Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD

Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Registered Drama Therapist, Storyteller, Actress and Author. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her PhD and MA both in Clinical Psychology are from the California Institute of Psychology and she earned a BA in Psychology from UCLA. She is a Registered Drama Therapist and serves as faculty at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and California Indian Nations College.

Dr. Dionne Madrigal specializes in embodied mindfulness-based practices and has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist for over twenty years. She combines mindfulness, somatic (body-based) therapies, and story in much of the work she does. Her cultural heritage informs her work. She is the President of Mindful Practice Inc. and works with story medicine (embodied mindfulness, narrative, and drama/creative arts). She is involved in healing theatre and has appeared in indigenous plays written by her daughters, Menil and Her Heart and Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit.

She was featured on the cover of the February 2018 edition of Mindful Magazine and is featured as a 2022 Powerful Woman of Mindfulness (August edition). She has served as a TA/Advisor for the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Mindfulness Awareness Research Center Teacher Training Program, UCLA Certified Mindfulness Facilitator, certified with the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and Stanford Certified Applied Compassion Educator/Consultant.

In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction featuring Indigenous female protagonists who save the world. Her book The Mindful Family Guidebook is available through Parallax Press and Penguin Random House and was listed as a Best Book of Mindfulness 2021 by Mindful Magazine. Her novel The Unsilencing (represented by Jeff Ourvan) Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency is in submission.

She is a VPRL Faculty Mentor and is available as faculty for Self-Directed Study