About Anu
Anu de Monterice studied
psychology at Duke University and obtained an MD from Case/Western Reserve
University School of Medicine. In medical school he was especially interested in
biochemistry and nutrition and did research on aspects of iron absorption.
After internship he practiced medicine and psychiatry in the US Air Force, then
completed psychiatric training at the State University of New York, Upstate
Medical Center in Syracuse. There he worked with maverick psychiatrist Thomas
Szasz, on the issue of the political misuse of psychiatry.
Anu treated medical and
psychiatric patients in Sonoma County, California from 1975 to 2001, using both
conventional and alternative approaches (diet, exercise, psychotherapy,
meditation, herbs and supplements).
In 2001, under duress by the
medical board, Anu gave up his license to practice medicine, and turned to
Personal Life Coaching. He completed training in Co-active Coaching at the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael,
California. (See coaching page).
Anu is pleased to apply the concept in coaching, that clients are creative and
resourceful and don’t need to be “fixed.” It’s a refreshing antidote to the
medical, illness model.
A proponent of physical – as well
as mental – fitness, Anu is a member of USA Track & Field and the American Medical Athletic Association.
Anu’s emphasis is on encouraging
and teaching people to promote their own wellbeing and personal & spiritual
growth -- and that of the folks around them as well. He helps clients to pursue
their lives in a purposeful manner rather than to automatically follow their
habit patterns.
Since 1993 Anu has been teaching
Insight or Vipassana Meditation. He was turned on to it by the
Thai ex-monk Dhiravamsa in 1970 and
took courses on the Buddha’s teaching at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley,
California. He was reinspired by Shinzen Young starting in the later 1980’s. Joseph Goldstein has also
been an important influence. See the meditation page for more information.
Handling Emotions Skillfully is Anu’s workshop applying meditation tools to one’s
emotional life, one of their most important practical uses. In another class,The
Buddha’s Teaching, the philosophy of the Buddha-Dharma is discussed and
interwoven with experiential exercises. (See Classes/workshops).
Anu is actively concerned with
issues of peace and social justice. He’s been an ACLU
member for decades, since being on a subcommittee on the rights of mental
patients with Tom Szasz in the 1960’s. And he is a member of the activist
group, the Union of Concerned Scientists,
as well as the Buddhist Peace
Fellowship
Only by working simultaneously on
bettering society and ourselves
– eradicating our own greed, hatred and addiction to our narrow self-interests
–- can we develop the peaceful world that we yearn for and that will allow all
of us to develop our full creative potential.
