Heartwood

Connecting Survivors of Guru and Teacher Abuse

Heartwood offers a safe, compassionate space to heal and connect after physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and sexual abuse in Buddhism. We are a community-based center in Evanston, Illinois committed to providing holistic health and meditation services. Our center was conceived in 1999 as an organization where practitioners work together in a collaborative environment, and support one another to exemplify a network of health and wellness. Services from Heartwood are offered at no cost to survivors in need.

From 2014 to 2021, Heartwood was under the spiritual guidance of a prominent Tibetan Buddhist guru. After this experience resulted in financial exploitation and deception, Heartwood disassociated itself from further guru leadership. As the Heartwood community recovers from this trauma, we seek to uphold ethical responsibility inherent in Buddhism that directs us to refrain from committing harm, including all forms of abuses of power.


Heartwood is a 501c3 non profit.  All donations are tax deductible.

Who We Are

Even though our individual needs and interests vary, we believe it is essential for survivors to have the option to learn and heal with those that share a similar story. Heartwood’s Connecting Survivors of Guru and Teacher Abuse launched in October 2021. Participants connect monthly in a virtual community meeting. These peer-led meetings are closed to the public. We welcome all people of every race, color, sex, nation of origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression of profession, education and walk of life.

Guiding Principles

During these community meetings, we follow these guiding principles that we created together,

  • Confidentiality and safety are our top priorities.
  • This is a religious and spiritually neutral space. This is not a suitable space for teaching and telling.
  • We are here to be present and support one another in finding our voice.
  • It’s always okay to become dysregulated.
  • How we respond to each other and ourselves is with kindness and understanding.
  • Our shared purpose is to build community – it is okay and encouraged to connect outside of our set time together.

Heartwood is a 501c3 non profit.  All donations are tax deductible.

Participants

Survivors represent several Buddhist traditions that to date include, Theravada, Zen, and Vajrayana. We currently have 13 survivors meeting regularly, and we are adding a second group.

Allies are also invited to attend and participate. Ally participants bring diverse expertise and experience from within and outside the Buddhist community, dedicated to supporting survivors. This support includes providing resources and referrals, and helping survivors motivated to respond to their abuse find their voice through legal advocacy, and media outreach. Allies also help survivors explore the contextual and cultural factors that influence guru and teacher abuse.

Intended Outcome

Our shared hope is to prevent survivors from feeling shame, stigma, and loneliness. Guru and teacher abuse does not discriminate. All practitioners are at some risk of experiencing misuse or abuse of power. At Heartwood, we believe that survivors of guru and teacher abuse deserve a healthy and safe community to process their experience through the healing potential of human relationships. Survivors and allies work together to find a foundation for well-being and become equipped to cope with the short-term and long-term challenges of surviving abuse.

Heartwood / Northwestern Symposium: October 25, 2024

Photos from October 2024 Symposium:

Videos from October 2024 Symposium Participants:

Healing from Abuse – The Voice of a Survivor, Ally and Activist

Holding Buddhist Organizations Accountable for Abuse

Child Abuse in Buddhist Monasteries in Sri Lanka

Recordings from October 2024 Symposium Participants:

Conference Introduction from Nancy Floy & Sarah Jacoby

Talk 1 from Choelas Tenzin & Karma

Talk 2 from Willa Baker

Press Coverage from October 2024 Symposium:

The Heartwood-Northwestern Symposium: A Groundbreaking Gathering Centering Survivors of Sexual Violence in Buddhism

Reflection on Heartwood / Northwestern Symposium on Sexual Violence in Buddhism: Centering Survivors Voices

Additional Resources & Articles

Restart and Restore: A Journal for Survivors of Manipulation by Rachel Bernstein

Upcoming Event on October 25, 2024

Ethical Reflecting Course

Heartwood Hosts its First Gathering of Survivors of Abuse by Buddhist Teachers

Sexual Ethics and Healthy Boundaries in the Wake of Teacher Abuse

Click this link for a great list of helpful resources: https://bostonzen.org/resilient-sangha/resources/

Tibetan Buddhism – Struggling with Diffi-Cult Issues

Why Meditation Isn’t Enough

mitigating dHARMa

Heartwood Offers a Small Group with Rachel Bernstein

This group is currently full.

My name is Rachel Bernstein. I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Cult Specialist. My areas of expertise include family and relationship counseling, as well as providing emotional support and coping skills to children and parents. Additionally, I concentrate on cult intervention, cult recovery, and re-acclimation. My main goal as a provider is to be an open and encouraging ear to those who are looking for a space to talk about what they need. Every client is different, so I always work at a pace that matches what feels best for them.

Heartwood Survivors Program Expands Globally

We are very happy to announce that Choelas Tenzin and Karma will be working for Heartwood to provide much needed counseling and support to nuns who are survivors of guru abuses of power, especially sexual abuse, in Thailand, Malaysia, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Shri Lanka.

Choela Tenzin Dadon provides one on one and group counseling for Heartwood to nuns who have experienced sexual abuse in the nunneries. A Bhutanese nun, Choela Tenzin Dadon is an accomplished scholar and a gifted teacher. After completing a traditional 13-year program in Buddhist philosophy at Jamyang Choling Institute in Dharamsala, India, she went on to earn two Masters degrees and a PhD from the University of Malaysia, and has published extensively under her lay name, Sonam Wangmo. A global leader in the effort to improve gender equity in Buddhism, and especially the fight to obtain full ordination for Tibetan Buddhist nuns, she was recognized as one of the outstanding women in Buddhism by the International Women’s Meditation Center. Choela is currently the Director of Education for the Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia. She is fluent in English and four other languages, as well as several Bhutanese dialects.

Before joining the University of Nottingham Malaysia in 2019, Dr. Karma Tashi Choedron worked as an environmental sociologist with almost two decade’s experience in social audits, participatory rural appraisal and social-environmental impact assessments for sustainable forest and oil palm management; specializing in migrant workers and marginalized communities, gender, religion and development. A civil engineer by training, she graduated with a doctorate degree in Environment and Resource Studies from Mahidol University, Thailand in 2008 and completed her M.A in Buddhist Studies in 2016 from the International Buddhist College. Dr. Karma is a Vice-President of the International Buddhist Confederation and Deputy Director of Education at the Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia. She received the Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award in 2010 in Thailand in recognition of her contributions to Buddhism and the environment, Lord Dearing Award for excellence in teaching in 2022 and the Team Award for Commitment to Enhancing the Research Culture and Environment 2023 from University of Nottingham, UK. Choela. Dr. Karma has authored two books on conservation and co-authored a book featuring a comparative study between Sikhism and Buddhism, titled, Two Gurus One Message.

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