• Workshops
  • Student Login
  • About Us
  • Support
  • Contact

Faculty

Michael Shiffman

Bio

Eileen Paris

Bio

Juliet Soopikian

Bio

Elaine Rosenson

Bio

Joni Lavick

Bio

Debi Jenkins Frankle

Bio

Terry Marks-Tarlow

Bio

Rev. Hyewol Sunim

Bio

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.  

 

Use this link to access our Sutta Study Resource page.


Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

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.

Contact forms and Cookies

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.

 

How long we retain your data

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.

What rights you have over your data

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.

Refund Policy

Refund Policy

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.

Continuing Education

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.

Professional Standards

Professional Standards

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:

 

Ethical Standards

Grievance Procedures

 

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.


Michael Shiffman, PhD, LMFT

Michael Shiffman, PhD, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #122513) in private practice in Los Angeles.  Michael is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), a certified Neuroaffective Relational Model Therapist (NARM), a Level 2 PACT Couple Therapist, and is trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).  Michael is uniquely trained in the use of touch for trauma resolution and attachment repair.

 

Michael sees individuals and couples, and runs groups.  His clinical work is mindfulness based, somatically grounded and asset oriented.  He has a substantial background working with anxiety, panic, traumatic stress, substance abuse and recovery, relapse prevention, and somatic oriented therapeutic practices. He teaches mindfulness meditation, neuroaffective regulation and somatic psychotherapy

 

Michael received his PhD from the UCLA department of sociology.  His academic training includes conversation analysis, social movements, labor union history, gender studies, and social psychology.  His doctoral dissertation was on family trauma and posttraumatic stress among adult children of alcoholics.  He has worked in program evaluation, health care research, grant writing and has provided technical services at UCLA and through several private computer companies.

 

Michael began meditating in 1994 under the guidance of Shinzen Young.  He founded LA Dharma in 1999 through which he hosted a meditation group and coordinated 20 daylong retreats and two large conferences with teachers from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Insight Meditation Center.  

 

In 2002 he began teaching mindfulness meditation and has since taught beginning, intermediate and advanced meditation practices.  He studied with Shinzen Young and Jason Siff, and continues to practice with Rev. Hyewol Sunim since 2002.  Michael loves to cook and is frequently happy at home in Encino, California.

Powered by KARTRA

Eileen Paris, PhD

Eileen Paris, LMFT, PhD, PsyD (LMFT 24594), is a training and supervising analyst and member of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. Dr. Paris has been working with children and families for 47 years. She began her career as a pre-school teacher, became a somatic therapist, then a psychoanalyst and infant mental health specialist. 

 

She served on the faculty of the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center, as adjunct faculty at the 2001-2002 Infant Mental Health Specialist Training Program at Cedars/Sinai in Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles.

 

Dr. Paris developed a psychoanalytically informed model of parent education called The Parenting Process.  She co-authored I’LL NEVER DO TO MY KIDS WHAT MY PARENTS DID TO ME! A Guide to Conscious Parenting, (Warner Books, 1994). Her paper Interrupting Trauma and Advancing Development: Considering Parent Education in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Treatment was published in the 2013 Clinical Social Work Journal.  

 

Dr. Paris is in private practice in California and offers workshops and training that address developmental trauma to parents and professionals in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Powered by KARTRA

Elaine Rosenson, LMFT

Elaine Rosenson, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Encino, CA for over 30 years. She is a nationally recognized therapist and Voice Dialogue facilitator and teacher.  She trained extensively with Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, the originators of Voice Dialogue. 

 

She has served as a staff member and has been endorsed by them to provide trainings to professionals and the general public.

 

In 1991, she founded the Valley Voice Dialogue Center where she has trained therapists on how to use Voice Dialogue for their own deep personal work and in their own practice.  Elaine is a member of the teaching faculty at the Insight Center in Los Angeles, California.

 

She has presented classes at CSUN, at numerous intern training centers in Los Angeles as well as at CAMFT, SD-CAMFT, SFV-CAMFT, GPASC, and GPALA Conferences.  Elaine is a Past-President of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of CAMFT and has been an active member for over 30 years. 

 

Elaine became inspired by the embodied depth psychology work of Marion Woodman, PhD, a world-renowned Jungian analyst, who brought bodywork to the Jungian community.  In 2010, Elaine graduated from Dr. Woodman’s prestigious three-year BodySoul Rhythms Leadership Training Program.  The program incorporates Jungian therapy, dance movement, art, dream analysis, voice and bodywork. Elaine has incorporated this work into her psychotherapy practice and finds it reaches people deeply, enabling them to discover their authentic nature.

 

She has a private practice in the San Fernando Valley.

Powered by KARTRA

Debi Jenkins Frankle, LMFT

Debi Jenkins Frankle LMFT is an expert in the field of grief. Debi has been working with clients suffering from lifetimes of loss for over 25 years. She and husband, Mark Frankle LMFT, are the co-founders of the Calabasas Counseling and Grief Recovery Center.

 

Debi is also the founder of Private Practice Grief Workshops and Trainings for Mental Health Professionals as well as the FB group for clinicians: Private Practice Grief.  She is an adjunct professor at The Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University.

