BIOGRAPHY
A Life of Service and Healing
Jessica Martinez, M.A.
I have been working and volunteering in various aspects behavioral health, education and advocacy for over 30 years. I have been a yoga and meditation teacher for fifteen years. I have had various careers, professional roles, and responsibilities.
I began my career studying urban planning and economic development. I did architecture internships. I also worked for a commercial and residential real estate appraiser and helped him with demographic research and building reports.
As I reflected on difficulties I experienced as a child and adolescent, I decided to become a Court Designated Child Advocate in the Juvenile Court Dependency System. I designed a pilot program for youth under the supervision of a Superior Court Judge in a District Attorney’s Office. The program's goal was to focus on the educational needs of youth and help them regulate their emotions and decrease their anxiety when they gave court testimony.
My first introduction to Eastern philosophy began at this time. I began studying Tibetan Buddhism, reading Thich Nhat Hahn, and wrote about practices of mindfulness in my graduate thesis. I also met my first and most important teacher, Murshida Rudi Kadre, the founder of Rudra Yoga, which is a blend of practices including Taoism, Bon and Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and
both Kundalini and Hatha yoga traditions. I started spending time
attending yoga retreats at her healing sanctuary, Liberty Advance in California.
At this time I worked for two school districts as an adult school educator teaching
English as a Second Language, Citizenship Exam requirements, taught High School
equivalency courses to adults struggling with substance use disorders,
and designed an educational program in nursing homes.
I also helped immigrants with job resumes and counseled them in
transitioning into new careers.
Following this I worked as a Patient's Rights Advocate representing psychiatric patients in inpatient legal hearings and responded to grievances in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric hospitals and residential living communities. I educated clients about their legal rights and self-advocacy. I also lectured on the subject of mental health recovery and alternatives to the traditional psychiatric medical model.
After retiring from my work in Patient's Rights, I volunteered and did fundraising for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I worked as a Board member for the Durham County Affiliate in North Carolina.
As a NAMI Durham Board member I organized panel discussions. I put together a group of Duke Neuroscience Professors to discuss what I entitled, “You have the Power to Change Your Brain”. I designed the format and questions for the professors which revolved around a discussion of neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. I also put together panel discussions with other mental health clinics.
I was appointed to the Human Rights Committee at Butner State Psychiatric Hospital
by the North Carolina Director of Health and Human Services.
I also worked with the NAMI Peer Leadership Council, a group of
mental health clients organized to voice their advocacy interests.
In 2012, I completed my first yoga teacher training with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, an internationally recognized Kundalini Yoga Teacher. I also began teaching at the
Village Integrated Services Agency, an internationally renowned
alternative outpatient community mental health center in Long Beach, California.
I have taught in a variety of medical settings. The Durham VA Medical Center, University of North Carolina Family Medical Clinic, Triangle Springs Psychiatric Hospital, Pruitt Health Rehabilitation Center and The Farm at Penny Lane (affiliated with the University of North Carolina Center for Excellence in Community Mental Healthcare) where I have taught since 2019.
In 2021, I earned a 300-hour Yoga Wellness Educator Certification specializing in Yoga for Older Adults, allowing me to teach in 55+ communities, assisted living facilities, and to individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s. I deepened my expertise with certifications in
Brain Longevity from the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.
In 2022, I began studying Nondualism with Richard Miller, whose teachings
deeply shaped my personal healing. He was the first person to give me an awareness
that did not rely on a medical diagnosis, one that I was able to fully integrate into my life. I also drew inspiration from Rupert Spira’s contemporary Non-duality approach, and from classical Indian teachers
like Ramana Maharshi, who taught Self-Inquiry, and
Nisargadatta Maharaj, who revealed the “I Am” as pure awareness.
In 2023, I started studying neuroscience at the Brain Academy to become a Certified Brain Coach. My studies have focused on preventing Alzheimer's and Dementia and early cognitive disorders for aging adults and using a healthy diet, various forms of exercise and other lifestyle factors to protect the brain and enhance brain functioning throughout a person's lifetime.
In 2024, I began a deeper self inquiry with yoga therapist, Goran Boll.
He founded MediYoga, now an international program.
He is responsible for bringing yoga into 30% of Swedish hospitals.
Goran challenged me in radical ways that inspired me to reinvent myself.
I believed in myself because he believed in me.
In 2025, I started designing the groundwork for an
"Embodied Mind Health Leadership Institute".