Cultivate Compassion. Build Resilience.
Shape a life of personal resilience, social engagement, and greater purpose through embodiment, compassion, and mindfulness.
Nalanda Institute’s Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) is a complete, evidence-based method of training the resilience of mind, heart, and body we need to sustain lives of well-being, engagement and purpose in our interdependent world. It was developed and tested at the university hospitals of Columbia and Cornell, where it has been offered continuously since 1998.
The 8-week CBRT course includes:
Eight live, online, 1.75 hour modules with teaching, group discussion, guided practice, and Q+A
Foundational teachings on mindfulness and compassion—plus how to integrate them in daily life
Introduction and development of contemplative practices: mindfulness, compassion, breathwork, and healing imagery/visualization
Inspiring talks on the intersections of contemplative science research and eastern wisdom traditions
Comprehensive student manual + member access to student site with bonus resources and guided meditation practices
Upon completion of course, access to ongoing personal development and connection with Nalanda Institute CBRT graduate community (at no additional cost!)
CBRT is an evidence-based modular training that teaches the science and skills people need to reduce stress, build resilience, and cultivate lives of well-being, engagement, and purpose in our ever more interdependent world. It empowers people to develop a more resilient mind, heart, and body by combining skills taught separately in other trainings—mindfulness, compassion, imagery, and breath-work—into one step-by-step introduction, providing the most cost-effective way of educating lay and professional groups in the full spectrum of mind/body research and contemplative skills.
-
Bringing mindful awareness to our breathing body helps us reconnect with our inner lives, to embrace the experience of being in a sensitive body, vulnerable to pleasure and pain, and to begin releasing the survival habits of stress, trauma, and reactivity.
-
Staying in touch with the raw feel of our inner lives with mindful sensitivity helps us maintain balanced awareness through the ups, downs, and plateaus of pleasant, painful, and neutral experience, to anticipate reactivity, and to replace the urge to avoid or crave with the ease of acceptance and care.
-
Mindful Awareness trains us to cut through the mesh of reactive habits and stress instincts that normally block the full openness and clarity of our human mind. It empowers us to own and awaken the boundless potential for learning, unlearning, freedom and creativity dormant in us all.
-
In Mindful Insight we engage our open mind to expose the habits of thinking, feeling, and acting that shape our mindset, empowering our inner therapist to cut the roots of reactivity and grow proactive new ways of being in the world.
“I took this course to explore ways to develop richer connections with people. I was looking for new strategies to counterbalance broad social trends of disconnectedness, intolerance, and anxiety. I want to contribute something to improving our world; it seems like the best place to begin is by improving myself.
This course was a revelation in uncovering the positive resources that already exist within myself. It not only gave me real, practical tools for relationship-building, but it left me feeling inspired by the vast goodness and power that resides in all people if we’re willing to pursue it. The concept of mental spaciousness was especially key. In an hyper-cluttered, information-overload world, the gift of mental spaciousness is exceptionally powerful.
Alexa is a deeply knowledgeable mindfulness practitioner who combines extraordinary intellect and compassion to offer an effective, focused mentorship. The knowledge gained through the CBRT course and working with Alexa has given me greater self-awareness; it empowered my ability to manage relationships more effectively, and this makes the world a better place, one person at a time! High praise for Alexa as a guide on the journey to balance, compassion, tolerance and better living.”
—M. G., retired business executive, active educator
“I took CBRT because I wanted better insight into how to be a more compassionate person and more patient with people, less reactive. I have aging parents and I needed to be able to meet them more on their level, to gain a better understanding of how they were feeling.
Since finishing the course, I’m more patient and empathetic. I’m more aware of when I’m feeling impatient and can respond to that more effectively as well. Something that surprised me about the course is that I realized I wasn’t the only one with patience issues. It was helpful to hear other people in the class talk about their challenges with those things. Alexa fielded questions and articulated answers to the class so well. She helped me understand the science and insight of compassion and resilience in a way that made sense, and I really appreciated that.
I’m now better at recognizing when I need to take a step back and am more confident in my meditation practice. I would recommend this course to teachers who are struggling with work and burnout, and anyone who is feeling constant stress. I also see the stress level of high school students today and if I were still teaching, I would take the techniques I learned in CBRT and use them in the classroom. Alexa was able to address a diverse group of people who were all looking for something different, and she was able to pull all that together.”
