About
Em Morrison began practicing mindfulness and meditation in 2011. She teaches at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), where she serves as a coordinating teacher for the LGBTQIA+ sangha. She previously coordinated the teen sangha and served on IMCW's Board of Directors and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group. Morrison has taught mindfulness in retreat settings, afterschool programs, summer camps, and drop-in classes. She integrates Non-Violent Communication and restorative justice with dharma practice, framing these as approaches to personal and collective liberation.
Teaching focus
Em Morrison's teaching focus sits inside the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. The Insight Meditation lineage carries forward the Burmese vipassana teaching as it took root in the West through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. That means mindfulness held at the center, with metta and the broader brahmaviharas as steady companions, and a household-friendly framing that doesn't require ordination or extreme retreat conditions. The space is structured for queer and trans practitioners as a real part of the room rather than an accommodation, with attention to the particular shapes practice takes inside lives the dominant culture has worked to discipline. Teen-oriented teaching keeps the language plain, the demands realistic, and the framing free of adult hand-wringing about what young people should be doing with their attention. The teaching is shaped by the silent-retreat container, with the long arcs and the sustained quiet that container makes possible. Across the body of work, the consistent thread in Em Morrison's teaching is the refusal to let practice become abstract. The instruction asks for direct contact with what's actually arising, and the framing supports practitioners in giving it that.
Background
Em Morrison began practicing mindfulness and meditation in 2011. She teaches at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), where she serves as a coordinating teacher for the LGBTQIA+ sangha. She previously coordinated the teen sangha and served on IMCW's Board of Directors and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group. Morrison has taught mindfulness in retreat settings, afterschool programs, summer camps, and drop-in classes. She integrates Non-Violent Communication and restorative justice with dharma practice, framing these as approaches to personal and collective liberation. She’s a coordinating teacher for IMCW's LGBTQIA+ sangha and previously coordinated the teen sangha and served on the IMCW Board of Directors and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) group. Em focuses on Non-Violent Communication and restorative justice along with teaching the dharma as practices for personal AND collective liberation. Visit Em's website. Em Morrison's teaching is anchored at Insight Meditation Community of Washington. The teaching draws from the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. Areas of particular focus include LGBTQ+, teens, retreat. The voice in Em Morrison's teaching is recognizably in the Insight Meditation lineage, warm without being soft, and willing to sit with the difficult places practice opens. Mindfulness, loving-kindness, and the gradual accumulation of insight are the working vocabulary. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Em Morrison's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way.
Lineage
Em Morrison teaches within the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. An experienced retreat teacher, she has also taught mindfulness at afterschool programs, summer camps, and in drop-in classes. She’s a coordinating teacher for IMCW's LGBTQIA+ sangha and previously coordinated the teen sangha and served on the IMCW Board of Directors and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) group. Em focuses on Non-Violent Communication and restorative justice along with teaching the dharma as practices for personal AND collective liberation. Current affiliation runs through Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Em Morrison teaches as a lay practitioner rather than from a monastic role.
What to expect
On retreat with Em Morrison you'll get long sits, walking practice, and dharma talks that build on each other across days. The container is silent or near-silent, which gives the teaching room to land in a way that single classes can't quite reach. Sittings are conventional, mindfulness of breath and body, with metta and inquiry into difficult mind-states woven through. There's space for questions, and the answers don't get rushed. The atmosphere is grounded rather than performative, and practitioners tend to leave with practical ground to keep working from on their own. The atmosphere is grounded rather than performative, and practitioners tend to leave with practical ground to keep working from on their own.
