Joerg Meibert, born 1963
Dipl.-Social pedagogue, psychotherapist, MBSR- and MBCT-teacher, trainer and supervisor, mind-body instructor
Since 2004, Joerg Meibert has been working at the Clinic for Mind Body Medicine and Integrative Medicine at Essen-Mitte Clinics (Prof. Dobos). On the basis of this work, he has an extensive knowledge in the transfer of Mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Interventions to chronically ill or pain patients in outpatient, semi-inpatient and inpatient settings.
Since 2009 he has worked as a lecturer and supervisor in the training of MBSR and MBCT teachers. He has led over fourteen one-year mindfulness training courses, during which he accompanied people in an intensive process in deepening their practice of mindfulness meditation and integrating it into their private and professional everyday life.
He continues to teach open MBSR and MBCT 8-week courses on a regular basis. He holds a certificate from the Centre for Mindfulness, Massachusetts in MBSR and was educated by Mark Williams in MBCT.
Joerg Meibert has completed various training courses in depth-psychologically oriented body and breathing work (respiratory therapy according to Wilhelm Reich, Regression Analysis and Hakomi Therapy) and worked with Petra Meibert as a psychotherapist (HPG) in groups and in individual settings for more than 12 years. He has completed a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) under the direction of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, in cooperation with the University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Centre.
Joerg Meibert has also cultivated a Qigong practice, which involved further training at the Medical Society for Qigong Yangsheng e.V., Bonn.
Since 1989, he has been practicing mindfulness meditation and mindful bodywork with teachers from different traditions (Vipassana, Tibet. Buddhism) and a four-year study of Buddhist philosophy and psychology, “Unity in Duality”, with Tarab Tulku Rinpoche and Lene Handberg.
Petra Meibert, born 1959
Dipl.-Psychologist, psychotherapist, MBSR- and MBCT-teacher, trainer and supervisor, author
She has comprehensive international experience in training and supervision of MBSR and MBCT teachers. As part of this work, she accompanied more than 50 training candidates both nationally and internationally during and after their first 8-week MBSR courses as a supervisor. From 2008 to 2014 she was deputy director of the Institute for Mindfulness and Stress Management (German: Institut für Achtsamkeit, IAS). In this function, she played a leading role in the dissemination of MBSR and especially of MBCT.
She attended continuing education at the CFM (Center for Mindfulness), USA with Florence Meleo-Meyer and retreats with Saki Santorelli and Jon Kabat-Zinn. She is an MBSR teacher certified by the CFM since she completed her teacher training successfully there.
She studied MBCT with Prof. Mark Williams and Ferris Urbanowski at the Oxford Mindulness Centre and has worked internationally with Dr. Rebecca Crane (Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, Bangor University), Dr. Melanie Fennell and Prof. Mark Williams (Oxford Mindfulness Centre, University of Oxford) on the implementation of MBCT.
She has completed diverse training courses including depth psychology-oriented body and breath work (breathing therapy according to Wilhelm Reich, Regression Analysis and Hakomi Therapy). For more than twelve years, she worked as a psychotherapist in individual and group settings in her own practice together with Joerg Meibert.
Establishing a mindfulness practice since 1989 in mindfulness meditation and mindful bodywork with teachers from different traditions (Vipassana, Tibetan Buddhism), four-year study of Buddhist philosophy and psychology, “Unity in Duality”, with Tarab Tulku Rinpoche and Lene Handberg. She has completed a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) under the direction of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, in cooperation with University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Centre.
Petra Meibert has worked on various MBCT research projects at the Ruhr University Bochum, including a study on MBCT in chronic depression. From 2010 to 2012, she was research assistant at Zurich University, Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion.
Since 2005 she has been the second chairperson of the National Association for Teachers of Mindfulness-Based Interventions. She is also actively involved in the creation and development of the European MBSR-/MBCT-network EAMBA (www.eamba.org).
Johannes Michalak, born 1967
Prof. Dr. phil., graduate psychologist and certified psychological psychotherapist
From 1995 to 2011, he was research assistant for clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Ruhr University Bochum.
He held deputy professorships in Heidelberg (2006-2007) and Bochum (2009-2010) and was a visiting professor at Queen’s University Kingston (Canada) in 2009.
From 1995 to 1998 he completed a training in behavioral therapy at Ruhr University Bochum and has been working in the field of psychotherapy ever since.
From 2004 to 2011 he was supervisor at the Centre for Psychotherapy of the Ruhr University Bochum.
In 2011 he was appointed to a professorship for clinical psychology at the University of Hildesheim and held this position until 2014. At the University of Hildesheim, he was also head of the psychotherapeutic teaching and research outpatient clinic.
Since 2014, he holds a professorship for clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Witten/ Herdecke University.
His research focuses on mindfulness-based therapy approaches and the role of the body in mental disorders.
He has created over 80 publications in German-speaking and international scientific journals and specialist books and has published several books on these topics.
He has been practicing Zen meditation with Father Johannes Kopp (Houn-ken) and Qi Gong with various teachers and masters for more than 20 years.