Conversation Topics, covering Core Studio Components, will include:
Transformation: Topics include the discussion of the psychology of change as applied to a broad range of lifestyle choices.
Satiation: General nutritional topics range from classic 'Nutrition 101' to cutting-edge nutritional research; tips for eating healthy in a variety of circumstances; and food trends as seen in local markets and restaurants.
Perspiration: Conversations explore the three components of a sound exercise plan: cardiovascular activity, strength training, and stretching.
Attention: We discuss the practice of mindfulness as applied to healthy eating, creativity, mid-life navigation, and more. We also offer periodic instruction in meditation techniques.
Conversations happen Wednesday evenings from 7:30 - 8:30 pm at the Breathing Room studio. For a listing of upcoming Conversations, please visit our Events page.
CONVERSATION LEADERS
Dr. Kimberly J. Burke, OMD, LAC
Dr. Burke is a traditionally trained and Licensed Acupuncturist and Doctor of Oriental Medicine,
currently practicing in San Mateo. She is a board-certified Acupuncturist (NCCA). She has practiced in
health field for over nineteen years and has practiced oriental medicine in the Bay Area for seventeen years.
Kimberly is also a certified Childbirth Assistant and specializes in pre- and post-natal health care and
women’s health. Dr. Burke has been studying functional medicine and orthomolecular nutrition and aromatherapy
for over nineteen years. Kimberly also practices acutonics, a form of sound healing with specially designed
tuning forks, Tibetan bowls and bells. She can design and incorporate a nutrition and health rejuvenation
program to fit your specific body needs and lifestyle.
Bonnie Zimmerman, M.D.
Beneath the experience of our challenges and our wishes for our lives or bodies to be different, rests our
Essential Nature, which is already and always, profoundly and joyously, just fine.
We can learn to hold challenge, and wished-for opportunities while resting in this larger field. Then the innate wisdom of our Essential Nature permeates the smaller self, and life shifts as a result. For Breathing Room clients engaged with questions about weight, body image, relationship to food, and other lifestyle choices, this points to a unique way of meeting these issues while dropping the struggle.
Bonnie Zimmerman, M.D. is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School and works in private practice in Redwood City. She has taught courses on Cultivating Creativity at Stanford's Department of Continuing Studies, at the School of Engineering, at Esalen, and for a variety of schools and organizations. She practices in the area of the mind-body interaction, and has taught on this at the Medical School and in the Complementary Medicine Clinic. She has worked with people with chronic pain and all sorts of illnesses.
She recently taught a course on "Cultivating Creativity: Women at Mid-Life," through Stanford's Continuing Studies Department. This course focused on rich ways to meet the yearnings and openings that arise for many women at midlife.
Dr. Zimmerman's work is a synthesis of her meditation and spiritual inquiry experience with her years as a therapist, teacher of the creative process, and sculptor.
She leads Conversations on these topics at Breathing Room, while offering actual private
consultation only at her office in Redwood City. Her office is in a lovely 150 year-old house in
downtown Redwood City. You may contact her at 650.888.9407, or bzimmerman@stanford.edu
Ellen DiNucci, M.A.
In her healing work, Ellen DiNucci, M.A., assists clients in clearing and strengthening their energy fields, letting
go of anything they don't need to hold onto, and in connecting with universal healing energy to support psychological,
physical, and spiritual balance.
In private practice Ellen is a Healing Touch practitioner, wellness coach, stress reduction specialist, and integrative health educator. In addition, she consults at Stanford University Medical School, Meditrina World Healing Spa in Oakland, and in community, government, corporate, and retreat settings.
For more than nine years at the Stanford School of Medicine, Ellen has worked in various capacities as a researcher in nutrition, healthy aging, and integrative cardiovascular health. In addition, she implemented and managed an integrative medicine information clearinghouse and lecture series and taught stress management approaches to research study participants and staff.
Among Ellen's numerous published works are the relaxation CD Body Joy, the scientific journal article "Energy Healing, A Complementary Treatment for Orthopaedic and Other Conditions," and a chapter in Complementary/Alternative Medicine: An Evidence-based Approach. Ellen has training in healing touch, Reiki, mindfulness-based stress reduction, movement awareness, and other intuitive and healing modalities. She holds a master's degree in clinical holistic health education, a bachelor's degree in communications, and certificates in personal training and health coaching.
L. Serenella Leoni
Serenella is a Life Coach and Management Consultant who specializes in advising individuals, executives and successful
entrepreneurs on how to live a fuller, more passionate life. Her long career on two continents has spanned senior positions
in the corporate world, banking and the travel industry and allowed her to wear many hats. Her clients have included Visa
International, the University of Pisa, General Electric, NASA, business owners, writers, college professors, domestic
goddesses, teachers, spiritual, artists and authors.
Serenellaís clients have been successful in a variety of ways: turning around their businesses, managing others more successfully, undertaking new careers, re-discovering their dreams and passions and improving their lives.
She also believes in teaching by example. Serenella is the owner of Toscana Mia. Two times per year she demonstrates the passionate way of life that inspires her by leading people on a transformational experience in Tuscany.
Serenella has been featured or quoted in CBSMarketWatch.com, the American Banker, the San Francisco Chronicle, Healing Lifestyles and Spas Magazine, Gentry Magazine, the Kansas City Star, The Fontayne Group and other publications.
Please contact Serenella at 650-343-4819 or serenellaleoni@comcast.net
Ines Freedman
Mindfulness is a practice that cultivates a clear, stable, and non-judgmental awareness in everything that we do.
Ines Freedman has been practicing mindfulness meditation for over 20 years. Her focus is incorporating mindfulness into our daily activities, helping bring calm, clarity, and balance to our lives. Ines is a retired chiropractor with a background in yoga. She is particularly interested in two areas: how to mindfully and skillfully use our bodies in all our activities (including ergonomics), and the application of mindfulness meditation for working with physical pain. She is currently the Programs and Communications Director at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City.
Ronna Kabatznick, Ph.D
Ronna Kabatznick, Ph.D., is a psychologist who specializes in weight management. She was the psychological consultant to
Weight Watchers International for nine years and is the author of the best selling book, The Zen of Eating: Ancient Answers
to Modern Weight Problems. For the past 25 years, she has been working with people suffering with compulsive eating,
depression and anxiety. She has a private practice in Berkeley.
For further inquiries you may contact Dr. Kabatznick at ronna@mindfulmanagement.com