Faculty
Jill Satterfield, Mind Body Counselor/ Yoga and Meditation Teacher, RYT-500
Founder and Director of SCA and Vajra Yoga & Meditation, RYT 500, SCA Lead Teacher. Health & Wellness Action/ Youth Action. Yoga asana, yoga therapy, meditation, mind body communication and healing skills, teaching skills, working with chronic pain and illnesses, re-patterning habits of mind and body, inspiring youth. www.vajrayoga.com
Diana Slattery OTR/L, RYT-500,
SCA Lead Teacher - Health & Wellness Action. Functional anatomy and kinesiology, occupational therapy/ integrative rehabilitation specializing in working with those with chronic pain and illness.
Diana has advanced training and experience in the rehabilitation of adults with neurological deficits (such as stroke, MS, and traumatic brain injury). She completed her Neurodevelopmental Treatment Approach Training in 1997, which focuses on facilitating motor recovery following a neurological injury. Diana has also had the opportunity to study cognitive rehabilitation and has worked closely with pioneers in the field of cognitive rehabilitation at New York- Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY. She has provided guest lectures on neurological conditions to the Occupational Therapy students at Dominican College and was a Group Facilitator for several years with the Problem-Based Learning Classes for the Occupational Therapy Masters Program at Mercy College. She has offered several workshops to New York Institute of Technology's Occupational Therapy Master's program, focusing on integrating Yoga and neuro-motor techniques in rehabilitation.
www.dancingsunyoga.com
Douglas Ruest, LCSW
Youth Action - Psychotherapist, Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center - Child and Adolescent Clinic. At-risk youth, ADHD, trauma.
Doug has an MSW from New York University, and is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of New York. He has post graduate certificates in individual psychotherapy from Hunter College School of Social Work and in group therapy from Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society where he is an active committee and former board member. Doug has a diversified background in working with homeless people with HIV and AIDS as well as with children both in the foster care system. He serves as staff psychotherapist with Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center where he divides his time between the Child and Adolescent Clinic and The Corlears Complex which is a middle and high school in the neighborhood of Gouverneur. Doug continues his training at The New York School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and continues group training with the Center for Group Studies. He has maintained a private practice since 2001. Doug has been practicing yoga since the early 1990s and has studied meditation and Buddhism at the Shambahla Center in New York City. He finds that yoga and meditation are vital components of his work as a psychotherapist.
Robin Boudette, PhD
Health & Wellness Action. Robin Boudette, Ph.D. is licensed psychologist, yoga instructor and meditation practitioner with more then two decades of experience working as a psychotherapist in a variety of settings. Using her personal practice of yoga and meditation, she has developed an unique approach to overcoming self-defeating habits and embracing a balanced path to mind/body awareness. She facilitates mindfulness groups and trainings for therapists. She currently works at Princeton University Health Services and in private practice in Princeton, NJ.
Jenifer Francisco, PhD
Health & Wellness Action/ Youth Action, Trauma and addictions.
Jenifer Francisco is a clinical psychologist at the Women's Health Project at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and an assistant professor in the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling Concentration at the New School for Social Research. She specializes in working with individuals who have a history of trauma and addictions and incorporates meditation, yoga, and mindfulness into her clinical work. After discovering the benefits of yoga in her own life, Jenifer is particularly interested in the mind-body connection in the process of recovery and how it can inform clinical practice.
Support Staff:
Christina Rufin: Lead Teacher and Co-ordinator for SCA's At Risk Youth Programs
Christina Rufin finished her training with School for Compassionate Action in 2010 and has since been teaching yoga and meditation to adolescents in alternative-to-incarceration centers and to middle schools children in New York.
Christina has practiced yoga for over 20 years and received her Vinyasa certification in 2005, a certification through YogaEd (2007), and a training with Yoga International for children (2006). She has been teaching young children and adolescents since 2006 in after-school programs throughout the city. She is passionate about sharing the benefits of yoga and meditation with the young so as to plant those seeds of wellness of mind and body as early as possible.
Tanya Diallo Welsh - Assistant to the Director, and Lead Teacher
Tanya is a proud Fulani-American who grew up in Cote D'Ivoire and is now based in Brooklyn, NY. Tanya has been practicing yoga since 2004, she quickly fell in love with the practice discovering for herself that the movements of her body were not separate from the movements of her mind and breath.
She completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2010 and her 300 hour training in June 2011 with the School for Compassionate Action. She has interned at the DOME project and Gouverneur Hospital.
She is especially looking forward to sharing the tools of the practice with women and children in underserved communities, in the local and global arenas. Her interest in working with underserved communities stems from her international upbringing and being surrounded by countries that committed atrocities against their most vulnerable populations; women and children.
