Jean Leonard

Jean Leonard, Ph.D. (she/her) is a licensed psychologist, dharma teacher, certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher, and Buddhist Ecochaplain in private practice in Louisville, Colorado. Jean teaches mindfulness classes and mentors mindfulness teachers in training through Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She has practiced yoga for over 30 years and vipassana meditation (primarily in the Theravada tradition) since 2003, and holds the Dharma as a sacred compass that guides her personal and professional life. Some of her primary teachers have included James Baraz, Gil Fronsdal, Dana DePalma, Thanissara and Kittisaro. She is currently participating in the two-year Dharmapala Training through Sacred Mountain Sangha which synthesizes essential practices and teachings from the Theravada and Mahayana traditions including the Bodhisattva ideal, non-dual dharma (Chan/Zen) and the use of devotional practice.

In her teaching and mindfulness-informed therapeutic work, she supports individuals through sacred accompaniment in meeting the circumstances of their lives and themselves with more gentleness, grace and good humor. She believes that with more access to clarity and compassion, we can remain in connection – with ourselves, our communities, and the Earth – finding ways of coming back into right relationship with the natural and social world to be a steward of transformation for the well-being of all. She has a particular interest in offering emotional and spiritual support to individuals and communities impacted by the environmental and ecological crises of our times, and practice related to aging, illness and dying.

Jean has a lifelong connection to the earth through gardening, farming, backpacking and cloud gazing. She feels a deep calling to support efforts in the service of engaged Buddhism and Joanna Macy’s Great Turning. She is honored to have joined the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center board in 2020 and to support ongoing community building and diversity, equity and inclusion at RMERC and in the Ecodharma community.