Elisabeth Janz Mayer-Rieckh is of Austrian origin, holds a Masters in Counseling and is trained as a social worker. She further completed a Masters degree in Gender and Development Studies. For many years, she worked with humanitarian organizations in countries faced with forced displacement, including Hong Kong, Cambodia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, focusing on the plight of refugees and victims of war and trauma. During these years, she also accumulated broad experience in facilitating training workshops for humanitarian workers around various mental-health themes. Accredited as a professional counselor with the Swiss National Counseling Association and certified as a Parenting Trainer, she offered individual counseling to adults and adolescents in private practice in Geneva, and facilitated numerous parenting courses over the years.

After years of yoga and meditation practice, Elisabeth was introduced to Mindfulness in 2008, when she participated in the 8-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course. The regular practice of mindfulness mediation has become a central pillar in her life ever since. She trained as a MBSR teacher with the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, completing the Teacher Development Intensive course in 2011, continuing to engage in supervision with senior instructors from the Center. Before moving to the United States in 2010, she had been teaching the traditional 8-week MBSR course on a regular basis in Geneva, Switzerland, to individuals challenged by a wide range of social, psychological, as well as medical stressors. In 2011, Elisabeth began offering the training in the Westchester area of New York. 

Raised and educated in Austria, The Netherlands, England and Switzerland, Elisabeth is fluent in German, Dutch, English and French. The subsequent exposure to a number of countries beyond Europe have further broadened her understanding of non-western cultures, different belief systems, values and customs and helped her cultivate a cultural sensitivity that continues to inform her work with people. Motivated and inspired by her personal meditation practice, mindfulness-based theories and practices increasingly inform and guide also her professional life in the mental health field. As a result of her work in the humanitarian field, Elisabeth has a particular interest in bringing MBSR into the international aid community as well as to people faced with repeated relocations and the major life transitions that this often involves. Elisabeth is married and a mother of four children. 

Contact: ejanzmr@gmail.com