S13e4: Kari Kuwahara – In Releasing My Pain, I Released My Mother
Thursday, September 24, 2026 • Duration 29:24
“Post-Process… I could see those things differently. I could see them from the bigger view. And I could also feel how good I felt and how proud I was of myself. I knew that I could trust myself.“ – Kari Kuwahara
Kari Kuwahara came to the Hoffman Process knowing the timing was right. After a traumatic life event triggered old traumas and buried feelings, Kari was ready to do the deep work to heal her pain from her relationship with her mother. The Process offered her a way to resolve the pain of her past. Kari was ready for the freedom to come.
Before we dive into emotional terrain, we often fear the power of the feelings we will meet and the unknown chaos we might encounter within. The Process’s cathartic work and safe environment supported Kari as she went deep into her inner world. Her teacher gave her loving guidance when he said, “We’ve got you.” As Kari describes, she realized that she wasn’t doing it alone and that there were “guardrails in place.” Through the expression work, she finally released her anger. Intense, overwhelming grief that had been buried under her anger then flooded in. Kari “was finally able to go there and just let it out.” She realized that this release was, in itself, what she’d been searching for.
After the cathartic expression, Kari journaled. Reading a sentence she’d written back to herself, Kari reached a powerful understanding. Speaking about her mother, she’d written, “I can’t fathom the pain her anger wouldn’t let her feel.” In experiencing the depth of her own pain under her anger, Kari saw her mother. In seeing her mother, Kari saw herself. This is a profound example of the power in healing negative love.
Through her courageous surrender to the Process, Kari found freedom from the pain of her past. We hope this powerful conversation with Kari and Drew moves and inspires you.
Kari Kuwahara has a diverse background in the food world. She is a chef focused on health-supportive cooking, a culinary event producer, and a retail program and project manager.
Her path has never been entirely linear. After studying at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Kari explored several career directions before a family member’s serious illness shifted her perspective and sparked a deeper interest in healing foods, nutrition, and health. That spark grew, and she enrolled at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York, with little idea of what a career on the other side might look like. That leap became a turning point.
What began as a job to gain experience in a natural-foods grocery store quickly became a leadership position. At the same time, she stepped into a separate role producing culinary demonstrations for nationally recognized chefs at a large-scale food and wine festival. Driven by curiosity and a desire to grow, she joined a national grocery retailer in a larger regional role, where she developed culinary programs, menus, recipes, venues, and operational systems across the region.
Kari and her partner, Angela
Eventually, Kari moved to Seattle, where she lives today. After several intense years navigating the grocery industry through the COVID era and leading her teams through a large restructuring, she stepped away from that role in search of something that felt more aligned.
Life soon brought another profound shift.
Kari’s partner was diagnosed with cancer, beginning a three-year journey through treatment, recovery, uncertainty, and ultimately, healing. Drawing on her earlier studies in healing foods, nutrition, and health, Kari supported her partner throughout this journey.
But the healing extended beyond the physical. There was also a need to heal emotionally—not only from the toll of her partner’s illness, but from experiences rooted in her own childhood. She and her partner both attended the Hoffman Process in the spring of 2026. Through all her roles, Kari remains deeply curious and committed to nurturing ourselves, our bodies, and our relationships.
Post-Process work:
After completing the Process on Friday, students spend Saturday and Sunday integrating their week.
• Listen to our Post-Process Panel on the Hoffman Podcast: After the Process, With Kevin, Steve, and Zeina
Quad Check:
A practice that supports you in integrating and honoring all four parts of your Quadrinity: Spiritual Self, Intellect, Emotional Self, and your Body.
Instagram Lives: Join our virtual community Quad-Check at 8:00 am PT on Instagram.
Join our daily Appreciation and Gratitude practice on Instagram at 6:00 pm PT. You’ll find that the Appreciation and Gratitude practice is a nourishing way to reflect on your day. This practice will support your Spiritual Self’s natural desire to appreciate and give thanks for all that life brings you.
Our Instagram Quad-checks and Appreciation and Gratitude practices are open to everyone.
S13e3: Suha Patel – Reunited With All of Me
Season 13 · Episode 3
Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 37:58
“Over the past few years, I’ve dug deeper into connecting with the universe, connecting with nature, knowing that I am supported by forces outside of me.” – Suha Patel
Suha Patel arrived at the Hoffman Process eight years ago. Her mantra coming in was, “IwanttoknowwhoIam.Iwanttolovemyself.IwanttoknowwhatIwant. And Iwanttobeabletoaskfor it.” Over those seven days and the eight years since, Suha has worked hard to know the answers to her questions and live into what she has longed for.
