Faculty
Services
A Brief History
We offer psychotherapy through our faculty members’ private practices. Our faculty are senior clinicians who are at the cutting-edge of the discipline.
We teach courses for the general public and mental health professionals. Our courses range from clinical trainings to mindfulness meditation.
We train psychotherapists in the latest theory and clinical practices, drawing on multidisciplinary research and current theory.
We lead dhamma study groups and teach mindfulness meditation. Our introduction to mindfulness meditation and our multi-session meditation classes provide the basis for developing a lifelong mindfulness practice.
We are concerned about your privacy and the security of personal information you may submit to our website. Any information you give us will be held with the utmost care and security and will not be used in ways you have not consented. The Center does not collect any personal information except when it is specifically and knowingly provided.
We may share aggregate or summary information about visitors to our website for marketing purposes that in no way identifies the personal information provided by any individual. We do not sell, rent, share or release any personal identifying information.
The Insight Center, however, does reserve the right to collaborate with other similarly interested organizations for educational purposes such as public talks, retreats, seminars, classes or other events whose expressed purpose is to further our mission. To accomplish these ends, we may combine our lists with our collaborators and deliver them to a professional mailing house for automated processing.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information provided in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
If you have an account on this site you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
All Insight Center events have a satisfaction guarantee.
If you are unsatisfied, contact us and we will do everything possible to make you happy.
For individual events with advance registration, partial refunds will be provided up to 5 business days prior to the start of the event.
For multi-day events or events with a multi-module teaching sequence, partial refunds will be provided up to 14 business days prior to the start of the first segment of the event sequence.
For guest teacher events, partial refunds may be provided up to 14 days prior to the event. However, if a space for which a refund is requested is filled, a full refund less bank processing fees (5%) will be issued as long as a written request is received (email is fine) prior to the start of the event.
In special cases, a partial refund may be provided after the start of an event if warranted. Each request is considered on its merits.
For professional training, concerns related to quality of instructional content or delivery will be reviewed appropriately.
The Insight Center is authorized by the American Psychological Association (APA) to provide continuing education units (CEUs) for psychologists. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts APA CEUs for the professionals it authorizes (LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs). Continuing education units require full attendance at CE events and partial credit is never available. CE certificates must be purchased within thirty (30) days of the event for which they are issued.
We are committed to the finest quality of continuing education available. Any concerns related to course content or instruction can be discussed with the instructor during a break within the course itself or emailed to the address below.
We at the Center have zero tolerance for any abuse of power and authority. We adhere to a clearly defined set of standards and practices to both prevent such problems from arising and respond appropriately to complaints.
We have adopted policies and procedures to properly handle the widest range of concerns. You can review these documents by downloading the following files:
To submit a grievance, contact:
Michael Shiffman, Executive Director
310-479-7996
grievance@insightcenter.org
The Insight Center grew out of LA Dharma, a non-sectarian Buddhist meditation organization. Through LA Dharma we hosted meditation retreats, sitting groups and mindfulness classes from 2000 to 2006.
In 2006, we acquired our physical space and formed the Insight Center to continue the legacy of LA Dharma while offering somatic practices to support our students more deeply.
With our permanent home, we began to offer clinical trainings and psychotherapy services, and in October 2007, we launched our Continuing Education Program for mental health professionals with authorization from the American Psychological Association, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and the California Board of Registered Nursing.
While we continue to offer classical Buddhist teachings and courses in mindfulness meditation, our clinical specialty focuses on healing early developmental trauma. We collaborate with some of the nation’s foremost clinicians and teachers, and have recently expanded our faculty to train therapists in the use of touch and clinical intuition in psychotherapy. We host innovative programs in the areas of mindfulness, somatic psychotherapy, touch for attachment repair, Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), voice dialogue and the intergenerational transmission of trauma.