Swati Desai

Dr. Swati Desai holds a Ph.D. from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and is a licensed psychotherapist and a Certified Teacher of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion. She has taught many Mindful Self Compassion programs in the U.S., India, and online to international audiences from all over the world. She has spent 20 years integrating mindfulness, compassion, and self-compassion practices into clinical and educational settings.

Author of the book “Get Mindfulness Right”, she combines her training in both Western psychology and Eastern contemplative traditions to explain the right use of Mindfulness. She runs an ongoing Mindfulness and Compassion online group that meets every Sunday in which she brings a unique cross-cultural depth to her teaching. She has worked extensively with trauma, anxiety, and difficult emotions using mindfulness-based approaches, and was in private practice for over a decade at the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Los Angeles.

She is the founder of 2meditate.com, a global mindfulness platform, and has taught mindfulness at UCSD, the Indian School of Business, and in many university and organizational settings in the U.S. and India. She has also served in leadership roles at UCLA Anderson, UCSD’s Center for Mindfulness, and several international academic programs. Deeply committed to compassionate, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive healing, Dr. Desai’s work focuses on helping people develop emotional resilience, inner safety, and a kinder relationship with themselves.

Alexis Williams

Alexis Williams is a mindfulness and well-being coach with over three decades of experience supporting individuals through loss, transition, and meaningful change. Her professional journey includes founding and leading The Center for Massage and Holistic Therapy in San Diego for over 25 years, where she worked closely with thousands of clients, developing a deep understanding of how stress, loss, and change live not only in the mind, but in the body and the rhythms of daily life.

This long-standing hands-on work naturally evolved into a broader calling: supporting people through loss, transition, and the questions that arise in midlife and beyond. Today, Alexis brings together mindfulness, grief support, and life coaching to help clients move forward with greater self-trust, emotional resilience, and purpose—without rushing or bypassing what needs to be honored along the way.

Alexis is an ICF-certified professional coach (ACC) and an Advanced Grief Recovery Method Specialist, with extensive training in mindfulness, meditation, self-compassion, and interpersonal neurobiology. Her education includes studies with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, the Dedicated Practitioner Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, professional training with Jon Kabat-Zinn, and certifications through UCSD Integrative Medicine (UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center), the Chopra Center, the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, among others.

Her approach is grounded, integrative, and deeply human—honoring both the tenderness of loss and the possibility of renewal. Alexis works alongside her clients, creating space for honest reflection, deep listening, and intentional forward movement, so that change feels not forced, but genuinely lived.