Dr. Dominique A. Malebranche (she/they) is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychology working at Pepperdine University on original Chumas/Tongva lands. Counseling psychologist by training, her work emphasizes intersections of embodied healing justice in BIPOC communities and treatment and assessment of psychological, relational, and historical traumatic stress, capacity building, and community and contemplative body-mind interventions. She is an invited Teaching Affiliate of Harvard Medical School at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, former postdoctoral fellow at the internationally known Trauma Center at JRI in Brookline, MA, and previous intern at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Malebranche centers the awareness of the body as a cultural source of healing, wisdom and transformation, demonstrated through co-organizing and co-founding Just Healing Coalition (JHC), providing embodied DEI and trauma-informed consultation in clinical, organizational, and community settings, and teaching yoga and contemplative practice from a liberatory framework.
Dr. Malebranche has served coordination and leadership roles in local, national and international organizations and has published articles, including recent publication in the Special Issue of the Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, and book chapters related to trauma informed clinical and contemplative practice. Her service to the Mind & Life Institute has included Varela grant review, participation in the Program Planning Committee for the 2018 International Symposium for Contemplative Research (ISCR), DEI and cultural consultation for internal MLI staff and at the 2019 Summer Research Institute (SRI), and the co-development of the Global Majority Leadership and Mentorship Program.
Current embodiment practices explore the cultivation of joy, healing, resistance and liberation in relationship to the ocean.
