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Updated Format: Healthy Boundaries for Buddhists Part One is now a two-hour session and includes a breakout activity.
About this event:
As Buddhism continues to flourish in the West, it faces an array of vital questions and opportunities – including diversity, ecodharma, digital and virtual practice – but its future may well depend on one area of critical importance: the training of teachers and sangha leaders on boundary issues and power dynamics. An understanding of these issues in these talks will reflect on the unique relational and cultural dynamics present in Buddhist sanghas, where the lack of formal education around power, sexuality, and vulnerability can lead to confusion and harm. Healthy Boundaries Matter introduces the essential role boundaries play in sustaining trust, safety and clarity in sangha life.
This two hour presentation will analyze the power we hold in our own lives and the dynamics of power in the Zendo. It will raise our awareness of power used to benefit students and the sangha versus power used to benefit the authority who holds it. There will be a case study presented to be discussed in small groups.
Open to all. Not required for Nov 1, but attending is encouraged to deepen your experience.
Location and schedule:
The event is online-only via Zoom.
Saturday, October 18, 2025
3:30 pm- 5:30 pm Eastern Time (Click here for a time converter.)
Fees:
The Soto Zen Buddhist Association relies on the generosity of its supporters to offer programming. All fees offered through registration will be shared with speakers and panelists. We suggest a sliding scale registration fee of $10-15 for online participation. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
About the speaker:
Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts, Roshi LCSW, LMFT, MBA is a teacher in the White Plum lineage. She studied with Roshi Bernie Glassman, Roshi Taizan Maezumi and received Dharma Transmission from Roshi Nicolee Jikyo Miller in 2004. She founded and is now Abbot of Heart Circle Zen in New Jersey. She has been teaching Healthy Boundaries for Buddhist Leaders from the inception of the course.
She is also a psychotherapist in private practice where she specializes in trauma and family therapy. She has published chapters and articles on Zen practice and psychotherapy in various publications.
She received two awards for Outstanding Women in Buddhism for her work in Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004. She is also a wife, mother, grandmother of five and a hiker and kayaker. Roshi Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts lives in Tiburon, CA now
The SZBA 2025 event series, Actualizing and Sustaining Healthy Zen Communities, is generously funded by his event is generously funded by the Hemera Foundation.
