Jennifer Welwood, MA, MFT, is a teacher of integrated spiritual/psychological work, dedicated to the sacred human possibility of realizing and embodying our awake nature, in this very life and in this very world. She has been a spiritual practitioner since 1970, and a psychotherapist since 1987 (currently inactive). She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford University, and her graduate degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Jennifer’s first spiritual tradition was Kriya Yoga, a path of nondual tantric Shaivism in the lineage of Babaji Nagaraj and the 18 Tamil Yoga Siddhas. Since 1986 she has also been deeply informed by Vajrayana, or tantric Buddhism, especially the living stream of the Dzogchen tradition. In addition, she feels a deep affinity with the evolutionary perspective of Sri Aurobindo, and with the esoteric heart of all traditions.
Jennifer was propelled onto the spiritual path at the age of 15 by the sudden and unexpected death of her first love, which catalyzed a profound recognition of impermanence and a yearning for that which cannot be lost. She became a psychotherapist after repeatedly experiencing, in both teachers and students, a lack of integration that often seemed to accompany even genuine spiritual development, and the harm that such lack of integration could cause.
Her life purpose since then has been to bring together spiritual and psychological work in the service of not only realizing but fully embodying our awake nature––finding our intrinsic nature while unwinding our conditioned patterning––and she has been leading retreats, seminars, and ongoing groups dedicated to this work since 1988.
Jennifer lived with her beloved husband of 34 years, John Welwood, until his passing in 2019. She has a grown son, Bogar Nagaraj, who is also a teacher of integrated spiritual/psychological work.