Erica Dutton lives in Ann Arbor, MI, home of the Wolverines and the University of Michigan. She started studying meditation 30 years ago when she had a chronic illness that prevented her from working for the first time in her life. Her years as an advanced practice nurse in psychiatric mental health nursing really didn’t help much when she was struggling to deal with her own pain and fatigue. She stumbled on Jon Kabat Zin’s book Full Catastrophe Living and learned about meditation as a way to cope. She joined a local sangha that taught a traditional form of vipassana meditation. After extensive training, she taught Vipassana for many years. This was a time of rich learning but left many unanswered questions.
Then she accidentally met Jason Siff and learned about Recollective Awareness Meditation. He answered some of those questions. She started studying with Jason Siff and when he was out of the country teaching, with Linda Modaro. About 10 years ago, she started studying exclusively with Linda Modaro. After another teacher training period she began teaching Reflective Meditation.
Other significant teachers were: Lama Surya Das (Dzochen/Zen), Christina Feldman, Stephen Batchelor, Martine Bachelor, John Peacock, Akincano Weber (all from Bodhi College in UK) and Pema Chodron.
In her personal practice, she still uses some of the vipassana practices she learned years ago. But in Reflective Meditation, she feels like she came home to a practice that works for her. Self judgments and self-criticisms are less, she feels more freedom to explore her experience and learn how the teachings of the Buddha are evident in her meditation. She wants to share this practice with others so they too can succeed in meditation and see that their experience is important and valued.
Erica provides individual and small group teaching, classes and consultation, online and in person. Contact her for more information.