumas of the 10,000 sorrows and the sorrows of oppression and marginalization. With mindfulness, loving awareness, equanimity, wisdom and compassion, we can address the wounds that prevent us from seeing clearly and cultivate the conditions for healing. 

In this module of Essential Mindfulness, trainer, psychotherapist, and IMS Guiding Teacher DaRa Williams and guest teachers - Tuere Sala and Isabel Adon, will explore how mindfulness and strengthening the heart can reduce the effects of trauma, and can help survivors become thriver's and cope more effectively. They will reflect on the ways that we can all extend respect, acceptance, and love to ourselves and all beings to achieve a more inclusive sangha. 

Meet Your Teachers

DaRa Williams

DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher, and psychotherapist. DaRa has been a meditator for the past 25 years and is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is a guiding teacher at IMS. She is the program manager and a core teacher in the IMS Teacher Training Program. DaRa has been a clinician and administrator in the field of mental health for over 25 years and currently maintains a private practice in Manhattan. She is a certified trainer and practitioner of Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy and Complex Trauma. DaRa integrates these skills, understandings, wisdom traditions and world views in her intention for contributing to the ending of suffering for all beings.

Tuere Sala

Tuere Sala is a Guiding Teacher at Seattle Insight Meditation Society and the founding teacher of the Capitol Hill Meditation Group. She is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. Tuere believes that urban meditation is the foundation for today’s practitioner’s path to liberation. She is inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places and is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, past trauma and difficulties sitting still. Tuere has been teaching since 2010 and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.

Isabel Adon

Isabel Adon is an Afro-Latinx meditator in the Vipassana (mindfulness) lineage and leads meditation for the BIPOC group and LGBTQIA+ at New York Insight Meditation Center and this year at the Garrison institute annual LGBTQIA+ Residential Retreat. She has been meditating for over 25 years. She has been a member of New York Insight Meditation Center for over 20 years and learned about the Dharma from various teachers throughout the years. She served on the Board of Directors of Insight Meditation Society (IMS) for over 6 years and chaired the DEI committee. She is presently a Board Member and Board President of Peace at Any Pace. Isabel is a level 1 MBSR teacher, trained under Elaine Retholtz, Jon Aaron and Dr. Kasim Al-Mashat and continues to explore the possibility of bringing this work forward to marginalized communities and communities of color. Isabel trained with Resmaa Menakem in the Somatic Abolitionist Training (Somatic Abolitionism) Isabel is a licensed clinical social worker and works with individuals, children, and families. Trained in family system, focusing oriented therapy, solution focused therapy and aboriginal/indigenous/cultural centered therapy and trauma therapy as well as DBT. Isabel works with the client to support them in discovering their own inner strengths and tools to transform life’s challenges into opportunities and possibilities for growth. She is a focusing oriented therapist and certifying coordinator for the Focusing Institute in the philosophy of the implicit and felt sense, developed by Gene Gendlin (Focusing) and continues to learn under the mentorship of Lynn Preston. Isabel is an instructor in Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) and Indigenous Tools for Living (ITFL) and trained under Shirley Turcotte. This philosophy focuses on working with trauma, while leaning into the land and focusing not only on the individual but also the collective.