Suha as a child
Suha spent the majority of her life in her head, problem-solving everything, including herself. But knowing and loving oneself requires more than intellect. During her Process, the Quadcheck, a Hoffman tool, helped Suha discover her whole self. She dove into her whole self when she discovered her Quadrinity: intellect, body, emotional self, and Spiritual Self. Suha describes coming to know a whole inner community within herself, including her dear inner child. When she talks about her inner child, her voice lights up with joy. By spending time with her inner child, she realized why she stayed small and hadn’t stood up for what she wanted.
For Suha, one of the great gifts of taking the Process has been a deepened spirituality. Growing up in India, she’d never been to a temple or sought out God. At Hoffman, she connected to something greater than herself – the Universe, nature, and the spiritual forces that support her. By the end of her week at Hoffman, Suha realized the first item in her mantra: . She found she knew herself in new and beautiful ways. Asking for what she wants has taken longer, but Suha is steadily working toward fulfilling her beautiful mantra. We hope you enjoy this joyful conversation with Suha and Sadie.
More about Suha Patel:
As mentioned in this episode:
S13e2: Jasin Deegan – Hello, Kindred Spirit!
Season 13 · Episode 2
Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 32:31
“Whether you did the Process with someone in your cohort or you find someone at a coffee shop with a Quadrinity sticker on their water bottle, there’s sort of that immediate recognition of, ‘Hello, another me, myself! Hello, a kindred spirit!‘” – Jasin Deegan
Hoffman Alumni Department Manager Jasin Deegan completed the Hoffman Process at White Sulphur Springs in 2019. Just a few months later, he joined the Hoffman Institute in his first role. Jasin has a hunger to serve others. It’s the nature of his Spirit. And he loves the Process. Six years on, it’s a beautiful match that now serves the global Hoffman community.
Before taking the Process, Jasin completed many personal transformational experiences. He arrived at the Process wanting “all the self-help resources” so he could “finally be this optimal person of service in the world.“ In his Process, he realized this was his own form of Do-Be-Have, trying to find his true Self by collecting more and more tools and resources. In an epiphany, Jasin realized he already was this “person of service.” It was simply time to be himself in a role that brought him joy and purpose. This seed of understanding was planted in his Process. It has steadily grown within him over the past six years at Hoffman.
And now, with ith Jasin at the helm of the Alumni Department, the alumni department team has created the new Hoffman Alumni Home and Hoffman Alumni Circle. These online community spaces are where we can gather as a global alumni community of all Hoffman Programs. As Jasin says, there’s “an immediate recognition” when we meet another Hoffman friend, a kindred spirit.
We hope you enjoy this warm conversation with Jasin and Sadie.
More about Jasin Deegan:
As mentioned in this episode:
S13e1: Jo Mattoon – A Wisdom Tradition With Deep Roots and New Shoots
Season 13 · Episode 1
Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 34:07
“Maybe there’s a person who’s written a book, or a professor who’s done some kind of research, and then they build a curriculum based on that perfectly wonderful approach to things. But that is not the Hoffman Process, right? Because, really, Bob Hoffman understood things more intuitively. …This is a wisdom tradition program.“ – Jo Mattoon
Welcome to season 13 of Love’s Everyday Radius. Our guest is beloved Hoffman Process teacher, Jo Mattoon. In this fascinating conversation, Jo shares the ongoing changes happening within Hoffman Institute Foundation and the new Hoffman centers worldwide. Behind the scenes, Hoffman teachers and staff work to support the change and growth needed to meet the desires of those ready to take the Process and of our alumni.
You’ll hear stories about Bob Hoffman and his collaborators who supported him in creating the Process. As Programs Manager, Jo shares how the Process training guide is continually updated while remaining true to its roots. And in the stories about the new Hoffman Center in China, you’ll discover how the wisdom tradition at the heart of the Process can support different cultures worldwide.
From the growth and development of our teaching team, to the occasional updates integrated into the Process, to our new alumni portal, Hoffman Alumni Home, the Hoffman Institute continues to fulfill Bob Hoffman’s vision of “world peace one person at a time.” Hoffman International continues to grow its capacity to offer the Process around the world and shepherd serious change and transformation in those who attend through the opening of new centers around the world.
At the center of everything Hoffman does are the deep roots of wisdom that have grounded the Process since its earliest inception. Deep roots support new strong shoots. We hope you enjoy this grounded, wise conversation.
