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Training and experience panorama

I am a mindfulness teacher and consultant for innovative businesses and others interested in applying Mindfulness, meditation and yoga to professional, personal and organizational development.

Born and raised in the NY Metropolitan area, I lived, worked and went to school there til I was 30. After getting my BA in Philosophy from SUNY Purchase, I was a Mental Health Worker at NY Hospital’s Westchester Psychiatric Division, taught Mindfulness on the Cognitive-Behavioral Eating Disorders Unit at McLean Psychiatric Hospital, and was a manager of a Wild Acres psychiatric half-way house in the Boston area.

In addition to practicing meditation with various teachers and Buddhist traditions, I trained under the guidance of Ajahn Sumedho in the UK in 80s and came to Italy to help set up Santacittarama Buddhist Monastery in 1990.

Since making Italy my home, I have been an author and contributor for Loescher Editore and RAI Edu television, published articles on language learning and worked as a professional musician. I taught English at La Sapienza University in Rome, was a “change management” consultant for Tetra Pak Italy and Nexans in the US, and an in-house language and mindfulness coach for S4BT for a decade.

Since 2020 I have mostly been working on-line and in workshops at schools, hospitals and innovative businesses when possible.

Please continue if you’d like to read more about my mindfulness training and experience. There is also a partial list of clients at the bottom.

Mindfulness and neuroscience

My first “formal meditation instructions” were with Dr. Richard Davidson at the Psychology Department at SUNY Purchase in 1979 during his research into the emotional life of the brain.

Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard talks with Richard J. Davidson

I began as a participant in longitudinal studies on the effects of meditation on concentration, relaxation and facial recognition of emotions. 

After, his then research assisitant Cliff Saron pointed me in the direction of IMS and other teachers and training experiences.

Living Buddhist Masters

The main meditation hall at IMS

From 1979 through 1987, I participated in a number of Insight Meditation Society retreats (from 3 days to 3 months) with Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and A. Munindra.

In 1984, I did a retreat with the then abbot of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery Ajahn Anando, and the following year with Ajahn Sumedho. He invited me to live and eventually train with the monastic community in the UK.

Tibetan Buddhism and vipassana meditation

In the summer of 1981, I lived at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The evening summer lecture series that year with Chögyam Trungpa Rimpoche was on the 8th century Indian Buddhist scholar Shantideva, author of Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.

Each morning, a handfull of students practiced vipassana meditation with psychologists and meditation teachers Jack Engler and Jack Kornfield.

Chögyam Trungpa Rimpoche

Zen Buddhism and Insight meditation

Bernard Glassman

For years, I was a frequent visitor helping out with work projects at the Zen Community of NY in Yonkers, where I grew up. In 1982 the Community, under the guidance of Bernard Glassman, had just purchased the Greyston Bakery.

For most of the 80s, I lived and worked in the Boston area. I practiced at the Cambridge Zen Center and with the community at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center under the guidance of Larry Rosenberg.

Larry Rosenberg

Theravada Buddhism

In 1989, I became an Anāgārika at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery and was invited to come to Italy the following year to help set-up Santacittarama.

My relationship with the English Sangha continues through to this day and I participate in monastic retreats both in the UK and Italy.

Ajahn Thanavaro, Ajahn Sumedho, and me as an anāgārika and layperson

Yoga and Mindfulness

In 2014, I became a certified Viniyoga instructor in the Krishnamacharya tradition. I trained according to guidelines established by the Union Européenne des Fédérations Nationales de Yoga and the Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti Yoga .

In 2015 I completed training as a certified MBSR teacher with Centro Italiano Studi Mindfulness.

Not for profit

Centro Sati was created in 2003. The center is a not for profit meditation society dedicated to the teaching and practice of meditation and yoga. It was modeled after the monasteries and meditation centers where I received my own training. For many years it was situated in a commercial storefront in a residential area in Latina with a small meeting space suitable for up to 20 practitioners (10 for yoga classes ).

Centro Sati does not currently have a permanent home but I am looking once again. For now meetings and retreats are hosted from time to time in public schools or at the Tibetan Monastery in Cisterna. People interested in meditation (in Italian) can participate in the weekly on-line guided meditations on Skype.

Consultant and trainer

I have always been interested in practical and transverse applications for Mindfulness.

It has been the foundation for my work teaching English, in human resources and organizational development.

I have been sharing these ideas, providing training and doing workshops for innovative businesses and academic organizations in Europe since 1993.

Some of my clients

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