Alex Haley
Residential Retreat Teacher
Alex Haley, PhD, teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Minneapolis Insight Meditation Community and online through Dharma Ground, where he currently serves as a core teacher. Alex completed Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader program in 2012 and graduated from the SRMC/IMS/IRC four-year teacher training in 2016. Beginning in his high school calculus class, Alex has studied and practiced meditation for more than 25 years, including many multi-month retreats of intensive practice.
Alex was previously the mindfulness faculty lead at the University of Minnesota's Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. He has researched mindfulness, interoceptive awareness as well as pain and wellbeing behaviors through his work on clinical trials with the Integrative Health and Wellbeing Research Program. He is also a member of the Interactive Visualization Lab at the University of Minnesota, which focuses on data visualization, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction through XR.
Alex holds a PhD in Cognitive Science, and is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, trained Co-Active coach, and certified Myers-Briggs practitioner. He also previously worked in legal and business roles both domestically and internationally. Alex is a parent of a rambunctious elementary school kid and loves to play (and practice meditation) outside in the heart of frigid Minnesota winters. Alex is passionate about community-based healing and technology for wellbeing.
Alex Haley's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
June 7 - June 16, 2026 | Sunday - Tuesday | 9 nights
Exploring Awareness: A Retreat for Experienced Practitioners
Spaces Still Available! This retreat invites a direct exploration of awareness—not just as the faculty that knows experience, but as experience itself. Together, we’ll explore the felt sense of awareness as it reveals itself in body, heart, and mind. Our aspiration is to become more intimate with this innate capacity—not as concept, but as direct, embodied knowing that supports freedom in the midst of life.
Retreat | On-Land
August 29 - September 2, 2026 | Saturday - Wednesday | 4 nights
Refuge & Respite: A Vipassanā Retreat for Beginners
Spaces Still Available! This retreat will teach the essentials of mindfulness and Insight Meditation (vipassanā). We will explore ways to calm our minds and hearts, work with difficult thoughts and emotions, build attention, and cultivate kindness and compassion. This retreat will combine stillness and movement meditations, lectures, and opportunities to meet with a teacher. This is an excellent opportunity for those new to retreat practice, and also appropriate for experienced practitioners who wish to attend a shorter retreat.