More about Jo Mattoon:
Jo and friends in the Swiss Alps
As mentioned in this episode:
Jo Mattoon and Yifeng enjoying tea in China. Yifeng is the logistics/IT/everything else man for Hoffman China.
Hoffman Tools mentioned:
S12e22 (non-grad): Cory Muscara – Life is the Meditation Cushion
Season 12 · Episode 22
Thursday, July 2, 2026 • Duration 53:36
“If we imagine fear as this tight fist that says, I’m not going to let go, I need to keep you safe, love comes in as just this warm hug, and it’s like, It’s all right, sweetheart, I’ve got you, you don’t have to hold this burden anymore. And the fear doesn’t want to do this…. It is doing it because it does not believe there is another path for you in order to survive or get your needs met.” – Cory Muscara
Cory and Drew
Cory Muscara
Former monk and down-to-earth spiritual teacher Cory Muscara wraps up Season 12 with a powerful exploration of the lived human experience. Cory is not a graduate of the Hoffman Process, but he has recommended it to many and plans on attending in the near future. The ethos of his work blends beautifully with that of the Process.
After a painful relationship breakup in his twenties, Cory began to meditate as a way to support himself. Realizing he wanted to go deeper into meditation, he headed to a monastery in Burma for a 6-month meditation retreat.
Truly, it is hard to summarize this conversation. Like life, it must be experienced. You can feel the invitation to soften when in Cory’s presence as he articulates the process of internal healing and self-compassion.
Later in the conversation, Drew mentions that a Process is completing just down the hill. He asks Cory what he might tell them. Cory offers a compassionate response to them and ultimately to all of us. He shares that leaving a retreat such as the Process and heading back into life offers us the opportunity to continue the work to heal, realizing that life is the meditation cushion. Life is where the ‘work’ continues. It is also where love can blossom with more ease and grace for ourselves and others.
We hope you enjoy this wise and compassionate conversation with Cory and Drew.
We’ll see you again in late August when we launch season 13. Thanks for listening and watching. We appreciate you.
More about Cory Muscara:
As mentioned in this episode:
Drew Horning – Host, Cory Muscara – Guest, Julie Daley – Executive Producer, Mike Ingrasci – Director of Marketing, outside the new studio at Hoffman Retreat Center, Santa Sabina.
S12e21: Mike Ingrasci – The Gifts That Come With Change
Season 12 · Episode 21
Thursday, June 25, 2026 • Duration 30:07
“It was this conversation between three generations — but I was the only one who could speak. Someone wise told me to recognize the gifts that come with change. That was really a gift. There’s a connection there across generations. And that’s really what Hoffman does.”
– Mike Ingrasci
Drew and Mike/Hoffman Podcast Studio
Hoffman’s Director of Marketing, Mike Ingrasci, sits down with Drew to talk marketing, brand, and his Hoffman experience. The son of Raz and Liza Ingrasci, founders of the Institute, Mike’s experience of Hoffman goes way back. He shares, “I think that I got Hoffman a bit through osmosis, whether it was like whispers in the house, teachers who came to visit at dinner, just the way in which my parents raised us as children. …They really let us be kids, and they were protective of that, because they had done the Process, and they knew what that meant.”
Raz, Mike, and Leo
Since Raz’s passing, Mike has reflected on the gifts that come with change. His friend suggested this as a way through the tough time ahead. Between the day Raz passed away, Dec 31, 2025, and the day of his Celebration of Life in March, Mike and Sara needed to take turns putting Leo to bed. Leo was going through a stage where he didn’t want to be left alone. So every other evening, Mike would lie on the floor by Leo, writing into his Notes app on his phone. One night, he realized that there were three generations linked – father, son, grandson – and only one of them – Mike – could speak. He continued to write the words from this generational connection, eventually sharing them with the over 1500 friends and family gathered. As Mike shares, this is a cornerstone of what Hoffman is about.
Aligning and refining Hoffman’s Brand:
As Director of Marketing, one of Mike’s goals is to align and refine Hoffman’s brand to accurately reflect the decades of powerful transformational experiences of well over 100,000 Process graduates. When young, Mike had a hard time knowing how to talk about the Process. He knew his parents were ‘helping people,’ and that they loved and wholeheartedly believed in the Process. Once Mike took in 2009, he understood, as a lived experience, what he could never conceptualize. And now, it is perfect that he is the guide for this elevation of Hoffman’s brand into something that reflects what it is and makes it welcoming, understandable, and reflective of its organic coolness. Armed with a mood board, Instagram, and a lifetime surrounded by Hoffman, Mike is crafting an ever-evolving invitation into the profound beauty and magic of .
