About Nirodha Mindfulness Center

Our Mission Statement

The Nirodha Mindfulness Center is a newly opened, nonprofit charity organization inspired and founded by Dr. Trinh Tran, a highly respected physician and rheumatologist with over 35 of years of experience in patient care, providing in-person and online classes, and training in mindfulness practice. Through Dr. Tran's class offerings, she aims to help individuals of all ages and faiths learn the skills necessary to incorporate mindfulness practice into their daily lives. Through dedication to mindfulness practice, she hopes to help people learn ways to calm and center the mind on the present moment.

The practice of learning compassion towards the self, and to experience thoughts without judgment, reduces the mind’s tendency to ruminate and become preoccupied by thoughts, patterns, and beliefs that create distress or prolong suffering. Dr. Tran affirms the evidence available supports mindfulness practice as an effective method for reducing stress, anxiety, and pain; boosting attention, focus, and resilience; and enhancing the health and well-being of those who practice it. Our classes are led by community volunteers who have received specialized training in mindfulness practice and have personally experienced the lifechanging benefits of regular mindfulness practice.

With gratitude from the entire staff at Nirodha Mindfulness Center. Namaste!

We Are A Non-Profit

The Nirodha Mindfulness Center, Inc. (Nirodha) is dedicated to sharing methods to generate love, kindness, compassion and wisdom within Indianapolis and Central Indiana. Nirodha is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity, which means that your contributions to us are tax deductible. Nirodha has no paid staff. Our meditation instructors are all volunteers. We utilize your donations to prepare for larger workshops in rented facilities. Also for our larger workshops, we invite instructors from other meditation centers to teach and we compensate them for their travel expenses. We provide educational materials for these workshops and supplies. When we come together in small groups or large groups, there is power, and this power creates change through meditating together, building community and envisioning change in the world.

Nirodha is non-sectarian. The practice of meditation and mindfulness is a great way to improve one's health, outlook, and deepen one's appreciation of their own religion. Even if one has no faith, meditation can help the individual practitioner get "in touch" with both mind and body, creating harmony between the two, and improving one's quality of life.

Your gift, large or small, is important. When you give, it reflects your desire to contribute to a Center that is determined to help you thrive in an overly complex world. Your gifts also create new possibilities for all the good Nirodha can accomplish in Central Indiana. Become part of the power of change and consider a one time end-of-year gift or become a monthly supporter of Nirodha. 

Founding Physicians

Nirodha Mindfulness Center Dr. Trinh Tran

Dr. Trinh Tran

Trinh Tran MD was born in Vietnam. She left Vietnam in 1984 and entered Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Medical and Dental schools (now merged with King’s College) in London, England in 1988. After graduating from medical school, she did two years of training in England then moved to the US to complete her residency in Internal medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

After 2 years working as a hospitalist, she entered a Rheumatology fellowship at Duke medical center in Durham, North Carolina and graduated from the fellowship program in 2005. After working in both private practice setting and major health system, she started her own private practice in Rheumatology in Noblesville/Westfield, Indiana. Recognizing stress as a major triggering factor for flare up of autoimmune inflammatory diseases and knowing many research proven health benefits of meditation, she decided to learn how to meditate with Venerable Thích Thiện Trí. She then became his assistant in organizing the meditation classes. She volunteered her time after work and at the weekends in hosting online classes and assisted in guiding the meditation for the basic classes.

Her goal is to provide her patients with  the skills and tools of meditation, helping to reduce stress in their lives and disease activity. Meditation helps people in achieving a stable happy peaceful life, and it is Dr. Tran’s hope to bring the service to all, not just patients, since we all will encounter stress in our  lives.

She is happily married to Harold Grigdesby who is a loving and supportive husband. 

Portrait of Dr. Pamela Wiseman

Dr. Pamela Wiseman

Dr. Pamela Wiseman is from Louisiana and currently lives in New Orleans. Pam started her practice in college where she was taught Zen Meditation by a Jesuit priest. Pam has found mediation and mindfulness to be very useful in her vocation as a Family Physician and as the mother of four children and one grandchild. Pam has studied with a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, Thich Thien Tri, since 2016. She has co-taught several meditation classes.

