Radhule Weininger, PhD, MD clinical psychologist and meditation teacher, is the founder and guiding teacher of the One Dharma Sangha, as well as the resident teacher of mindfulness practice at La Casa de Maria Retreat Center in Santa Barbara, California. Her book Heartwork: The Path of Self-compassion, which begins with a forward by Jack Kornfield, will be published in July 2017 by Shambala Public
ations. Radhule has a full-time psychotherapy office, in which she individuals and groups. Integrating psychodynamic, Jungian and Gestalt psychotherapies, she is finding innovative ways to complement Western with Buddhist psychology. For many years Radhule guides an ongoing dream-group, as well as an ongoing mindfulness psychotherapy group. Radhule is teaching a variety of seminars, from half-day to weekend –to weeklong retreats, in which she makes Buddhist Mindfulness and Compassion practices relevant to 21st century modern life concerns. Carefully, yet lightly guided meditations make mindfulness meditation accessible to all of us. Many of Radhule’s seminars provide CEUs for psychologists, MFTs, social workers and nurses. Radhule is frequently hired by non-profit and other companies to teach their leadership and staff. Radhule spear-headed with her husband Michael Kearney, MD the “Solidarity and Compassion Project,” whose vision is to nourish and sustain us in our attempt support those who are left vulnerable in our society, while discerning the values that we want to go forward with in an attitude of integrity and caring. Solidarity and
Compassion Project events take place on a monthly basis at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara. Radhule’s Story
Like many, I came to this profession through my own life story as a “wounded healer.” My journey started when I went to medical school in Germany more than three decades ago. After a serious physical illness and a break from medical school, I ended up studying Buddhist meditation in Sri Lanka in 1980-1981. After graduation from medical school I immigrated to the USA. By the early 1990ies I had become a clinical psychologist in California. I began integrating Buddhist with western psychology, as I found that this worked well for 20th/21st century suffering. For more than a decade I worked as a consultant, assisting people wounded by religious in authority. Those times helped me to become aware how tender our spiritual longing is, and how this longing can be confounded by harsh dogma and misuse of power. I was also part of a group “Survivors International,” working with survivors of political torture, who had found refuge in the US. During my seven years in San Francisco, I also worked with groups of survivors of sexual abuse at St. In addition I facilitated a group for people challenged by an AIDS diagnosis in the late 1980ies and worked extensively with members of the LGBT community. After practicing psychotherapy for seven years in San Francisco and Berkeley, I moved to Santa Barbara, where I opened a private practice in the mid-1990s. Nowadays I see clients with a variety of concerns, including depression and anxiety, many of whom seek help in times of relationship crises and major life changes. I work with those spiritually homeless and disappointed, who want to find their individual sense of spiritual connectedness. I work with many of those, who work with others who are suffering, with those who are social activist or teachers. I also specialize in seeing clients from international and minority backgrounds, helping them to bridge cultural and religious identities. I draw upon an eclectic background, ranging from client-centered and Gestalt to psychodynamic and Jungian orientations. I have been studying mindfulness meditation, both as a personal practice and as a tool in psychotherapy, for 37 years. I have been exploring how dream work (dream-tending, embodied dream-tending, intuitive associations) and mindfulness meditation can work in complementary ways, deepening the therapeutic process. I have noticed how the development of a meditation practice has helped my clients to reduce their anxiety and embrace a fuller sense of self. My teaching is mentored for the past 12 years by Meditation teacher and psychologist Jack Kornfield, PhD. I teach mindfulness meditation and dream work in many different settings both nationally and internationally. Many of my clients come to me because I approach psychotherapy with a solid psychotherapeutic foundation grounded in both Western and Buddhist psychotherapy. I currently mentor two psychological assistants and am on the faculty of the Anamcara Institute for Spiritual End of Life Care. My husband, Michael Kearney, M.D., a palliative care physician, and I are authors of several book chapters and a JAMA article on whole-person care, spiritual care and mindfulness meditation. My book Heartwork: The Path of Self-compassion will come out this summer. Together Michael and I teach at conferences both nationally and internationally and give seminars and retreats on related topics. I had three children, Joshua, Bella and Benjamin and three step-children, MaryAnna, Claire and Ruth, including three step-grandchildren Elliot, Finn and Alex.