More about Mike Ingrasci:
Liza, Mike, Raz, and Marissa
Mike earned a BFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts before beginning his career as Director of Video at Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. He joined Barack Obama’s historic 2008 presidential campaign as an intern, then became a key member of the 2012 Obama campaign’s Chicago-based video team. He produced content for the President throughout his successful re-election campaign. This experience reinforced Mike’s belief in the power of storytelling to move people and create change.
Leo, Mike, Sara Ingrasci
Although Mike grew up around Hoffman, itself remained unknown until he attended in 2009. His biggest takeaway? While many of us spend our lives searching for love outside ourselves, we’re ultimately looking for the ability to give more love — and the openness to receive it. This realization underscores Mike’s work, relationships, approach to fatherhood, and the stories he tells.
Mike lives in Northern California with his wife, Sara, and their two-year-old son, Leonardo “Leo” James. Leo’s middle name honors Raz, whose lifelong dedication to the human potential movement inspires Mike’s work and belief in the transformative power of the Process.
Discover more:
As mentioned in this episode:
S12e20: Sara Bissell Rubin – Living With the Human Experience of Pain
Season 12 · Episode 20
Thursday, June 18, 2026 • Duration 31:08
“There was something about the Process that really allowed me to understand that there’s also a lot of healing that comes from pleasure and play and connection, and to really disentangle the parts of me that were so attached to being a sufferer, to being someone who struggled.” – Sara Bissell Rubin
Sadie and Sara at the Hoffman Podcast Studio, Santa Sabina
Medical Sociologist and Hoffman Process grad, Sara Bissell Rubin, holds a PhD in the neuroscience of pain and is a chronic pain educator. Sara joins Sadie to talk about the physical and emotional experience of pain, the science behind pain, and her experience in the Process as someone who lives with a chronic pain condition.
Special note: Sara’s video episode is one of the first recorded in our new Hoffman Podcast Studio at Santa Sabina, our new retreat site. So, welcome, Sara, and welcome all to our new podcast studio home.
This conversation is a warm doorway into a topic most of us would rather not discuss. With Sara’s wisdom and compassion, we can begin to change how we relate to our own pain. Sara shares that it can be hard to see our way out of pain when we’re in it. We learn to relate to pain in our childhood and take those patterns into adulthood. By disconnecting from these patterns through the Process, we can begin to relate to pain in a new way.
During her Process, Sara did exactly this. She saw that she tended to relate to pain through suffering and struggle. Through the Process, Sara found that play, pleasure, and connection are powerful allies in healing. Sara says she trusts in love and compassion and is reclaiming self-trust in relation to pain.
We hope you enjoy this healing conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmSCfAfauM
Listen on Apple Podcasts
More about Sara Bissell Rubin:
Discover more:
As mentioned in this episode:
S12e19: Julie Shapiro – Bubba, Buddha, and a Bench
Season 12 · Episode 19
Thursday, June 11, 2026 • Duration 38:22
“It was always in a weird way, I wouldn’t say triggering, but I just didn’t like it. And then by the end, I really did love it. It just felt really heartwarming when different people in the Process, even still, since we all – a lot of us still keep in touch, and they call me Bubba, it makes me smile.” – Julie Shapiro
Hoffman grad, Julie Shapiro, found herself at a crossroads. She knew what she wanted to change in herself. Yet, she also felt unable to make that change. There’s change we can make through our choices, and then there’s change that must come from deeper within. The Hoffman Process works in this deeper place within us through the Cycle of Transformation. This is the place where the “magic” of the Process happens.
Julie’s story is one of courage, desire, and willingness. She came to the Process with profound scepticism. But she also came with a willingness to fully enter into the Process to allow change to happen within her, even though she couldn’t understand how it would happen.
In moments of silence in nature, time with a Buddha, and places where Julie knew she had to go deeper, the “magic” of transformation happened. She gained new insights and saw a deeply rooted pattern. In one moment that allowed her Process to go deeper, Julie realized she had to use the childhood nickname her father had given her on her name tag rather than her given name. She knew that, even though her nickname, Bubba, triggered her, using it would be important. And it turned out to be. As Julie shares, using Bubba “was the real way to connect with my childhood, connect with my parent relationship, work through some things that I may not have had the opportunity to do before he died, and just really connect with him.“ Connecting with her childhood unlocked something deeper within. Hearing fellow students call her Bubba began to bring her joy.
