Dr. Tushar Bhagat is an accomplished scientist and has dedicated over a decade and a half to cancer research. He is a commended medical school faculty member at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and professionally trained as a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) teacher from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Brown University. Apart from delivering the 8-week MBSR program at Brown University, he is now also training individuals to become MBSR teachers at the Mindful Northwest.

Dr. Bhagat has facilitated numerous MBSR and other stress reduction programs at the Columbia University graduate program, The Brooklyn Hospital, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Cancer Center for the cancer patients, Ph.D. and medical students, residents and fellows, medical doctors, therapists, scientists, and staff.

Growing up in India with a strong yoga and mindfulness background, Dr. Bhagat received his early yoga and meditation training from his parents. Since the past 30 years, his personal meditation practice has been rooted in the Vipassana (S.N. Goenka) tradition. He regularly engages with and learns from different teachers and schools of mindfulness and meditation, including the Zen-Thich Nhat Hanh plum village community. He firmly believes in the potential of science-based mindfulness practices in reducing stress and increasing well-being and embodies a deep commitment towards teaching integrative mindfulness to create conditions for a happier, more content, and more meaningful life for his participants.

Geeta Cowlagi is a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She has studied with the founder of MBSR, Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn, and has attended silent retreats led by many of the Vipassana teachers who influenced Jon, including Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzburg. Geeta brings over twenty-five years of personal meditation practice and over twelve years of professional experience in teaching mindfulness.

She has presented to over 60,000 people around the world including the University of Texas at Austin, Seton Cove, Seton Leadership Team, Dell Medical School, the Heart Hospital of Austin, The LiveStrong Cancer Foundation, Merck and Zydus Pharmaceuticals, India.

Prior to teaching Mindfulness, Geeta worked and taught at the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin and is a two-time recipient of the Eyes of Texas award.

Geeta is known for her “heart-centered” approach in exploring stress and mindfulness. She is passionate about introducing people to a kinder, gentler and more courageous way to meet life’s challenges and help them to cultivate greater resilience, compassion and joy.

Geeta spent her childhood in Delhi, Bhutan and Gujarat. Her parents were avid yoga practitioners who encouraged her to practise from an early age. Geeta came to the US as an undergraduate student and has continued to deepen her personal practice over the years.

Geeta found refuge in the practice of MBSR when her beloved mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2006. Understanding the science of mindfulness and the power of compassion and joy to meet stress helped Geeta to support her parents in their aging and dying process as she split her time between India and the US for almost two decades. What started out as a path of fear and exhaustion eventually transformed into a sacred journey of tender care, deep friendship and extraordinary transformation, thanks to her personal practice of mindfulness and compassion. Geeta teaches from this wellspring of personal experience and hopes to share this wisdom from her life’s lessons.