Contemplative Meditation
& Presence Teaching
Learning to meditate is the process of learning to be.
Most modern meditation instruction reduce it to stress management or teach to technique, whether from a lineage or a textbook.
But this work is about something more. This teaches meditation as a philosophy and practice of presence, not emptying the mind or achieving a state, but returning again and again to awareness itself, with compassion and openness, not force. From that foundation, a steadiness and clarity of mind emerge organically, and then the subtler arts of contemplation, consciousness, nonlocal awareness, and inquiry become genuinely accessible.
You can be completely new to meditation or an experienced practitioner ready to go deeper and I work with you with where you are at. These are private sessions, uniquely adapted to you, online or in-person in NYC.
What we can work with:
Mindfulness & Compassionate Presence: At its core is presence, returning to awareness itself, with compassion as the ground. This stretches our capacity.
Meditation is not the point of meditation.Contemplation & Spiritual Inquiry: Beyond mindfulness lies the art of contemplation: self-inquiry, disidentification, centering prayer, and other practices that go into the heart of direct knowing.
Contemplation is the source of your highest form of knowing.Consciousness & Expanded States: For more experienced practitioners, meditation can open profound states: non-duality, loving presence, subtle awareness, and altered perception. Always anchored in compassionate presence and contemplative wisdom, or these states become distraction at best and destabilizing at worst.
You don't need psychedelics to trip if you can master your mind.
Breath & Nervous System: Breathing patterns often keep us in heightened states. We can retrain the breath to settle the body-mind, with a meditative mind as a natural effect, gently weaving functional breathing with embodied contemplative practice.
Meet your teacher
Susan Reis is a meditation teacher based in New York City, working at the intersection of contemplative wisdom, nervous system science, and depth & embodied psychology. Her approach is non-dogmatic, rooted in a heart-based direct experience rather than solely tradition, which is itself what genuine contemplation yields. Her approach is grounded in the understanding that presence is the coherent ground from which the system reorganizes itself. She holds certifications and experience in mindfulness meditation, primordial sound meditation, Compassion-Based Resilience Training (Nalanda Institute), Christian Contemplative practice, Nejang Healing Yoga, various forms of breathwork, and is completing an MS in Applied Neuroscience. She works with individuals online and in-person in NYC, both individuals and small groups.
Learn more about me.