Beautiful, ineffable things can happen when you surrender to the Process, as Julie did. We hope you enjoy this heartfelt conversation with Julie and Sadie.
More about Julie Shapiro:
Little Bubba
One year later, in 2025, Julie returned for the to deepen her Hoffman toolkit. She is actively reorienting her life around who and what truly light her up — and redefining achievement along the way, from her tangible accomplishments to the person she is becoming. Follow .
As mentioned in this episode:
Hoffman Terminology and Tools:
S12e18: Julia Bodkin – Nowhere Left to Go, Nothing Left to Lose
Season 12 · Episode 18
Thursday, June 4, 2026 • Duration 37:29
“I often feel like the work is kind of a disintegrative work that we’re doing, we’re allowing the patterns and the structures to release, so that there’s sort of nowhere left to go, because there’s nothing left to lose.” – Julia Bodkin
Beloved Hoffman Process facilitator and psychotherapist, Julia Bodkin, first took the Process in India in her very early adulthood. After living quite a bit of life, she took it again in Australia. Now, as a trained professional in many healing modalities, Julia facilitates the Process in the U.K. She brings a lifetime of experience, wisdom, and expertise, along with her generous, vulnerable heart.
In her youth, Julia wondered if there could be more to life than just getting a job and settling down. She grew up in a middle-class British family that, to her, seemed very “dull.” So she left the U.K. and travelled around India until she came to Pune, India, where she studied on and off for ten years.
Along her journey, having worked within many of the great schools of spiritual transformation, Julia knew she was seeking enlightenment and an “everlasting blissful state.” Through study, teaching, and much meditation, she’s, over time, found herself settling into an awakening and the embodiment of her true nature. Julia now sees it as “settling into what is.”
In teaching the Process, Julia shares how beautiful it is to watch students soften into themselves. She shares that in shedding patterns, they start “to get familiar with something that they’ve been trying to avoid, and realize how beautiful it is, and how much more open, and how much sweeter it is to have that connection with themselves.“
We know you’ll love this conversation with Julia and Drew. It’s filled with many bits of Hoffman history that might be new to you.
More about Julia Bodkin:
As mentioned in this episode:
S12e17: Markus Bihler – Intelligence Below the Neckline
Season 12 · Episode 17
Thursday, May 28, 2026 • Duration 30:52
“At the very end, we’re all the same, and we want the same thing, which is we want to feel like we’re worthy of love and belonging.”
— Markus Bihler
Markus Bihler | Chairman, Hoffman South Africa
The Chairman of Hoffman Institute South Africa, Markus Bihler, is a different person than he was before taking the Hoffman Process. One beautiful outcome of his Process was the journey he made from his head to his heart.
Markus spent 35-plus years of his life as a “medical anomaly,” namely, “as somebody who had a head but no body.” He lived in his intellect. During the week of his Process, Markus cried more than he had ever cried in his adult life. Calling it a “liberating experience,” he now knows that all emotions are legitimate and have a reason for being. And he found deep empathy for young Markus, which led to empathy for his family and people in general.
After his Process, not only did Markus change, but his life changed, too. He and his wife, Angelina, moved home to South Africa. Once there, one of the first things he did was look for a Hoffman grad group. When he realized there was no Hoffman Institute South Africa, he and Angelina rolled up their sleeves to create one. They have opened and now run the Hoffman Institute in South Africa. They held their first Process this past Spring.
Using powerful metaphor and analogy, Markus shares his experience and knowledge of the Process in ways that bring its gifts into clear focus. He also speaks to the business side of Hoffman. For Markus and Angelina, the ‘business’ of Hoffman is not to make money. It is to “provide scale for this Process to permeate further into the world.” Their expertise and enthusiasm for the Process’s growth are helping to bring Bob Hoffman’s vision, “world peace, one person at a time,” more fully into reality.
More about Markus Bihler:
Markus and Angelina Bihler
As mentioned in this episode:
Suha Patel is a global business leader, mentor, and lifelong student of human behavior whose journey has spanned four continents, executive leadership, and deep personal transformation.
As a biotech executive, she spent decades leading in high-performance environments while quietly believing that staying small and silent was the safest way to move through the world. Her path into self-awareness, nervous system healing, and inner-child work has radically changed the way she understands leadership, relationships, identity, and emotional well-being.
Today, Suha is passionate about exploring the invisible patterns that shape our lives – the survival strategies we mistake for personality, and the ways unresolved emotional experiences quietly influence how we love, lead, speak, and connect. Through honest storytelling and deep reflection, she brings a grounded, compassionate perspective to conversations about healing, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and what it truly means to feel safe enough to become oneself.
