About me
Jamie Driver
Jamie first discovered yoga and meditation 20 years ago at her high school in Sewanee, TN. She completed her first teacher training in 2010 with the intention of combining her B.A. in psychology with complementary techniques.
While working on a women's rights project studying maternal mortality in the Mississippi Delta in early 2013, Jamie became aware of the effects of burnout on healthcare professionals and began contemplating how she could use her knowledge to provide self-care maintenance tools to allopathic healers. She gave her very first integrative wellness presentation to those ob-gyn physicians and nurses, 7 years ago. Later that year she completed a Yoga for Self Regulation and Trauma training under Hala Khouri.
Her path continued to unfold while reading the biography of JD Salinger. She discovered Salinger was a veteran, and the first draft of A Catcher in the Rye was written while Salinger was freeing Holocaust victims from concentration camps. He was later hospitalized for "combat stress reaction- after Germany was defeated. Jamie felt moved by his story and decided to pioneer a yoga for PTSD and pain management class at the local VA hospital. During this time she also managed outreach for a yoga service nonprofit and focused her studies on trauma-informed yoga.
Jamie attended several workshops with Roshi Joan Halifax and was inspired by her GRACE model along with her contributions to contemplative care-especially within end-of-life settings. In 2015, Jamie took the leap and began volunteering with UCLA's No One Dies Alone program, with the desire to better understand the stressors placed on workers encountering death and dying. She eventually returned home to Nashville to be with family and continued volunteering in the palliative unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, later serving an internship in hospice care. She spent a total of 2.5 years in end-of-life care.
Jamie simultaneously worked at Vanderbilt School of Medicine in the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment, specializing in healthcare communication and patient-provider relationships.
She designed and implemented her first workshop for healthcare professionals at Vanderbilt University Osher Center for Integrative Health with guidance from Dr. David Vago.
The first group of participants in her 3 module program consisted of mostly pediatric workers, so when Jamie moved to Denver she felt called to volunteer at the Children's Hospital of Colorado. She spent a year immersing herself in the NICU, PICU, oncology, and pulmonary units to gain a greater understanding of the stressors placed on those who care for young lives. Early in 2020, she began ride-along with fire service/EMS and law enforcement.
Jamie accepted a position as an instructor for the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia in September. She teaches students about nervous system regulation and self-care and gave a special presentation at the medical school illuminating empathic boundaries and embodied compassion while caring for patients.
She is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and the founder and principal facilitator of the Mensa Yoga SIG (special interest group).
Jamie is committed to establishing partnerships with healers and protectors to continue defining best practices for burnout prevention and mental health treatment. She currently offers yoga therapy and coaching to groups and individuals suffering from burnout (or those who would like to learn skills that can help prevent burnout).