Bio | MaryMartinPhD

Hi there!

I'm Mary Martin, and I'm a trauma-sensitive mindfulness educator and guide. That means I educate people of all ages about mindfulness and its many benefits, as well as guide them in developing their own mindfulness practice.

How am I able to do this? I've been through years of rigorous training with Brown University (to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction [MBSR]) as well as with Mindful Schools (to teach kids of all ages) and David Treleaven (for advanced training in trauma-sensitive mindfulness). I also have a doctorate from New York University’s School of Teaching and Learning, which gave me a wonderful foundation as an educator and researcher.

In addition, I've spent a handful of years diving into futures-thinking and was a Founding Member of The Institute for the Future's Urgent Optimist community (where I received several awards in Imagination Leadership), and I'm certified in Imagination Leadership Training as well as Foresight Essentials. I've been published on foresight, imagination, and mindfulness, as well as the intersection of foresight and financial planning.

I'm a passionate learner, an avid reader, I write daily, and I love making connections that might not seem natural.

One of those connections is mindfulness and financial services. I was in the financial planning industry for over a decade: ghostwriting books and other thought leadership, editing, developing curricula and assessments, and consulting on systems, processes, and operations. I watched as the industry moved from being concerned solely with the technical side of advice to including investor behavior and psychology. I took this evolution further by focusing on the advisor's way of being and the uniquely human qualities advisors can bring to their work that LLMs and other AI tools cannot master because they don't have bodies. I created Mindfulness for Financial Advisors to teach advisors the inner skills of embodiment they need to connect with themselves and better connect with the families they serve.

I brought my interest in connection to a RhetAI Coalition (a project of the Center for Humane Technology) working group studying the effects of ChatGPT and other chatbots on mental health, and also to Annecy Behavioral Science Lab's study of loneliness and social connection. Both projects run through 2025 and promise to provide the world with crucial insight into the state of human connection and flourishing, particularly since the introduction of Large Language Models.

My primary concern—no matter who I'm supporting or what phenomenon I'm researching—is to help people identify and develop the inner resources they need to face challenging times and ordinary times. These resources include self-awareness, resilience, inner and outer listening, a healthy, intentional identity aligned with behavior, and an expansive capacity to sit with uncertainty, ambiguity, and change.

I continue to write books for CEOs and thought leaders in a variety of industries, as I still enjoy it after two decades. It never gets old!

Of everything I get paid to do, my favorite activity is leading daylong silent retreats, as I get to watch as the practice of the participants deepens and their capacity broadens, real time.

I live in Jupiter, Florida, with my CFP® husband, our daughter, my mother, and two black foster failure cats.

If you're curious about how I might be able to help you or your business, you can email me at mary@marymartinphd.com.

May ease find you.

Mary