–Tom, ski instructor, retired teacher.
-
With the basic insights and practices of mindfulness-based self-healing in place, we are prepared to extend that awareness and care out to our interactions with others. Using the practice of Equal Empathy we begin to unlearn the implicit social survival biases and reactive emotions that make all our interactions stressful while deepening and expanding our sense of connection to others.
-
With more of a sense of our common humanity, we explore where our social stress and suffering comes from, and what can be done to prevent it. Using the practice of SelfCompassion, we learn to view our confused childhood selves with a wise, caring mind and begin to see through our myopic cocoon and inner monologue to reparent ourselves one breath at a time by replacing self-enclosure and self-criticism with the mature insight and care our hearts need to heal, grow, and change.
-
As we grow the ability to free our minds of self-limiting biases, emotions and beliefs, we gain access to our full natural potential to expand our circle of positive social engagement. Using the practice of Wise Give and Take, we explore our boundless human potential for care and strengthen our social muscles of love, joy and equanimity, and realize our full human capacity for feeling safe with and deeply connected to others.
-
To accelerate the natural process of positive human development we use the power methods based on embodied techniques to progressively grow and own our natural capacities for love, compassion and altruism. Focusing on visualization practice, we take inspiration in real or imagined role models of wise care who enable us to stretch our traumatic sense of self into a fully empowered, resilient and compassionate self.
“My biggest challenge before taking this course was managing my emotions in my relationship with my mom as I am her main caregiver. To clarify, trying to be more patient and compassionate toward her neediness, and not allowing her words and behaviors to trigger guilt and feelings of not being enough or not doing enough. I hoped to gain insight and tools into managing this challenge but also wanted to better understand the science behind how contemplative practices can contribute to well-being on many levels.
The most impactful part of this course has been giving myself permission to feel feelings that I used to avoid or push away (worry, overwhelm, disappointment). I found many parts of the course helped me to understand this. Emotional resilience and opening and softening often helps me step back and absorb, without judgment or fear, what is going on for me. This willingness brings clarity and then the ability to move on.
I found the content of this course fascinating and life changing. But the best part was how Alexa combined her tremendous knowledge with such a gentle, soft, and welcoming approach in her facilitation. She encouraged and embraced participation from all of us and her responses were always genuine and affirming toward the participant who shared. This material is challenging no doubt and having someone like Alexa teaching it makes it all the more accessible. I think everyone needs this course.
I feel I had some of these skills before the course as I’ve been interested in contemplative practices for several years. I am more of a giver in my life than a taker and this course has helped me to find more balance with this by realizing self-compassion allows me to be more compassionate with others. The course has helped me to find perspective in difficult situations which enables me to work through them more fluidly now that I have more tools.
I think CBRT would be valuable for any and every one. It really is life changing. While people will extract different components in different ways according to their own needs, hopes and individuality, the bottom line is that it is all good and however it is absorbed it will enhance your well-being. In our current world, with its many challenges, I think the time is so ripe for people to understand the value of contemplative practices and learn how to apply them. While the content in and of itself might not always be easy to understand, embrace, or practice, Alexa’s warmth comes through so genuinely and seemingly effortlessly. It is a course that really can only be valuable if taught well and I can’t imagine a better facilitator.
—Deb, creative business owner
“I joined this course because I was interested in learning more about how mindfulness can help build resiliency. I was already very familiar with meditation and mindfulness but never really looked through the lens of how we can use contemplative practice specifically to build resiliency.
As someone who has always been very sensitive, resiliency is something that I’ve had to build and work towards−and I see the same in many of my students and clients.
What stood out for me in this course is the solid scientific foundation that the practices rest on. The practices are delivered in a down to earth way and are directly applicable in real-life situations.
While many of the practices find their roots in spiritual traditions, this course offers a modern, relevant, and grounded approach to mindfulness and compassion practices. For example, I would not hesitate to recommend this course to someone who has never meditated before.
Alexa teaches this course with passion, wisdom, and empathy. She has a talent for explaining complex concepts in a way that everyone can understand them. She is clearly very versed in the topics she teaches and supports everyone with true compassion, warmth, and care.
For me, this course has offered a new perspective on mindfulness and compassion and how we can use them in our daily lives to feel less stressed and more resilient.
I will definitely revisit the course materials."
–Deniz, yoga therapist, burnout coach
FAQs
Do I need to have a background in meditation to take this course?