A Hoffman tool done daily to check in with all four parts of the Quadrinity: the intellect, the emotional self, the body, and the Spiritual Self.
Instagram Lives:
We host two Instagram Lives daily.
¤ Join our virtual community Quad-Check at 8:00 am PT on Instagram. The Quad Check practice supports you in integrating and honoring your Quadrinity: Spiritual Self, Intellect, Emotional Self, and your Body.
¤ Join our daily Appreciation and Gratitude practice at 6:00 pm PT on Instagram. The Appreciation and Gratitude practice is a beautiful way to reflect on your day. This practice supports your Spiritual Self’s natural desire to appreciate and give thanks for all that life brings you.
Elevators –
17:15 – 18:31 Suha describes what an elevator is and what happened for her when she did them at the Process.
The Hoffman App
After completing a Hoffman course, the Hoffman App can support you as you continue this journey, today and far into the future. The app offers guidance, practices, and visualizations to inspire and help you achieve your personal goals. We like to think of this app as “Hoffman in your pocket.” The Hoffman App is available at the App Store.
Jasin Deegan has served as a transformational facilitator and guide for over fifteen years. He is dedicated to serving others on their healing and transformational journeys and is passionate about how peak experiences expand human consciousness.
Jasin completed the Hoffman Process in December of 2019 and has been part of the Hoffman Institute since June 2020. Now serving as Alumni Department Manager, Jasin passionately supports Hoffman graduates who continue to do their post-Process work. As Alumni Department Manager, Jasin has led the development and design of Hoffman Alumni Home. This online community centralizes graduate resources and provides a space where Hoffman graduates can connect and build community.
Before joining the Hoffman Institute, Jasin was a Shamanic Breathwork facilitator, using breathwork, ritual and ceremony, and contemplative practices to support others along their transformational and healing journeys. Jasin is trained and certified in Shamanic Breathwork through Venus Rising Association for Transformation. There, he cultivated his passion and sacred purpose for transformational service work through these direct studies.
Jasin is pursuing his degree in psychology from San Francisco State University and lives with his husband in San Francisco, California.
HOFFMAN ALUMNI HOME alumni.hoffmaninstitute.org/feed
Hoffman Alumni Home is a dedicated space for Hoffman graduates to access alumni resources, connect to the community, and continue engaging with the work beyond their foundational Hoffman program.
HOFFMAN ALUMNI CIRCLE alumni.hoffmaninstitute.org/hoffman-alumni-circle
Hoffman Alumni Circle is a membership designed to support graduates’ continued growth, providing exclusive access to master classes and visualizations, teacher-led virtual sessions, early access to and discounts on graduate programming, and more. This paid membership lives within Hoffman Alumni Home and helps graduates sustain and deepen their Hoffman practice.
Liza Ingrasci, Past CEO and President
Liza and her late husband, Raz Ingrasci, founded the Hoffman Institute Foundation. Liza served as CEO and President for many years. She is now retired.
The Ceremony of Integration Dinner:
Before COVID, Hoffman Process graduates could attend this dinner held on the Thursday night of each Process to support the current students on their evening of integration. There is no longer a COI dinner in the US; however, it is still in practice in other countries.
Bob Hoffman
“Fire your therapist and go live your life.”
Hoffman Webclasses
Hosted and led by Hoffman teachers via Zoom, our live, interactive webclasses cover a wide variety of topics, including tools and practices from the Process and Hoffman Essentials.
Jo Mattoon holds a B.A. in the Humanities and a Master’s in Public Administration. Her first career was as a Human Resources executive; her second career was as an executive coach/leadership trainer. She has now found her true purpose in teaching/coaching for the Hoffman Process.
In addition to teaching and coaching, Jo leads the Programs Team for Hoffman Institute Foundation (HIF). The team is responsible for the development and upkeep of all of HIF’s program curriculum, including the Process and alumni offerings.
A fourth-generation Coloradan, Jo loves travel, learning, finding the humor in life, coyotes, the arts, and tasty food. You can find out more about Jo by following her on Instagram.
Hoffman Center, China
• Discover more about China Hoffman: Hoffman Process® Launches in China.
• Honoring the parents is a cultural value in China: “Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one’s parents, elders, and ancestors…” Read more…
Hoffman Programs Team: • Jo Mattoon – Programs Manager since 2022. ¤ Shawn McAndrew – Hoffman Editor and Programs Specialist. • Jason Beegle – Hoffman Process Teacher. ¤ Jess Zimerman – Hoffman Process Teacher.
