Meet Gabriel Rocco
Here at Contemplative Arts at the White Lotus Center in Bryn Mawr PA, I teach meditation and mindfulness-based stress management to individuals and groups, and support people living with cancer or other serious illnesses to integrate a variety of mind body methods into their healing journey. Through my personal meditation practice and through the experiences of those I have mentored, I am confident that meditation, mindfulness, and mind body practices can lessen the stress and suffering of emotional reactivity, increase happiness, and support healing transformations in one's personal life and in relation to others. It is deeply moving when someone attending one of my classes, retreats, or working with me privately, begins to experience that by turning inward, their meditation practice opens doorways to significant changes in their personal life—especially those changes they may have wished to make for some time, but have been unsuccessful in doing so.
The way I teach, give instruction, and guide meditation is informed by thirty years of meditation practice and the bumps and benefits of my social, educational, and contemplative experiences. I grew up in a working class Italian neighborhood in Paterson, NJ; attended Columbia College in New York City for seven years; sought refuge and farmed 125 acres in upstate New York for ten years to recover from living in New York City in the '60's; lived for a year at a contemplative community focusing on sustainability and spirituality in West Virginia; earned a Master's Degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado; met and married Marcy Vaughn, who was the Director of Admissions at Naropa; moved to the Delaware Valley and fathered our one son, Damon; returned to my childhood home for three months to support my father's living with and dying from pancreatic cancer; created the non-profit Life Support Group teaching mind body methods to people living with cancer; started an 18 year stint as the mind body health specialist at Philadelphia's Cancer Support Community; served as senior instructor at University of Pennsylvania's Penn Program for Mindfulness for more than a decade; and co-created Contemplative Arts here in Bryn Mawr with Marcy in 2011.
I have had the great fortune to meet and study with leading meditation teachers from a variety of spiritual and healing traditions. I continue to study and practice under the guidance of my teacher of twenty years, Tenzin Wangyal. Together with my wife, Marcy, we develop programs for and teach in The Three Doors, a secular organization dedicated to bringing the benefits of meditation to a wide audience.
Contact Gabriel: Call: 610-668-4140 | Email: gabrielrocco@msn.com
Meet Marcy Vaughn
The Contemplative Arts meditation studio at the White Lotus Center is the fruition of a long-held dream. In the early '70's I began practicing Buddhist methods of mind training while an honors psychology undergraduate at the University of Connecticut. As I became increasingly aware of the power and efficacy of meditation to support deep and honest reflection, well-being, creativity, and the development of kindness and compassion towards others, I earned a Masters in Contemplative Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, where I was able to deepen my commitment to the practice of meditation while exploring its benefits for others. While experiencing the cornucopia of offerings at Naropa, first as a student and then working in the admission's office and as a meditation instructor for psychology graduate students, I had the opportunity to explore, perform, and teach contemplative dance improvisation. At the request of Chogyam Trungpa, I moved to Philadelphia as the Director of Shambhala Training, an educational secular meditation program.
For the past 35 years I have had a private counseling practice supporting others through such methods as biofeedback, relaxation, imagery, and meditation to connect with inner wisdom and discover a life that is more spontaneous and joyful. I have continued to explore the path of meditation in deep personal retreat and group retreats both as a life-long student and as a teacher, and have had the pleasure of a long and rich marriage with Gabriel Rocco, with whom I raised our son, and with whom I teach.
Among the people who have inspired and personally guided me and to whom I am grateful are Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Barbara Dilly, Meredith Monk, Steven Gallegos, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Working closely with Tenzin Wangyal, a Tibetan Bon meditation teacher and founder of Ligmincha Institute International, I have edited three of his books: Awakening the Sacred Body, Tibetan Sound Healing, and Awakening the Luminous Mind. Together with my husband, Gabriel Rocco, we develop programs for and teach in The Three Doors, founded by Tenzin Wangyal. This international organization offers training in meditation in a secular context and creates programs and retreats to explore the healing and transformative power of personal and collective awareness.
While I have always enjoyed being a practitioner and a student, through the encouragement and provocation of my teachers, I have come to appreciate and commit myself to the rich path of teaching. Through private mentor sessions and through offering workshops, classes, and retreats, I will support you to explore the art of personal reflection, mindfulness meditation, healing through imagery, movement awareness, sound healing, and other meditation methods for physical and emotional well-being as well as support you to experience emotional and spiritual maturation on personal, relationship, and societal levels.
Contact Marcy: Call: 610-668-4140 | Email: marcyvaughn@msn.com
White Lotus Center