The vipassana therapists are a group of psychotherapists in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are associated with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, just north of San Francisco, and are practitioners of vipassana (also known as insight) meditation. For more information on our spiritual practice, go to www.spiritrock.org.

We hold these principles in common:

• The need for self understanding and self acceptance
• The importance of attaining authenticity, not simply adjustment
• The value of experiencing with equanimity all mind/body states that arise, and understanding that they are all impermanent
• The desirability of suspending judgment to allow for the direct experiencing of life
• The realization that pain is inevitable and that suffering is the effect of resisting the experience of it
• The knowing that underlying all apparent differences of personality and life script is an essential oneness of all beings

In order to be included in this directory, a therapist must have all the following qualifications:

• Be licensed to practice therapy in California, or gathering hours under supervision toward licensure
• Have a regular meditation practice for at least three years
• have accumulated at least 25 nights of silent retreat practice