About Dr. Ronald A. Alexander

Clinical Psychotherapy Bio

Ronald A. Alexander, PhD, MFT, SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner) is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the states of California and Colorado (CA Lic. #MFC7707 & CO Lic. #253), with a private practice in Santa Monica, CA working with individuals, couples, families and groups. He is a Creativity and Communication Consultant, International Clinical Trainer, Executive and Leadership Coach, and the Executive Director of the OpenMind Training® Program, a leading edge organization that offers personal and professional training programs in core creativity, mindfulness based mind-body therapies, transformational leadership, and meditation. For more than forty-four years, Alexander has been a trainer of healthcare professionals in North America, as well as in Europe, Russia, Japan, China, and Australia. He is also the author of Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self and Wise Mind, Open Mind.

Alexander is a leading pioneer in the fields of Mindfulness Based Mind-Body Therapies, Gestalt Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Ericksonian Mind-Body Therapies, Holistic Psychology, and Integrative and Behavioral Medicine. He is on the training faculty of The Gestalt Institute in San Francisco, a long-time senior extension faculty member of the UCLA departments of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Entertainment, a lecturer in the David Geffen School of Medicine, and an adjunct faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Pepperdine Universities. Dr. Ron is a life time member of the American Psychological Association, a clinical member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a Diplomate in professional psychotherapy in the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine and Counseling.

Alexander received his SEP Certificate from the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute in Boulder Colorado. He consulted with and received treatment from Milton H Erickson MD. He personally trained with Ernest Rossi and Steven Gilligan in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy as well as with Daniel P. Brown of the Harvard Medical Cambridge Hospital professional training’s seminars in hypnosis and hypno-analysis. He trained with and was certified by the Los Angeles Gestalt Therapy Institute and with Erving and Miriam Polster PhD of the Gestalt Training Center of La Jolla. He also received training and supervision in Contemporary Gestalt and Family Therapies, Psychoanalytic Self-Psychology, Relational and Object Relations Therapies.

Coaching and Leadership Bio

Dr. Ronald Alexander, PhD is a leading Creativity and Communication Coach, International Clinical Trainer, Executive and Leadership Coach, with a private practice in Santa Monica, California. He is the originator of the OpenMind Training® Program, a leading edge organization that offers personal and professional training programs in mindfulness based mind-body therapies, transformational leadership, and meditation. His unique method combines ancient wisdom teachings with Leadership Coaching and Core Creativity into a comprehensive integrated, behaviorally effective mind-body program. This system combines techniques that support strategies of personal, clinical, and corporate excellence and growth.

Alexander’s extensive training includes core creativity, conflict management, Gestalt therapy, leadership and organizational development, and vision and strategic planning. He pioneered the early values and vision-based models for current day leadership and professional coaching. He specializes in Mind-Body therapies and has been studying and teaching Mindfulness Meditation, Creative Visualization and Transpersonal Psychology since 1970. Alexander studied with and was influenced by noted leaders in these fields such as Ken Blanchard, Werner Erhard, Warren Bennis, Umberto Materana and Francesco Variela, and was one of the grandfathers of coaching along with Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield.

Alexander began his coaching career over forty years ago by providing Stress Management, Holistic and Behavioral Medicine training workshops to corporate clients. He also worked very closely with Hollywood talent in his private practice and soon became sought after by entertainment executives interested in developing core creativity, leadership and communication skills within their companies. Today Dr. Alexander is a well-known consultant and coach to the artistic talent, management and production staff in the Motion Picture, Television and Music Industries. His entertainment clients include Universal Pictures, Sony Entertainment (film and music), Walt Disney Studios, ABC Television, Telemundo, RCA, MCA and DGC (David Geffen Company). He has also provided leadership and coaching training for employees from computer and software companies including Apple Computer, Microsoft and Sun Micro systems.

For more than forty years, Alexander has been teaching OpenMind Training’s such as Igniting Your Creativity & Passion and The Art of Leadership & Coaching throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, Japan and Australia. During his studies of mindfulness based mind-body methods Alexander traveled extensively in Nepal, Bali, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. He was ordained in the lay Zen Buddhist and Mindfulness traditions. His yoga and meditation studies include extensive practice in Buddhist and yoga psychology, Tibetan Buddhism, Vipassana, Zen, Vedic (non dual), and Hatha, Ashtanga and Vinyasa yogas. He was certified as one of the early Kundalini yoga teachers and was a co-founder of the Kundalini Research Institute. Here he conducted scientific research on yoga and meditation in conjunction with the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, the Topeka Veterans Administration Hospital, the Santa Rosa Psychiatric Hospital while a clinical intern, and Sonoma State University.