Paul Epstein, ND is a Naturopathic Physician, mind-body therapist, meditation teacher and speaker. He specializes in mind-body integrative medicine and the clinical and therapeutic application and integration of mindfulness practice and Buddhist perspectives in health and healing, transforming stress, pain, and illness into a journey of self-healing and awakening. He is on the faculty of AIHM, the Association for Integrative Health and Medicine. Dr. Epstein completed the first Community Dharma Leaders (CDL) teacher training joint program of Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Centers, trained at the Academy for Guided Imagery, and has trained in the Internal Family Systems Model of Psychotherapy, and is a certified yoga teacher. He founded and led the Insight Meditation Community of Fairfield County, and co-founded and co-directed the Israel Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Dr. Epstein leads mindful healing trainings, workshops and retreats worldwide, mentors health professionals and is in private practice. He is the author of Happiness through Meditation.
Dr. Epstein’s expertise includes extensive studies and practice in a variety of mind-body therapies:
- Mindfulness meditation and self compassion
- Stress reduction and cultivating resilience
- Trauma informed/trauma sensitive care
- Narrative medicine and how biography becomes biology
- Buddhist psychology
- Psychotherapy in a spiritual context
- Internal Family System Model of Psychotherapy
- Graduate of the 3 year Community Dharma Leader (CDL) training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
- Certified yoga instructor – studied with Swami Vishnu Devananda, author of Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga
- Extensive training in clinical guided imagery. Graduate of the Academy for Guided Imagery with Martin Rossman MD
- Student of John Wellwood, Ph.D. author of Healing Power of Unconditional Presence
Dr. Epstein has authored many articles for both general and professional audiences, as well as the book Happiness Through Meditation.
- Living questions…..practice approach
- Illness as opportunity article
- Where’s the healing?
- Formulation of my healing philosophy
- Meditation as Medication
- Happiness through Meditation info on my book
Paul Epstein - How true healing comes from within - Integrative Wisdom
My name is Dr. Paul Epstein. I’m a naturopathic physician, Carl Young. These are quotes that have meaning for me over my 30 year career. You’re not what happened to you, you’re what you choose to become. But if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it. So for me, a lot of illness is repetition, compulsion. So Mrs. Jones might come to me and say, Dr. Epstein and I have to lose weight. And she’s tried diet after diet after diet, and every time she’s lost weight, so her body is showing we can lose weight. I say, well, why do you want to lose weight? And she said to me, this was very powerful for me. Well, quite frankly, because after all of this, after trying and losing and trying and losing and gaining and losing gain, now I’m fat and ugly and I hate myself. And I said, wait a minute. I said like something clicked in my head, Mrs. Jones, I can give you a better diet. I think I can individualize. But before we do that, I want you to be able to look at me in the eye and say, I want to lose weight because I love myself. Very different energy, very different intention. Most people go to naturopathic doctors are seeking deeper healing transformation. So that’s what I see with patients all the time. We’re all giving them the right ingredients except they’re not in it. What excites me is we can do that from within, giving the patient the support, the guidance, the therapeutics, the skills they need to heal themselves.
Article links
- The Body Remembers and Bears the Burden – When Biography Becomes Biology – Naturopathic Doctor News and Review
- Childhood Trauma and Adult Disease: What’s the Real Diagnosis? – Naturopathic Doctor News and Review
- Pain as Teacher: Listening for its Meaning, Message, and Opportunity – Naturopathic Doctor News and Review
Though I’ve learned much over the years spent with Dr. Epstein, the most valuable gift he has given me is that of awareness.
Having awareness is exhilarating, devastating, enlightening, fear-inducing, and fear-conquering. Awareness is the key to understanding the parts of you that are in the lead and the parts that are in hiding. Learning, as Dr. E puts it, ‘how you came to be this way’, leads you on a path toward balancing those parts…and with that balance comes further awareness and healing.
While no one patient’s healing recipe is the same, I used no drugs, no supplements, and no surgeries to overcome chronic sinusitis, constant headaches, and a years-long pain in my side that flummoxed doctors, surgeons, acupuncturists, and psychiatrists. Only by treating the Mind and the Body as a whole was I able to truly heal.
Thank you, Dr. Epstein, for helping to open my eyes – to bring awareness – and for the healing that continues to come.