Portrait of Dr. David Mcafee

Dr. David McAfee

David M. McAfee, MD. is board certified in anesthesiology and​ pain medicine. He holds a BS in Biology from Villanova University and a Medical
Doctorate degree from Temple University School of Medicine. After completing his Anesthesiology residency at Rush Presbyterian Medical Center in Chicago IL,  Dr.McAfee relocated to Biloxi to serve his Military commitment at Keesler AFB.

After serving in the USAF, achieving the rank of Major and establishing Pain Medicine as a service at Keesler AFB, he settled in Biloxi MS. While practicing Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, he founded the E-Fitness and Wellness Center, where he led an active meditation group. Hurricane Katrina and its economic impact led to the unfortunate closing of the Wellness Center.

Dr. McAfee relocated to Cookeville TN, starting Active Pain Management Solutions to treat chronic pain and offer alternative treatment to opioid medication. Meditation classes were conducted by Dr, McAfee and offered to his patients and the community..

Studying and practicing Zen and Mahayana with qualified Masters for over 20 years, Dr McAfee has extensively traveled to Tibet, India, Bhutan, Peru, Africa, and Jamaica, for spiritual and meditative purposes. Through study and practice, Dr. McAfee was ordained as a Bodhisattva in a formal ceremony by invitation. Dr. McAfee continues to practice Mahayana and Zazen and teach Zen meditation in Allons TN.

Team

Portrait of Instructor Josmara

Josmara

Instructor

My name is Josmara Alvarado and I’m Puerto Rican living in the Midwest. I have four unique and very special kids, a loving and supporting husband, and I’m a mom to Sir Frankie, my assistance and emotional support standard poodle.

After many years of teaching at different school levels, life puts me through tests,as it often does, and in 2017 I started a battle with my health. It has been a long journey of trials and errors, trying different approaches to manage all that comes along when you have Lupus as well as Lupus Arthritis and the umbrella of underlying autoimmune diseases. I learned through acceptance and compassion that all is possible, even living at ease with the physical or emotional pain you are experiencing.

As of right now, I’m an energy healing arts practitioner and Reiki Master Teacher; I also offer spiritual coaching and special sessions for the dying and their families, providing them some comfort and compassion during their grieving process.

I believe in the alignment of our four bodies and living in divine harmony from within; attaining overall wellness and a sense of balance and bliss. For the past 10 years I've been serving others through my private practice; leading them during their journey and serving as guidance, helping them get in touch with their inner selves and, at the same time, find some self healing and freedom.

Portrait of Instructor LaKrisha

LaKrisha

Instructor

LaKrisha is the Success Coach and owner of NspireU Coaching. She started her business due to the passion she had for inspiring women to gain wholeness and success in life. Though she has coached many individuals over the years in business settings and one-on-one, she knew there was something that she was missing in her practice. Meditation was becoming increasingly more of a focus in her life; seeing how the practice provided her with self-discovery and greater peace in her life, she wanted to share with others in her coaching practice.

There was a certain synchronicity when LaKrisha was connected to Dr. Tran during a period when Dr. Tran was co-leading a mindfulness meditation class. The class not only aided in deepening her practice but provided her with an opportunity to continue working with Dr. Tran at the Nirodha Mindfulness Meditation Center.

LaKrisha not only provides coaching and teaching in mindfulness but has spent many years in various forms of dance. Dancing with UZIMA! Drum and Dance in South Bend, Indiana, and Allure Dance and Fitness in Indianapolis, Indiana has provided her with an additional way to connect with the body and movement in a way that provides freedom.

Her experiences and background allow her to connect with many individuals on different levels. LaKrisha states, “I don’t take teaching at Nirodha lightly. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with individuals who are interested in learning mindfulness meditation practices and how they can incorporate them into their everyday lives.”

Portrait of Amy

Amy

Amy O’Dair-Speaks is the founder of Visualize Your Technology, a nationwide technology general contractor. She is also a patient of Dr. Tran who brought the concept of meditation to her to both manage the stress of running a business and pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The substantial benefits gained through meditation led Amy to join the board of Nirodha Mindfulness Center with the goal of teaching meditation to all who are willing to learn at no charge.  

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Nirodha Mindfulness Center © 2023
9016 Keevers Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46234
1-317-779-0065