Mariel holds a MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of Bridgeport and a BA in Psychology from Rowan University. She trained and worked in wellness, personal development and recovery field since 1998.
From 1988, Mariel has successfully worked in the field of organizational development in the franchise and business industry as a thought leader, keynote speaker, change agent and consultant of human performance and productivity. She held VP positions with Caliper Human Strategies of Princeton and other consulting organizations. As a natural counselor and life-long student of the mind, Mariel has been recognized in business as a relevant and powerful speaker, trainer and performance improvement specialist.
In 2004, Mariel began a private practice and in 2007, became Executive Director of a world-wide respected yoga-for-children teacher training company. She developed advanced programs for schools and helped develop over 400 instructors. Seeing the need for evidence-based techniques, she began her training in mindfulness, with a focus on brain-based research and results.
Mariel trained with The Hawn Foundation, creator of the brain-science based Mind-Up! Program. She earned certification with Mindful Schools and other mindfulness-for-children research-based approaches. She also completed studies with Super-Health, a ground-breaking model of the yogic-science of breaking addictive behavior in 2011. Since 2005, Mariel has trained with leaders in the mindfulness revolution with a focus on youth-at-risk and organizational effectiveness. Mariel developed her own mindfulness practice and used her own children and other small groups to test the validity of the work. As she continued to offer coaching and programs as a volunteer, Mariel gathered credentials, experience and proof of the profound impact mindfulness, attention-enrichment and related practices had on the quality of life. With well-defined skills as an instructional-designer, keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, the natural result was the body of work now offered through The Mindfulness Project, LLC.
