• Nov
  • 21
  • 2024

Rewilding the Mind: How Liberatory Technology to Support Wellbeing

Speaker: Dr. Eve Ekman, PhD, MSW

Our ever-increasing intimacy with technology means we live more of our lives with, through, and mediated by it. The science suggests that our connection with technologies carries both opportunities and risks to our social, societal, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions. The concerns about our disconnection caused by distraction, social comparison, loneliness, and lack of true connection, both inner and outer dominate the conversations, however technologies have the potential to enhance our self awareness, insight, and compassion. This talk with focus upon digital mood and emotion tracking apps and the online Atlas of Emotion as examples of how our technologies have the potential for helping us become more mindful and ultimately free from destructive emotions. The conscious cultivation of awareness through practices that teach us how to pay attention to our…

About Speaker

With a deep-rooted commitment to fostering mental and emotional wellbeing, Eve Ekman brings over a decade of experience in diverse, multidisciplinary roles across the health and wellness landscape. Currently, as a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, she develops and supports science-informed training programs promoting wellbeing in healthcare. She has extended this expertise globally through training initiatives with the American Nursing Foundation and Tsz Shan Institute. As a Wellbeing Lead at Apple Inc., she specializes in creating impactful wellness experiences, contributing to apps like Fitness+, Breathe, and Reflect, and exploring VR-based mindfulness.

Her meditation teaching experience spans from SF Dharma Collective, where she cultivates community connection through weekly meditation classes, to the rigorous Cultivating Emotional Balance Teacher Training. As Lead Instructor, she guides trainees through emotional awareness practices via intensive residential and hybrid programs, adapting teaching methods to enhance participant learning. As a founding instructor for UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics, she designed and led the Contemplative Science curriculum, setting frameworks for mindful preparation and integration in psychedelic therapy.

Her clinical and research experience includes roles as a qualitative researcher for UCSF’s PASS study on psilocybin’s effects on HIV survivors and as a co-creator of the Dalai Lama-commissioned Atlas of Emotions, an interactive tool for emotional understanding. This depth of experience is bolstered by her academic achievements, with a BA from NYU and both an MSW and PhD from UC Berkeley. Across each endeavor, she brings a compassionate, science-backed approach to enriching emotional resilience and understanding in both individuals and professional communities.