About the Author

TIMOTHY AMBROSE DESMOND is a Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Antioch University teaching professional psychology rooted in self-compassion. He has lectured at Yale School of Medicine, and taught mindfulness in all 50 states. After having grown up poor in Boston with a single alcoholic mother and having been homeless as a teenager, Desmond was exposed to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, and eventually studied closely with Thich Nhat Hanh and his senior monastics at Plum Village. In 2011, Desmond co-founded Morning Sun Mindfulness Center, an intentional community and retreat center in Alstead, NH.

When he isn't teaching, advising, or on retreat, Desmond is organizing progressive political demonstrations, and was one of the core organizers of Occupy Wall Street. Tim spent a night in jail with Daniel Ellsberg during the anti-Iraq War demonstrations in San Francisco