Jasin Deegan – Alumni Department Manager and creator of Hoffman Alumni Home
HOFFMAN ALUMNI HOME:
Hoffman Alumni Home is a dedicated space for Hoffman graduates to access alumni resources, connect to the community, and continue engaging with the work beyond their foundational Hoffman program.
¤ The Cycle of Transformation:
https://youtu.be/EIKfjNdpgsk?si=Sl8B_9hJpTI7aib8
Self-Compassion & Kristin Neff Listen to Kristin Neff on The Hoffman Podcast
Kristin says that compassion has three components: kindness, mindfulness, and humanity. “Compassion is grounded in a sense of shared humanity.” At its core, compassion is the understanding that we are doing the best we can, moment to moment. That we are human beings. We are part of a much larger whole. Moment by moment, we are doing the best we can, learning and trying with care and love. If we learn this, things become much easier to deal with.
Kristin also writes about Fierce Self-Compassion, as diagrammed below.
Cory Muscara is a former monk, host of the Practicing Human podcast, and bestselling author of the book Stop Missing Your Life. With over 1.5MM followers across his social media channels, Cory has gained popularity for his down-to-earth teachings on mindfulness, wellbeing, and mental health.
Cory has taught mindful leadership at Columbia University, is an instructor in Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and, for the last decade, has offered mindfulness keynotes, workshops, and retreats around the world, helping people find peace and transformation in a chaotic world. Cory’s meditations have been heard more than 50 million times in over 150 countries. His goal is to share wisdom teachings in a practical and accessible way.
Discover more about Cory here and find resources here. Follow Cory on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Vipassana Meditation.
• Vipassana means to “see things as they really are.” • Vipassana meditation is one of India’s most ancient meditation techniques.
For Mike, Brand = Promise + Experience + Reputation. At Hoffman, these three things have always been incredibly strong. The Process delivers on its promise, the experience is transformative, and the reputation speaks for itself. Mike’s approach isn’t about changing any of that…it’s about building the world around it: creating an ecosystem that feels thoughtful, elevated, and welcoming for both people discovering Hoffman for the first time and graduates who continue to engage with it for years. His goal is simple: to make every touchpoint reflect the integrity of the Process, and elevate how Hoffman is experienced and perceived while remaining true to the work itself.
We hope you feel the warmth and care of this invitation and conversation.
Long before joining the Hoffman Institute as Director of Marketing, Mike Ingrasci was embraced by the Process. His parents, Raz and Liza Ingrasci, served as its stewards for decades. Hoffman was woven into the fabric of Mike’s childhood.
Over twelve years, Mike helped build John Elliott into one of the world’s most respected independent fashion brands. He led sales and brand marketing while helping shape its creative voice. During Mike’s tenure, the brand earned accolades, including GQ’s Best New Menswear Designer, presented runway shows in New York and Paris, and collaborated with globally recognized brands Nike, Converse, Gap, and more. That experience shaped Mike’s approach to marketing: the best stories don’t sell — they connect.
Raz and Liza Ingrasci, Founders of the Hoffman Institute Foundation
• Liza is the former CEO and President. Raz was a Hoffman teacher and the former Chairman of Hoffman International. Listen to Raz on the Hoffman Podcast: Husband, Father, Son
• Liza and Raz Ingrasci’s stated mission: “Our mission is to provide people greater access to the wisdom and power of love in themselves, in each other, and in the world.”
Mike filming during the Obama campaign.
Mike was drawn to the message of hope and change.
Sara Bissell Rubin has spent a lot of her life thinking about pain. A medical sociologist and chronic pain educator, Sara received her PhD from UCSF. There, she studied how neuroscience makes sense of pain and how those understandings shape the way we think about and treat it. Before that, she was a clinical bodyworker providing hands-on care for people with severe chronic pain and PTSD.
During grad school, Sara developed her own chronic pain condition. This lent a layer of urgency and fervent curiosity to her research topic. She brings these three ways of knowing – academic, somatic, and lived experience – to her work as she guides individuals and groups towards finding their own resolution from chronic pain.
In part because of the nature of her work, which involves walking with people through the most difficult areas of their lives, Sara came to the Hoffman Process strongly identified with her dark side. She held a strong belief that life’s struggles were where the truth lay, and that embracing them was the only path to real healing. Sara also had a secret wish that the Process would finally fix her for good. Although she advocated in her research and her work for the human capacity for agency, she didn’t truly believe that change was possible because she hadn’t experienced any lasting change in herself. During her Process, Sara realized that the constant striving to be fixed was reinforcing the shame message that she was broken and in need of fixing in the first place, and that, for her, real growth comes from love, play, and connection.
