Esther Estey, PhD, RYT-200, is a licensed psychologist, certified yoga and meditation teacher, and recent Advanced Clinical Mindfulness fellow. She earned her PhD at the University at Buffalo and has Master of Arts degrees in counseling and human resources/executive leadership. Her experiences as a Latina raised in a highly religious, Hispanic-Anglo household of low socioeconomic status in a rural community informed her dedication to holistic, culturally sensitive, and liberatory approaches to mental health treatment for marginalized populations. Her research, teaching, training, and clinical work focus on factors that cultivate self-regulation, resilience, and positive embodiment - an ability to thrive in and from the body with stability and wellbeing. Her dissertation was a large randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of a yoga-based program for individuals with PTSD, disordered eating behaviors, and mood symptoms in communities across the United States and United Kingdom.
As an adjunct professor, Estey has taught on the treatment of trauma and abuse, mindfulness in clinical practice, and contemplative approaches for greater health. She is formally trained in cognitive and somatic approaches for PTSD (e.g., Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness). She also has formal training in contemplative approaches for wellbeing, including Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement; Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness, & Knowledge; Mindfulness Training for Primary Care; Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy; and Mindful Self-Compassion. Clinically, she has provided bilingual, integrative psychotherapy for diverse populations with co-occurring, severe psychiatric and medical conditions in community as well as military settings.
She completed her clinical internship at the Veteran Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VA Palo Alto), affiliated with Stanford University School of Medicine, with a concentration in behavioral medicine and rehabilitation psychology. As a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Oregon, Estey provides mind-body treatment of traumatic stress and concurrent medical issues via telehealth for survivors of trauma. Estey completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Psychology, Primary Care Behavioral Health Integration (PCBHI) and Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC) at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, in Boston, MA. In conjunction with the clinical fellowship, she also completed an Advanced Fellowship in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy through Harvard Medical School and the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She is currently completing a Rehabilitation Psychology Fellowship at VA Palo Alto and maintains an affiliation with CMC and Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance.
Seeking to maximize the availability and dissemination of integrative interventions, Estey is also involved in implementation science efforts and consultation. She has developed and disseminated trauma-sensitive wellness programs, mindfulness-based protocols for health, and trauma-informed initiatives for environmental redesign. She provides consultation from a whole health and social justice framework that considers the strengths, intersectionality, and social context of individuals to enhance their ability to adjust and thrive after trauma or injury. Her efforts are oriented towards facilitating transformative physical and emotional experiences of self-agency for populations with complex presentations – with the aim of helping them discover their innate capacity to heal, manage chronic conditions, and regain mastery of their mind and body.
