About the CENTER FOR DEEP SELF DESIGN To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized…

—Dogen

As an onsite and online gathering space devoted to creative, contemplative practices, The Center for Deep Self Design (CDSD) is unique in the United States. Headquartered in downtown Austin but teaching virtually around the world, CDSD’s core mission is to support you in stepping into your greatest aspiration by dissolving internal obstacles. We do this by combining multi-sensory facilitation techniques with established methods of inner science used for growing up and waking up. CDSD is what’s called a third place—a purposefully intimate collective space that designs experiences for community and upāya—skillful means of actualizing. To that end, we curate and collaborate with practitioners of ancient wisdom and facilitators of innovative practices in our serene, 100-year-old facility adaptable for diverse experiences. Our creative and contemplative practices are tested based on science, time, or scale as well as practical, observable outcomes. They include:

MEDITATION, MINDFULNESS, MIND-BODY INTEGRATION • Zazen (Objectless Meditation) • Chanoyu + Chado (Tea Ceremony

+ The Way of Tea) • Responsive Meditation • Hakomi

• Somatic Experiencing® • Mindfulness-Based Stress

Reduction

INNER SCIENCE

• Internal Family Systems • Spiral Dynamics • Deep Self DesignTM • Chöd Meditation • Mindful Self-CompassionTM

COMMUNICATION & CULTURE CHANGE • Right Use of Power • Appreciative Inquiry • Expressive Fiction and

Nonfiction Writing • Non-Violent Communication

APPLIED CREATIVITY & PROBLEM-SOLVING • Deep Life DesignTM • Visual and Design Thinking • Gamestorming (Multi-Sensory

Deep Problem-Solving) • Design Sprinting • Applied Improvisation

About CDSD’s Founder, SUNNI BROWN

Sunni Brown is a social entrepreneur, best-selling author, keynote speaker, expert facilitator, Deep Self Designer™ and dedicated Sōtō Zen student. She recently founded the Center for Deep Self Design in Austin, TX and was named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” and one of the “10 Most Creative People on Twitter” by Fast Company. Her TED talk has drawn over 1.5 million views and her work on visual thinking has been featured in every major U.S. publication including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, WIRED, and Entrepreneur, as well as being featured twice on CBS Sunday Morning and on The TODAY Show. Sunni’s two globally-beloved books—Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers, and The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently—have been translated into 30 languages and counting. She is widely credited with the rise of visual thinking as a tool for deeper inquiry.

As a virtual and onsite facilitator, Sunni and her team have designed and led hundreds of group experiences in diverse industries, and CDSD reflects her evolution after more than a decade of interactive group work. Drawing on her expertise in creatively solving external challenges in business, Sunni turned her attention toward dissolving universal internal challenges, and is crafting a method of inner science called Deep Self Design,TM which will be featured in her fourth book. Like many on the contemplative path, Sunni began her investigation of inner science in 2007 after a series of personal crises (dharma gates) catalyzed a personal reckoning and spiritual awakening. Eventually choosing to perceive this

suffering as a call to remember her true nature, Sunni trained for thousands of hours in za-zen, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Right Use of Power, and two mind-body practices called Hakomi and Internal Family Systems. She continues to be a devout student of the American Sōtō Zen tradition and is the highest-level practitioner of a revolutionary, evidence-based therapy called Internal Family Systems, developed by one of her mentors, Dr. Richard Schwartz. She has trained for 13 years (the path is ongoing) with two revered teachers, Dr. Margaret Syverson, Sōtō Zen Priest with Dharma Transmission and Dr. Flint Sparks, Sōtō Zen Priest and former Clinical Psychologist. As an inelegant but avowed bodhisattva, Sunni is committed to helping ripe sentient beings, including herself, unlock our potential for appamāda—mindful, active care for each other.