About
Ava Louise Stanton is a Zen teacher and licensed clinical social worker based in Santa Monica, California. She studied Zen for ten years as a resident at Providence Zen Center with Zen Master Seung Sahn in the 1970s and was recognized as a Lay Entrusted teacher in the Suzuki Roshi lineage through the San Francisco Zen Center by her teacher Tony Patchell. She joined InsightLA in 2010. Stanton is a certified Mindful Self Compassion teacher and leads meditation sitting groups, self-compassion classes, and daylong retreats. She maintains a private psychotherapy practice.
Teaching focus
Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: compassion training that doesn't collapse into pity or burnout;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include beginners, self-compassion. The bigger move Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW teaches in the Zen and Insight traditions. The teaching home is InsightLA. From the teacher's own profile: Ava Louise Stanton is a long-time Zen student, beginning with 10 years of study as a founding member and resident of the Providence Zen Center with Zen Master Seung Sahn. She and Trudy Goodman had practiced there in the 1970’s, and she joined the teachers at InsightLA in 2010. She’s a certified Mindful Self Compassion teacher, and currently teaches Mindful Self Compassion and Deepening Self Compassion, and leads daylong retreats at InsightLA. Ava was recognized by her teacher, Tony Patchell (Russian River Zen Center, Sonoma County, CA), as a Lay Entrusted teacher in the Suzuki Roshi lineage through the San Francisco Zen Center. Please come join the two morning sittings she leads each week, on Mondays and Fridays at 14th Street in Santa Monica. No experience necessary. Please check the Sitting Groups listing for times. As a psychotherapist in private practice in Santa Monica, CA, Ava works with meditation students and other adults. She leads small groups for people interested in cultivating self-compassion. Her website is AvaLouiseStanton.com In the Insight stream Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW teaches as a lay teacher in the Zen and Insight traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is InsightLA, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Ava Louise Stanton, LCSW, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. Retreats are part of the offering, usually a few days to a week, mostly silent. The container is shaped by InsightLA, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
