About

Learn about Open Mindfulness Meditation (OMM) Leaders

Anne Asker

Anne has been practicing meditation for more than 20 years and believes her steady mindfulness practice has brought more presence, acceptance, and resilience in her life.  Anne’s passion for the practice led her to the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness where she received training to become a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher.  In addition to teaching the MBSR course, Anne offers mindfulness presentations and workshops to law firms and business as well as private instruction.

Barbaranne Branca

Barbaranne Branca PhD ABN has been practicing meditation since 1978.  Barbaranne trained to become a mindfulness meditation teacher via a two-year intensive course (Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, directed by Tara Brach PhD and Jack Kornfield PhD).  Barbaranne  is a certified LoveYourBrain yoga teacher (e.g., this is a program to teach yoga and meditation to individuals who have sustained head injury).  Barbaranne works at Galaxy Brain and Therapy Center as a mindfulness meditation teacher.

Brenda Lindsay

Brenda is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor trained at Brown University. Brenda serves as a Board Member of the Ann Arbor Center for Mindfulness, is also a Certified Meditation Instructor, an Insight Timer Teacher, a Certified Yoga Teacher (CYT-200), and a Personal Resilience Practitioner (PRP).   Brenda founded Mind Transformations LLC and discovered that teaching mindfulness to individuals, leaders, and communities has been one of the most gratifying experiences in her career. To learn more, visit https://www.mindtransformationsllc.com/

Jennifer Ratliff-Moss

Jennifer is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher, trained by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.  She has been practicing meditation since 1989 and has attended numerous retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh as well as Vipassana retreats throughout the US and in India.  Jennifer maintains a mindfulness-based, trauma informed, private psychotherapy practice in Ann Arbor and has taught mindfulness and self-compassion courses to students, families, and community groups in the area since 2001.

Joya D’Cruz

Joya D’Cruz was born and raised in India, and has lived in Singapore and in various places in the North Americas. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Michigan, and has trained in Somatic and Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy for Complex Trauma. Joya has taught Mindfulness-based Meditation with the Prison Mindfulness Institute in Windsor, Ontario; and in the Women’s Prison in Michigan, USA. 

Laura Seligman

Laura began practicing  Buddhist meditation in the 1970’s. She  taught Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses privately and at Strong Hospital in Rochester, NY. Laura is certified as a Mindfulness and Meditation teacher through the Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Certification Program led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She is a senior teacher of The Realization Process (Judith Blackstone) which inspires the meditations for OMM. Laura is a visual artist and teaches the Realization Process online and in person at her studio-gallery.

Michelle O’Grady

Michelle has been practicing and studying mindfulness meditation for years.  Michelle completed her Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a project on the effects of mindfulness meditation on nurses’ stress levels and is certified in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP). Michelle is appreciative of the knowledge and kindness of the folks in OMM, and looks forward to continuing to work with them.

Libby Robinson

Libby is a Certified Teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She has taught MBSR since 2007 to members of the community and to psychotherapists, nurses, physicians, social workers, teachers, and other professionals.  Libby also leads drop-in meditation sessions and has presented to organizations and businesses on mindfulness. She co-founded the Ann Arbor Center for Mindfulness (AACFM) with other mindfulness teachers.

Linda Kessler

Linda first learned about mindfulness meditation from a therapist she was seeing after a long battle with cancer.  Doing a quick online search, Linda found Libby Robinson who was teaching an MBSR course. Linda signed up and was hooked!  That was more than 14 years ago, and mindfulness continues to be an important part of Linda’s daily life.  Most of her practice now involves mindful movement—Qi Gong and Tai Chi.  Linda attends a week-long silent retreat each year with a teacher from Insight Meditation Society located in Massachusetts.  In addition to leading a variety of OMM meditation sessions online, Linda helps schedule the sessions and sends out weekly newsletters. 

Marta Dabis

Marta Dabis is a board-certified hospital chaplain and lead priest of JissoJi Zen Ann Arbor. Marta’s prior meditation experience in Hungary started in 1980 with Autogenic Training and later with Transcendental Meditation. Marta studied bodywork with her teacher Francis Bujold, later following in his footsteps, she practiced Zen monastically at the San Francisco Zen Center and was inspired further by Edward Espe Brown.  Marta is a former management consultant, she has graduate degrees in business administration and computer science, and lives in CoHousing in Ann Arbor.

Pam Bifano Schweitzer

Pam Bifano Schweitzer, PMHCNS-BC received teacher training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from the Toronto Centre for Mindfulness Studies (CMS). An adult psychiatric nurse practitioner in the Michigan Medicine Department of Psychiatry for 30 years, Pam retired in 2018 and established her own practice of psychotherapy. As a council member of Ann Arbor Center for Mindfulness (AACFM), Pam participates in planning and offering retreats and workshops. Pam leads and participates in guided meditations at Open Mindfulness Meditation (OMM).

Paulette Grotrian

Paulette is an experienced meditator and teacher with over 25 years of meditation experience.  She teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Self-Compassion, and is a co-founder of the Ann Arbor Center for Mindfulness and Open Mindfulness Meditation.  Paulette trained to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 2010 with Jon Kabat-Zinn and to teach Mindful Self-Compassion with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer in 2016.  Paulette annually attends silent retreats and practices mindfulness and compassion formally and informally. 

Nicole LaBrie

Nicole LaBrie is a clinical social worker and certified teacher of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).  Nicole has been leading mindfulness classes and integrating mindfulness into her psychotherapy practice for the past decade. She has collaborated with both the University of Michigan and Ohio State University Departments of Psychiatry in researching the effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches in treating trauma, mood disorders, and chronic pain. In addition to MBCT, Nicole has taught yoga and is a level-1 qualified teacher of iRest Yoga Nidra, a non-sleep deep rest practice.