Greg Sazima MD

Greg Sazima, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist, educator, and author based in Northern California. In addition to his psychotherapy practice, he serves as Senior Behavioral Faculty at the Stanford/O'Connor Family Medicine Residency program in San Jose. His new book is Practical Mindfulness: A Physician's No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation for Beginners (Mango Press, 2021). His podcast series on meditative tactics, "A Practically Mindful Moment," is also available.

Dr. Sazima received his undergraduate degree in Social Relations from the Johns Hopkins University, his M.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and completed his psychiatric residency training at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Stanford University Medical Center.

His clinical interests have included championing mindfulness practices into chronic disease management, psychotherapy, elementary education, and professional training. He has been a practitioner and teacher of mindfulness meditation for many years, creating curricula for both adults and children. Dr. Sazima has written on mental health issues for newspapers and periodicals, including the Psychiatric Times, MDEdge, Clinical Psychiatry News, the Sacramento Bee, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His volunteer work has included serving on the Boards of Directors of Capital Public Radio, Northern California’s NPR network, and Snowline Hospice, a non-profit palliative care provider in the Sacramento/Sierra Footihills region. Dr. Sazima is currently in sustained remission after a decade of recurring medical crises due to chondrosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Dr. Sazima’s wife of over thirty years is a family physician; they have three adult sons.

This blog is meant to be a practical, go-to resource for mindfulness, our trainable capacity for awareness, and meditation, its training program. Greg's aim in "Your Mindfulness Toolkit," as in his book Practical Mindfulness: A Physician's No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation for Beginners, is to lower the bar for individuals to engage in this truly beneficial practice in building skills in adaptation and self-care. While the blog (and the book) are meant for everyone, he especially plans here to illustrate ways for professionals in the community of care—physicians, nurses, caretakers, therapists, and teachers—to understand, practice, and educate others on basic mindfulness. No "crystals and granola" here, just the nuts and bolts of meditation, for you to spread the goodness. Here’s your toolkit. www.practicalmindfulnessbook.com