About Janice Gates

Welcome! I have been teaching the integration of meditation, mindfulness and embodied practice for over twenty-five years and am continuously inspired by the flexibility, adaptability and power of these practices to support more freedom, choice and presence. I began practicing meditation and yoga while living in Asia in my twenties where I found my way to a ten day silent retreat that blew my mind — in a good way. This led to three decades of Buddhist practice, studies in somatic psychology, leadership and communication, some very wise teachers and many years of falling down and getting back up — all of which have deeply inform my work and my life.

I have worked as a teacher, coach, mentor and facilitator, including at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, UC Berkeley, San Quentin Prison, in schools, businesses and retreat centers around the globe. I am currently on the mentoring faculty for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach (in conjunction with Sounds True and the Greater Good Science Center) and a teacher for Cloud Sangha, an emerging online mindfulness community. I offer individual embodied mindfulness mentoring, presence-based coaching, group facilitation and in-depth retreats. I also enjoy developing content and creating curriculum for mindfulness based programs.

I am an ICF certified coach, trained in Somatic Experiencing, past President of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, author of Yogini, the Power of Women in Yoga (2006) and my work has been featured in Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal and other publications. I have a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Masters in Organizational Leadership with a focus on Purposeful Leadership. I live in Fairfax, California with my husband and our teenage daughter. My goal is to support others to live more awake, aware, embodied lives.