Trish's Bio

Trish Magyari, MS, CGC, MS, LGPC is a psychotherapist, senior MBSR teacher, retreat leader, and genetic counselor  based in Baltimore, MD.  She has a Master’s degree in Genetic Counseling (1981), a second Master’s in Clinical Community Counseling (JHU, 2009), and is a licensed graduate professional counselor in the State of Maryland.  She has 35 years of meditation experience, has taught the MBSR 8-week series more than 50 times, and is trained in MBSR, MBCT and mindfulness-based psychotherapy.  Trained in MBSR in 1987, she completed the UMASS MBSR Teacher Development Intensive, their highest level of training, in 2000; since then she has facilitated MBSR groups in 6 successful clinical trials at NIH, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine.  These studies documented MBSR as being potentially helpful for persons with chronic pain due to hereditary connective tissue disorders, for persons with arthritis, for at-risk adolescents, for adolescents who are HIV positive, and for women with complex PTSD due to childhood sexual trauma.  Please contact Trish for published results of these studies.

 As a genetic counselor, Trish focuses on grief counseling, helping families and individual's adapt to chronic health conditions, and facilitating decision-making regarding genetic conditions and/or genetic testing in her private practice, now at Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center.   In addition, she continues to train genetic counseling students in psychosocial counseling skills, grief counseling, disability awareness, self-awareness, and self-care through the NIH/JHU Genetic Counseling Training Program as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the JHU Bloomberg School Of Public Health. 

Besides Trish's academic credentials, she has studied both Eastern and Western forms of contemplative practice since childhood and has been a longtime student of mind-body medicine.  She has extensive training in many forms of meditation, yoga, guided imagery/visualization, bio-energetics, chanting, and authentic movement.   Trish completed the LifeForce Yoga Level 1 Practitioner training in January 2011 and completed the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program at Baltimore Yoga Village.  She is a practicing Quaker as well as a teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) through which she has led a weekly mindfulness   practice group for six years as well as local retreats.  Trish herself has sat many lengthy retreats, including six-week retreats in 1995 and again in 2007.  Retreat teachers include Jon Kabat-Zinn, Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sylvia Boorstein, Sharon Saltzberg, Larry Rosenberg, Ajahn Amaro, Lama Surya Das,  Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Thich Nhat Hanh--who gave Trish the dharma name "Reverent Teaching of the Heart".

In collaboration with Diane Reibel, PhD, Trish has been leading retreats and trainings specifically for MBSR/MBCT teachers and others involved in bringing mindfulness into the world since 2004.  Their successful year-long program, The Mindful Journey, supports other MBSR teachers, classroom teachers, doctors and therapists to deepen their practice both for themselves and in their work with others and is a model for this type of long-term training.  The Mindful Journey includes opening and closing weekend retreats, bi-monthly day-long retreats, bi-monthly small group gatherings, weekly "buddy" meetings, and seven individual sessions with one the two teachers. 

 Trish and Diane also lead targeted retreats for women, including their April 2011 weekend mindfulness retreat for "Women Touched by Cancer".  This retreat was for women diagnosed with cancer, women who are care-givers to persons with cancer, as well as women from hereditary cancer families. 

During her recent year-long internship in clinical counseling at University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, Trish worked intensively with both individuals and groups using approaches steeped in positive psychology and mindfulness-based psychotherapy.  She has adapted the MBSR course to be applicable to persons with chronic pain issues, for teens, and for those who have PTSD and trauma histories, frequently presenting her work at the annual UMASS MBSR conference. 

Trish delights in helping others to increase their sense of wholeness and well-being in the world, and to find peace and contentment in the midst of life’s difficult challenges.  Her teaching is clear, concise and compassionate.