JoAnn Saccato, MA, is a mindfulness teacher specializing in disaster and trauma resiliency and learning the self through nature. She is a mindfulness-based life coach helping others align heart, mind and body with their deepest values and intentions.
The author of two books, Joann works with individuals and organizations, helping to stop the suffering of anxiety, emotional reactivity, reactions to disaster and stress. She uses nature and neuroscience as the primary source of her teachings while grounding them in her buddhist background, personal experience in recovery and as a trauma survivor.
JoAnn began her healing journey during the New Age movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Exploring many wisdom traditions as well as logic and science as a means to heal the wounds of her childhood, she settled in the Buddhist Theravada tradition, the source of present-day mindfulness.
Sitting her first Vipassana retreat in 1994, JoAnn is known in the Zen tradition as Awakened Presence of the Heart and in the Tibetan tradition as Joyful Deathless White Tara. She took pilgrimage in India as part of her studies at Sonoma State University (2007), sits retreats in the Thai Forest Buddhist tradition in Thailand and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, backpacks solo for extended periods in the high Sierras and travels abroad for her wisdom and guidance. She is a long time student and follower of the teachings of Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Mark Coleman, Anne Cushman and Rick Hansen.
A certified mindfulness teacher through the Mindfulness Training Institute (2019), she teaches in both secular and spiritual contexts. JoAnn has authored two books on the subject of mindfulness: Companioning the Sacred Journey: A Guide to Creating a Compassionate Container for Your Spiritual Practice (2013) and Mindful and Intentional Living: A Path to Peace, Clarity and Freedom (2018).
JoAnn completed her Bachelors (Liberal Studies) and self-designed Masters (Co-creating Sustainable Futures) degrees while living remotely, off grid, in a single room cabin without automobile access, running water or indoor plumbing. For ten years, she and her canine companion, Shyla, lived in voluntary simplicity close to the land and her spiritual practices. During this time, and as part of her studies, she was the founding inspiration of California's first cooperatively owned online food ordering and distribution system, Lake Co-op, as well as served on the committee to address genetically engineered food crops in Lake County and invigorated the local food system with community gardens and farmers' markets. Her passion for the environment and nature feeds her teachings and personal growth. She is presently on the board of her local Sierra Club chapter.
Her passion for trauma resiliency and recovery stem from her personal experiences both as a child of alcoholics and as a survivor of numerous large scale fires in her community. JoAnn has trained in FEMA funded projects working with fire survivors as a crisis counselor and leading a team of counselors (2018). She has developed workshops and trainings for individuals and organizations within disaster areas to help them understand the natural reactions to disaster and how to best navigate themselves, staff and community back to health.
Sitting her first Vipassana retreat in 1994, JoAnn is known in the Zen tradition as Awakened Presence of the Heart and in the Tibetan tradition as Joyful Deathless White Tara. She took pilgrimage in India as part of her studies at Sonoma State University (2007), sits retreats in the Thai Forest Buddhist tradition in Thailand and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, backpacks solo for extended periods in the high Sierras and travels abroad for her wisdom and guidance. She is a long time student and follower of the teachings of Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Mark Coleman, Anne Cushman and Rick Hansen.
A certified mindfulness teacher through the Mindfulness Training Institute (2019), she teaches in both secular and spiritual contexts. JoAnn has authored two books on the subject of mindfulness: Companioning the Sacred Journey: A Guide to Creating a Compassionate Container for Your Spiritual Practice (2013) and Mindful and Intentional Living: A Path to Peace, Clarity and Freedom (2018).
JoAnn completed her Bachelors (Liberal Studies) and self-designed Masters (Co-creating Sustainable Futures) degrees while living remotely, off grid, in a single room cabin without automobile access, running water or indoor plumbing. For ten years, she and her canine companion, Shyla, lived in voluntary simplicity close to the land and her spiritual practices. During this time, and as part of her studies, she was the founding inspiration of California's first cooperatively owned online food ordering and distribution system, Lake Co-op, as well as served on the committee to address genetically engineered food crops in Lake County and invigorated the local food system with community gardens and farmers' markets. Her passion for the environment and nature feeds her teachings and personal growth. She is presently on the board of her local Sierra Club chapter.
Her passion for trauma resiliency and recovery stem from her personal experiences both as a child of alcoholics and as a survivor of numerous large scale fires in her community. JoAnn has trained in FEMA funded projects working with fire survivors as a crisis counselor and leading a team of counselors (2018). She has developed workshops and trainings for individuals and organizations within disaster areas to help them understand the natural reactions to disaster and how to best navigate themselves, staff and community back to health.
"She speaks from a place of openness and authenticity of one who has experienced and embodies her message"
~ Norb Yates
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JoAnn has spoken for and/or consulted with the following organizations:
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Topics include:
- Mindfulness for stress reduction
- Personal and community resilience after disaster with mindfulness and compassion
- Mindfully finding our way in difficult conversations
- Mindful community conversations
- The science of happiness
- Growing Joy
- Aligning heart, mind and body with values and intentions
- Mindfulness as a path to wisdom