Loch Kelly

Loch Kelly, LCSW, is a meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and author whose work bridges Tibetan Buddhist awakening practices, Internal Family Systems therapy, and the neuroscience of awareness. He is the creator of Mindful Glimpses, which was named the 2025 Best Meditation App of the Year on YouTube, and has built a teaching practice focused on what he calls effortless mindfulness—a set of techniques designed to shift awareness directly rather than through concentration or effort.

Kelly works within the lineage of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, Tibetan Buddhist traditions that emphasize recognizing awareness itself as the ground of practice. Unlike mindfulness approaches that build skills through repeated attention to breath or body, his method uses short, targeted "glimpses" to help practitioners recognize and rest in open awareness. This approach draws on his training with meditation teachers in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal, undertaken during a fellowship from Columbia University, and his affiliation with Adyashanti, a teacher in the nondual Zen lineage. Kelly integrates these contemplative methods with Internal Family Systems, a psychotherapeutic model developed by Richard Schwartz that views the psyche as composed of subpersonalities and emphasizes accessing the Self as a source of healing.

He is the author of two books: *The Way of Effortless Mindfulness* and *Shift into Freedom*, both of which have received recognition within contemplative and wellness publishing. His online training courses, offered through the Effortless Mindfulness Institute—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit he founded—teach his signature practices to students worldwide. These programs are structured to be accessible to beginners while offering depth for experienced meditators seeking direct-pointing instructions common in Tibetan and Zen traditions.

Kelly has co-taught with Richard Schwartz, the founder of Internal Family Systems, and has collaborated with neuroscientists at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. These research partnerships have explored how awareness training affects brain function and the cultivation of compassion, contributing to a growing body of literature on the measurable effects of meditation on emotional regulation and prosocial behavior. His work sits at the intersection of contemplative practice, clinical psychology, and affective neuroscience.

After completing his graduate work at Columbia University, Kelly built a career as a licensed clinical social worker and meditation instructor. He studied with teachers in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions during his fellowship travels in South Asia, and later trained in somatic and depth psychotherapies in the United States. This dual training informs his clinical work and his teaching, where he emphasizes relieving psychological suffering by addressing its roots in identification and contraction rather than managing symptoms.

Kelly currently teaches through the Effortless Mindfulness Institute, offering online courses, live workshops, and retreat programs. His teaching is structured around short, repeatable practices designed to be integrated into daily life rather than requiring long sitting sessions. For those new to meditation or looking for an alternative to concentration-based techniques, his work offers a direct entry point into the nondual awareness practices traditionally reserved for advanced students in Tibetan and Zen Buddhism.