Rachel Lewis started meditating while completing her physics PhD at Yale. She has spent over 500 nights on silent retreat since 2003, including two three-month retreats. Her meditation training includes Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioners Program and Community Dharma Leaders program, and she is currently a trainee in the IMS retreat teacher training program, which involves apprenticing with Joseph Goldstein and other IMS teachers to teach retreats. She is also currently training as a practitioner of Indigenous Focussing-Oriented Therapy, a trauma therapy modality informed by an understanding of collective as well as individual suffering. Since 2010 she has taught classes and retreats in BC, including at a prison and in Vancouver's Downtown East Side. She has also developed a songbook of Buddhist music including her own choral arrangements of traditional chants. Her specialty is making profound teachings accessible through humour and story-telling. Listen to one of her dharma talks here: https://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/349/