Have you ever known exactly what you wanted to change about yourself — but felt unable actually to make the change?
It was at that crossroads that Julie Shapiro signed up for the Hoffman Process. At 42, she felt that certain milestones, like marriage and starting a family, were out of reach. A lifelong New Yorker, she’d recently moved to Los Angeles and unexpectedly lost her dad within weeks of moving. A Stanford graduate, she set impossibly high standards for herself, both personally and professionally.
Julie had spent years in therapy, taken meditation courses, and tried other modalities to reduce anxiety. She was self-aware and could name her patterns. But awareness alone wasn’t moving the needle to evoke the changes she wanted.
The Hoffman Process was not something she ever would have considered. She expected it to be “woo woo” and couldn’t imagine that a one-week retreat had any long-term benefits. But despite her skepticism, she attended the Process in 2024, hoping it might unlock something within her.
The Process did just that. Through the Cycle of Transformation, Julie was able to move beyond her lawyer-trained intellect and tap into her emotional and spiritual selves. She discovered a deeply rooted pattern of living in survival mode — pushing through things that made her unhappy just to achieve the end goal. As the Process week unfolded, she began to believe that a spirit-led life, focused on “being” rather than “having,” was not only possible, but available to her.
Awareness Hell:
In the Hoffman Process, when we’re in awareness hell, we know we are aware of our patterns and the things we do that we wish we didn’t, but we are still unable to change. We understand, but feel stuck in this place of hell, even though our awareness keeps expanding. To get out of awareness hell, our work to grow and transform must include three additional steps for change to take place. These three steps are Expression, Compassion, and New Ways of Being. All four make up the Cycle of Transformation.
The Cycle of Transformation: The four steps in the cycle are Awareness, Expression, Compassion, and New Ways of Being. All four make up the Cycle of Transformation.
Be-Do-Have vs. Do-Have-Be:
The life we long for comes from Be-Do-Have; the life we are taught we should strive for comes from Do-Have-Be.
Recycling/pre-cycling is a tool and a practice for receiving wisdom from your own Spiritual Self, which gives you qualities that lead you directly to new behavior, authenticity, and the freedom to respond rather than react to patterns. You replace a pattern with an authentic quality of your Spiritual Self and embody that quality. You create new behavior from this embodiment.
When recycling, you use a scene from your recent past when you acted out the pattern.
In pre-cycling, you use an imagined scene when you act out the pattern at some point in the future.
Your Spiritual Self ultimately guides you on how to BE so that you DO what supports your being and HAVE what you need to support your living.
Julia Bodkin has been a Hoffman Process facilitator since 2014. She completed the Process, trained in Australia, and is now based in Devon, in the U.K., where she has a private psychotherapy practice.
Julia’s work is inspired by more than 35 years of personal and professional immersion in different schools of psychotherapy and meditation. She has a degree in psychotherapy and a long career as a therapist in private practice, individually and with groups. Julia has worked as an addiction therapist at the original Priory Hospital in London.
For 15 years, Julia was a co-creator and a senior facilitator of The Path of Love process. She has been a senior teacher of the Diamond Logos Teaching since the late 1990’s. She has expertise and experience in Trauma Healing/SE®, Addiction Treatment, Gestalt Therapy, Group Therapy, Family Therapy & Family Constellation, and is also a Craniosacral Therapy practitioner.
As a traveller, Julia has lived and worked on several continents and is passionate about supporting people in reconnecting with their true nature.
Angelina and Markus Bihler have started the Hoffman Institute South Africa, based in Cape Town, where they live with their two young sons after a global career in tech and finance, respectively.
Markus Bihler is a director, investor, and former CEO with a background spanning global consumer and investment businesses. He has worked across Europe, Southeast Asia, and international markets, including leading two successful CEO-led exits and founding a global long/short hedge fund focused on consumer equities. Earlier in his career, he was with Blackstone and EQT in private equity. Markus is a graduate of Oxford University and a Professor of Finance at the University of Cape Town.
Follow Markus on LinkedIn. Find out more about Hoffman South Africa’s upcoming Process dates here and their global press coverage here, and follow them on Instagram.
Hoffman South Africa Process venue:
• Mont Fleur Conference Venue in the heart of the Stellenbosch winelands. Nestled in the Blaauwklippen Valley, Mont Fleur is a small, family-run venue. read more…
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