My name is Tadas Stumbrys. I am a psychologist, certified mindfulness and compassion teacher, lecturer, and researcher.
I teach at Vilnius University, where I am an Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology, and I am also a Core Faculty Member of the Alef Trust Master’s programme in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology, delivered in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University.
The main question that has been driving my work is: how can we live a more conscious and meaningful life?
I began my journey as a researcher almost 20 years ago with the study of lucid dreaming, trying to understand how we can become conscious while dreaming and what possibilities this may open up for our inner growth. Together with colleagues, I have conducted a number of research studies in this field and published numerous articles in academic journals. Lucid dreaming was also the subject of my doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg University.
Over time, a further question naturally emerged: how can we become more conscious in our waking state? More than a decade ago, this led me to mindfulness, both as a researcher and as a practitioner. I became a certified mindfulness teacher and later also a certified compassion teacher. I am a member of the Lithuanian Association for Mindfulness-Based Psychology (LĮGPA), where I also served as a Board Member.
I see mindfulness and compassion – especially self-compassion – as two fundamental qualities that form the foundation for inner growth. A mature process of inner growth, however, requires embracing both psychological and spiritual dimensions. In the contemporary world, these are often treated as separate, while transpersonal psychology seeks to bring them together. This is a field of psychology that I have been engaged with for almost 20 years and have been actively teaching for over a decade.