Miriam Greenspan

Miriam Greenspan was born in a refugee camp in southern Germany to two Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. From her parents, she learned that even in the aftermath of genocide, it is possible to live a life of kindness, generosity, and love. Her work as a psychotherapist, author, public speaker, and poet are rooted in her abiding faith in the redemptive power of facing into the worst without flinching, and emerging with the unexpected gifts of healing and spiritual power.

Miriam is known for her unique combination of down-to-earth authenticity and inspiring eloquence. Whether as a therapist, public speaker, or poet, her lifelong work is about encouraging people to discover that the darkness has its own light.

For more than four decades, Miriam worked as a therapist specializing in women survivors of misogyny, abuse, and trauma. Her first book, A New Approach to Women and Therapy, helped pioneer the fields of feminist psychology and psychotherapy--for which she has been honored as a 'Feminist Foremother.'

Her best-selling book, Healing Through the Dark Emotions: the Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair won the 2004 Nautilus Award in psychology for “books that make a contribution to conscious living and positive social change" and has been translated into French, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, and Korean. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines, including Psychology Today, Ms., Body & Soul, Shambhala Sun, New Woman, Tikkun, Spirituality & Health, and the Sun.

Miriam has enjoyed speaking and facilitating workshops on Healing through the Dark Emotions throughout the United States and Canada. She teaches at Kripalu Yoga Center and many other venues, including colleges, conferences, and retreat centers.

More recently, Miriam has become a writer for Huffington Post, where she is passionate about addressing the social and spiritual crises of our era, in particular the degeneration of American democracy and the deadly opiate epidemic. As the mother of an addict in recovery, she knows the devastation and heartache of the epidemic first hand and has devoted her writing in the past few years to breaking through the stigma of addiction and telling the truth of the epidemic through her poetry. She is an emerging, published poet who has completed a manuscript, The Heroin Addict’s Mother, which is searching for a publisher