 

Debi’s areas of expertise are grief, trauma, medical family therapy, and emotional effects of chronic illness. Debi has led trainings for grief counseling professionals throughout the United States and Canada, in addition to presenting for CAMFT (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists), SFV CAMFT and various organizations throughout Los Angeles. Debi is a past president of San Fernando Valley chapter of CAMFT, past committee co-chair of the Crisis Response Network for SFV CAMFT and a member of the Association for Death Education (ADEC). You can join her Facebook Group, Private Practice Grief, at http://bit.ly/PrivatePracticeGrief  and find more information at https://www.privatepracticegrief.com

Powered by KARTRA

Rev. Hyewol Sunim

Rev. Hyewol Sunim was first ordained in Sri Lanka in 1977 and took robes in the Korean Zen tradition in 1984. Rev Sunim studied with Buddhist masters in Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

 

He arrived in the United States in 1991 where he translates Pali texts and teaches from the early discourses of the Buddha.  Rev. Sunim founded the Meditation Center for Zen Communities (MCZC) and has created a Meditation Center in Pearblossom California. He is the guiding dhamma teacher for The Insight Center.

Powered by KARTRA

Juliet Soopikian, LMFT

Juliet Soopikian, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist (LMFT #38746) in private practice in West Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of the Insight Center, and teaches mindfulness meditation and its application to personal and professional lives.

 

Prior to private practice, Juliet worked as a therapist in both in-patient and outpatient settings, including the Department of Health and Human Services for the City of Long Beach. She was Program Director of an acute outpatient program for Glendale Memorial Hospital, Social Services Coordinator and Counselor for a group home in San Gabriel Valley, Group and Family Therapist for a community clinic, Kaiser outpatient services, and a discharge Planning Coordinator for Kaiser’s inpatient psychiatric hospital.

 

Juliet is a near-death-experience survivor and lives with a chronic medical condition. These experiences enable her to have a more intuitive and a deeper sense of others’ challenges, and a profound compassion for each person seeking her help.

 

She uses her psychotherapeutic skills and meditative practices to manage her chronic physical illness and pain and has developed a step-by-step approach to help others do the same. Her motto in life: “Helping one heart at a time.”

Powered by KARTRA

Joni Lavick, LMFT

Joni Lavick, LMFT, SEP (LMFT 31244) maintains a private practice in Santa Monica. She is a clinical supervisor at Counseling West, and Antioch University, and works with families coping with addiction at The Canyon Recovery Center.

 

She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles with a Master’s in Counseling Psychology and has a Bachelors degree in Social Work from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

 

Joni’s philosophy and clinical practice is asset-based, integrates body and mind, and holds that it is the therapeutic relationship that heals. Her Universal Treatment Plan is the distillation of 25 years of training and experience to help clients grow through identifying strengths and enhancing resources.

 

Joni has been working with HIV positive individuals since 1988. In 2005 she received a National HIV Leadership Award from thebody.com. The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapists Association’s honored her expertise and advocacy in 2000, with their Annual Community Service Award. She is a former Director of Mental Health Services at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.  She has over 20 years of experience treating individuals with sexual compulsivity, methamphetamine addiction, alcoholism and other substances, depression and anxiety. Currently she serves on the board of The Women’s Association for Addiction Treatment.

 

Joni has special training in the scoring and administration of Mary Main’s Adult Attachment Interview, studied Intersubjective Systems Theory with Robert Stolorow, and is certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner by Peter Levine’s Foundation for Human Enrichment.

 

Her publications include “Trauma and HIV: Frozen Moments, Frozen Lives” BETA, Spring 2008 and “Conquering Anxiety; Living with HIV” BETA, Winter 2007. An experienced public speaker she has presented at many national conferences, university classrooms, and community based organizations.

Powered by KARTRA

Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD

Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY8853) in private practice in Santa Monica. She is a Visiting Professor at Italian Universita Niccolo Cusano London and a Research Associate at the Institute for Fractal Research in Kassel Germany. She is on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, where as Community Outreach Co-Chair, she co-created and curates an annual exhibition of visual and performance arts, “Mirrors of the Mind: The Psychotherapist as Artist.”  Dr. Marks-Tarlow is a member of the Insight Center teaching faculty.

 

Dr. Marks-Tarlow has authored and co-edited numerous books, including Play and Creativity in Psychotherapy (2018, Norton), Truly Mindful Coloring (2016, PESI), Awakening Clinical Intuition (2014, Norton), and Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy (2012, Norton), andPsyche’s Veil (2008, Routledge), all of which she has illustrated herself.

 

Dr. Marks-Tarlow has presented workshops and seminars internationally, including in 2012 a conference at the Tavistock Institute in London relating to her second book, Psyches Veil, on nonlinear dynamics, and the 2015 UCLA Interpersonal Neurobiology Conference.

 

Dr. Marks-Tarlow embodies the balance of life between play, imagination and creativity through her dance, art and yoga. Her creativity also has been expressed musically, through writing opera librettos with Juilliard teacher and composer Jonathan Dawe. Her first opera, “Cracked Orlando”, premiered in New York City in 2010 with a ballet. Her second opera, “Oroborium” is scheduled to premiere at Lincoln Center in April, 2018. For more information visit her website at http://markstarlow.com

Powered by KARTRA

We use cookies to improve our service, track analytics, remember preferences, etc. By using our site, you consent to these cookies.
Privacy policy Cookie policy