Joslyn Hitter
Meditation Teacher
A native Angeleno and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Joslyn Hitter attended Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland for high school and American University in Washington, D.C., for undergraduate study. After a stint in NYC working in fashion publishing, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she worked and studied hatha yoga closely with Tias and Surya Little, studied Ayurveda with David Frawley, and studied Sanskrit with Nicholai Bachmann. She first studied insight meditation in 2008 and began a dedicated daily practice in 2012.
Joslyn’s approach is greatly informed by her multiple masters’ degrees in Eastern classics, counseling psychology, and depth psychology with an emphasis in somatic studies. “You already have everything that you need to practice mindfulness meditation, and you already know how to do it,” she says. “Being mindful just means being alive and feeling free. Feeling free to make choices instead of reacting. Feeling free to go inside yourself to find peace and ease, instead of depending on things from the outside to feel good.” She credits Donald Rothberg, Trudy Goodman, Spring Washam, and Arinna Weisman as her sources of inspiration and motivation for sharing the practices of loving awareness with communities suffering from intergenerational trauma and systemic violence. Since 2008, Joslyn has sat over 350 nights of retreat at Spirit Rock, and she has practiced Ashtanga yoga since 2000.
Dorset
Vermont
United States
- Insight Meditation
- Trauma Healing
- Plant Medicine
Testimonials
Joslyn guides her meditation students in the true tradition of mindfulness meditation. Where my experience tells me she excels is in her ability to create an embracing sense of safety in the personal meditation experience as well as in the communal meditation space. I am also appreciating the gentle and playful humor with which she teaches; this is a quality beyond the usual earnestness that enables me to find forgiveness in my imperfect practice. That’s a very supportive tool. Being her student is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Ongoing Client, West Los Angeles
I’ve taught with Joslyn in the Darfuri Refugee Camp Goz Amer in Eastern Chad and at InsightLA in Santa Monica. Whether working with traumatized refugees in extremely challenging situations or facing 100 more privileged people in our lovely center in Southern California, Joslyn is equally poised, effective, and at ease in the teaching seat. Her approach to teaching mindfulness and meditation is current, connected, knowledgeable, and profound.
Founding Teacher, InsightLA
Joslyn is a very dedicated mindfulness practitioner with extensive meditation retreat experience, and a deep commitment to applying mindfulness in various dimensions of daily life. She brings a wide perspective to her teaching and work with people, with grounding in depth psychology, somatic psychology, and work as a therapist; in sensitivity to and awareness of the dynamics of injustice; in academic studies of multiple world religions; and in Buddhist studies. She brings into all that she does a deep passion for learning and looking deeply.
Teachers Council Member, Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Training
-
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Community Dharma Leaders Program Nov 2019 - Nov 2021 (2 years) -
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Dedicated Practitioners Program Apr 2017 - Apr 2019 (2 years) -
InsightLA
Facilitator Training Jan 2016 - Dec 2016 (a year) -
UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
Mindfulness Facilitator Jan 2015 - Dec 2015 (a year)
Education
-
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Master of Arts in Depth Psychology 2015 - 2017 -
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Master of Arts in Counseling and Psychology 2008 - 2010 -
St. John's College
Master of Arts in Eastern Classics 2003 - 2004