The Art of Yoga Project is a non-profit organization that serves over 700 at-risk, incarcerated and exploited girls every year, serving over 6000 girls since its inception over a decade ago. Its core work is in detention facilities in San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. The Project goes directly into these facilities bringing a mindfulness-based curriculum combining yoga, meditation, creative arts and writing. Its mission is to empower young girls while teaching accountability and well-being. Its team includes specially trained, trauma-informed yoga teachers and art and writing educators. To keep girls connected after release, the Project has partnerships with middle schools and high schools that are primarily gang-impacted in their home counties. The Project also has programs for girls in substance abuse treatment facilities, level 14 facilities, and organizations working with sex-trafficked girls.

Please enjoy this conversation with Rocsana Enriquez, a former student and current teacher with the Project.

Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a farewell episode as Sarah departs to focus on her private psychotherapy and consulting practice.  Joe and Sarah interview each other about future plans and feelings about their work together on the WellnessCast™  As ideas take shape for the future of the Wellness Project and the WellnessCast,™ Joe would welcome input from law students about what content would be most useful.  Please contact Joe at [email protected] with feedback, suggestions, or ideas for a WellnessCast™ episode that you might like to co-host.  For law students and lawyers seeking executive consulting or counseling, please contact Sarah in her private practice at [email protected] or 510.697.8338.

Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a special episode about public wellness. Our guest is R. Ashby Pate, a Birmingham, Alabama lawyer who served as the co-prosecutor in the 2016 judicial ethics case against then Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Ashby is also a former Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau and is well-known for an inspirational speech, Be the Light, in which he advocates for the importance of human connection in the practice of law. Ashby shares his experience as the co-prosecutor against Moore and brings an interesting perspective about the current political divisiveness in advance of the special senatorial election on December 12, 2017. After offering his own wellness technique for managing this important moment in Alabama's history, Ashby closes the episode with a WellnessCast™ first as he sings a few bars of Lead Belly's Midnight Special—featured prominently in Be the Light.

What are three things a managing partner in Biglaw should do if she is concerned about attrition at the firm? What are mindsets and how should law firm associates and partners use them to create a more positive work life? How should firms encourage their associates to grow by valuing psychological safety over perfection? Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for an uplifting conversation with positive organizational psychology expert, Anne Brafford, JD, MAPP, as she shares a few of the many valuable insights in her new book, Positive Professionals: Creating High-Performing, Profitable Firms Through the Science of Engagement. In addition to offering specific guidance for creating more positive firms, the episode begins with a particularly poignant ‘hard moment’ from Anne, where she shares an experience of choosing to be a good human being, instead of an aggressive lawyer, during a deposition. We end with a discussion of our experiences trying out the wellness technique from last month and hearing about a stress mindset technique that Anne uses to thrive in her own life.

"Deprivation is creation," says psychiatrist Phil Stutz. If we stay calm when confronted with strong feelings of wanting more chocolate cake, alcohol, social media, sex, or whatever is our craving, these feelings of deprivation actually become a flashlight to help us see inside ourselves. "When you use this tool over and over and over again, you begin to look forward to your impulses, not because you're going to gratify them but because you're going to be able to turn deprivation into something empowering," adds Barry Michels. Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman for an intimate conversation with old friends and bestselling authors Phil Stutz and Barry Michels, who first gained national attention when they were described in a New Yorker profile as the go-to therapists for those on the creative side of the entertainment industry. In their bestselling book, The Tools, and now in Coming Alive, Phil and Barry bring to the rest of us the compelling techniques they use with their patients. These easy-to-use techniques transform everyday challenges—big and small—into opportunities to bring about bold and dramatic change. To help us experience their work, at the end of the podcast, Barry Michels guides us through the Black Sun Tool, which helps control strong impulses and cravings.

Join us for a brief loving-kindness meditation guided by Jeena Cho, JD, our October guest on the WellnessCast™

Imagine a law practice where you intentionally cultivate compassion for your opposing counsel. And you feel the same compassion and lack of judgment about your own anxiety that often arises from the many daily events over which you have little or no control. Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a remarkably candid conversation with Jeena Cho, co-author of The Anxious Lawyer: An 8-Week Guide to a Joyful and Satisfying Law Practice Through Mindfulness and Meditation. In addition to sharing several practical techniques from the book, Jeena opens up about her struggles with social anxiety and the path she took to embrace mindfulness and meditation. To help us get started with a meditation practice of our own, Jeena offers a brief guided loving-kindness meditation, which we have published as a separate episode.

As a public defender, you are the bearer of bad news, responsible for defending an enormous number of clients against the vast power of the government with all its resources, and doing daily battle with every other member of the criminal justice system, while sometimes you don’t feel supported by even your own friends and loved ones. Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a personal and moving conversation with Stanford Law Professor Ron Tyler as he shares his experience and wisdom as a long-time assistant federal public defender and now as Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at Stanford Law. Professor Tyler is passionate about preventing burnout and building resilience for lawyers by teaching self-care and mindfulness-based techniques. In this episode, he candidly opens up about an emotionally overwhelming experience during his first day as a public defender and offers several approaches for surviving in this very challenging career, including a favorite practice he uses to maintain his own well-being.

Are you a lawyer who regularly finds yourself having trouble falling asleep or waking up in the middle of the night during stressful periods at work? Do you have months where you travel to multiple time zones? Ever wonder whether there is anything you can do to improve your sleep without medication? Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for an enlightening conversation about sleep with Dr. Norah Simpson, Associate Director of the Stanford Sleep Health and Insomnia Program. Dr. Simpson offers useful suggestions for getting better sleep and provides information about effective non-drug treatments for those suffering from insomnia and other long-standing sleep disruptions.

Like a major league baseball player hitting home runs, our sweet spot is “where we have the greatest power and the greatest ease,” says Dr. Christine Carter, sociologist, and author of The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less. Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a candid conversation with Dr. Carter about her personal journey to write The Sweet Spot. Drawing on the latest scientific research on positivity, productivity, and elite performance, the book includes useful techniques for harnessing professional power and personal happiness with greater ease. On the podcast, in addition to talking about several of these techniques, Dr. Carter offers a hard emotional moment about her struggles with “people-pleasing,” and shares an experience of having “hospital fantasies” during a particularly exhausting time in her life. We end by reviewing the wellness technique from last month and Dr. Carter’s personal favorite — a “massive game changer” — for her own career.