1
All practice levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. This curriculum is tailored to meet you where you are—whether that’s at the start of your meditation journey, at a plateau, or seeking to dig deeper into the lesser-known factors that contribute to compassion and resilience in everyday life.
Do I need to attend all sessions live? Will there be recordings?
2
Live attendance is strongly encouraged, as each session will include time for group discussion and learning. Priority will be given to those who wish to register and plan to attend at least 5 of 8 live sessions. That said, you are most welcome to join the course if you can’t attend all live sessions. Each class will be recorded and available for up to one year after the course ends.
How is this different from other mindfulness trainings, like MBSR?
3
CBRT combines mindfulness, compassion, visualization, and breathwork practices to offer a robust and comprehensive foundation for contemplative learning. This training is centered on the fact that humans are social animals and life is inherently relational: we root the teachings and practices in their applicability to daily life. CBRT also works to meet each participant where they are—we ground the work into how it can benefit your life as it is.
Is this a therapy group?
4
While CBRT is packed with psychoeducation and practical contemplative tools (and run by a therapist), it is not therapy. This is also why anyone (not just CO residents) can join! If you are seeking space to process trauma or get support on severe mental health symptoms, please do seek out a therapist or therapy group for support. If you are a CO resident and interested in working with me in that capacity, you can learn more about my therapy offerings here.
Hi, I’m Alexa — Meditator, Social Worker, and Certified CBRT Teacher
If you feel overwhelmed with all the mindfulness and compassion content out there—I get it. If you’ve been searching for a clear, organized way to train the skill of resilience in your life, or apply it to your work, I’m glad you’re here too. I’ve been teaching CBRT since 2022 and have seen how it can transform peoples’ lives —whether in partnership, caregiver roles, work environments prone to cause burnout, or transforming what we think about ourselves and what’s possible for our lives. CBRT is a complete system that combines psychology, neuroscience, and wisdom grown from authentic Buddhist practices that can shift participants from feeling burned out, anxious, and fearful to resourced, connected, and confident in skills that open up possibility and potential.
I use the CBRT tools every day; they’ve supported me through seasons of growth and expansion, grief and loss, setting boundaries, healing inner child wounds, working through relationship stuff, being a secondary caregiver for family members, and taking the leap on big life dreams.
I graduated from the 3-year program in contemplative psychotherapy at Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and am also a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work. I currently teach on the meditation faculty at Nalanda Institute and maintain a private psychotherapy practice in Boulder, Colorado.
In my own ventures through various contemplative, spiritual, and wellness spaces over the past two decades, I often felt overwhelmed by the countless paths and practices, and how to organize them in ways that felt meaningful and authentic to my life. CBRT synthesizes the most important aspects of mindfulness, compassion, embodiment, and resilience into one comprehensive course, which is why it is my favorite course to teach. It centers connection and relationality, paying homage to the lineages from which the wisdom and practices come, while also tending to the cutting-edge neuroscience and social psychology research that can fortify our motivation and understanding to live engaged, proactive lives. I hope you’ll join us!
Investment: 3 Pricing Tiers ranging from $325 to $550
-
This tier is for those with who easily meet their basic needs and can do things like take an annual vacation, eat out, own or lease a car, and regularly buy new things.
-
This tier is for those with some expendable income who may stress about meeting basic needs but still regularly achieve them or have access to achieve them.
-
This tier is for those with very little expendable income who may struggle to meet basic needs, or are un/underemployed
This sliding scale is inspired by The Green Bottle Method, developed by Alexis J. Cunningfolk. You can read more about the method, including the full list of specifiers for each tier and how to find the one that fits your circumstances here.
Sliding scales work in large part because of honesty and mutual respect, and I will never ask registrants to “prove” or explain why they select the tier that they do. Please make the choice that’s aligned for you at this time.
If you would like to join but need some financial flexibility, like a payment plan, please note that in your application form and we’ll be in touch.
CBRT was developed in 1998 by Joe Loizzo, MD, PhD, Founder and Director of Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, by integrating timeless techniques of contemplative self-regulation from India and Tibet with contemporary breakthroughs in neuroscience, positive psychology, and optimal health. It has been offered continuously since then at New York Hospital, the University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, as well as a range of area schools and businesses including two underserved NYC public schools, The Calhoun School, The Rebecca School, Appnexus, and the New York Public Library. You can learn more about it here.