Linda Lehrhaupt, PhD

is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches/Institut für Achtsamkeit. She is acknowledged as a pioneer in introducing MBSR and mindfulness education in several European countries and is known for her depth of knowledge and expertise in the integration of mindfulness in education, health care and its social applications.

She began teaching MBSR in Germany in 1994 and has taught within the Institute’s MBSR teacher-training program since 2002. She began her MBSR teacher training at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, with Prof. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues in 1993 and completed its MBSR teacher certification program.

She has practiced Zen meditation since 1979 and is a Zen teacher (Roshi) in the White Plum Lineage founded by Taisan Maezumi Roshi. She has also completed a training and is certified to work as an interfaith spiritual director (companion).

Dr. Lehrhaupt earned a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University in 1990 with a specialty in ritual and traditions. She earned an M.A. in Drama (NYU) and a B.A. (Hofstra) in English and Secondary Education. In her early teaching career, she worked as a secondary school teacher before moving into adult education and professional training in mindfulness-based programs, where she has taught for more than 40 years. During these years, Dr. Lehrhaupt had led many hundreds of workshops and retreats.

She has written several books, including co-authoring a highly regarded introduction to MBSR that has been translated into 9 languages.

Born and raised in New York City, she has been living in Germany and France since 1983.