Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart

Psychotherapist, meditation teacher, workshop leader, international consultant: Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart has devoted her professional life to helping people awaken their potential through “mindfulness” – mind-body practices that have evolved from ancient sages in the East, and whose efficacy is now being confirmed through rigorous experimentation by scientists in the West. As a licensed psychotherapist for over thirty years and a student of contemplative teachers in Nepal, India, and the United States, Jacobs-Stewart was among the pioneers in recognizing the similarity between teachings attributed to the Buddha and the “12-Step” recovery programs widely practiced in the West. In 2004, she and her husband, fellow psychotherapist James Jacobs, opened Mind Roads Meditation Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, offering spiritual insight and mindfulness training to hundreds of people, with a special focus on those in recovery. Her work in mindfulness with the recovery community was featured in the cover article of Renew magazine in May 2011. In 2015, Jacobs-Stewart retired from the leadership of Mind Roads Meditation Center to focus on her work as a teacher and author; the first fruit of that new focus is her third book, A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans. The book, released by Hazelden in spring 2016, highlights the Tibetan practice of “Compassion Slogans”—pithy phrases that reorient one’s thinking patterns—to overcome the “inner critic” so common in Western psychology. Jacobs-Stewart is also a celebrated speaker and workshop leader, having presented her work in many parts of the United States, as well as Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. This July, she again leads her annual retreat in self-compassion at the Hazelden-Betty Ford renewal center in Center City, Minnesota. Lectures from several of Jacobs-Stewart’s previous workshops can be found on her website, www.tjacobsstewart.com, under the “Media Resources” tab, along with insights found in her two previous books, Paths Are Made by Walking: Practical Steps for Attaining Serenity (2003) and Mindfulness and the 12 Steps (2010). Thérèse lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband of 36 years, Jim, and their amazing cat, "Kukla."