Hi, I’m Yael.
I'm a meditation teacher, author, and CEO of Sefira Wellness, and I've spent over 20 years helping people find their way back to themselves through mindfulness and the transformative power of desire.
But before I was any of those things, I was a woman sitting in the middle of her own life, wondering where the aliveness went. I know this feeling — I've lived it. I know what it's like to mistake your longing for a problem to solve — to try to meditate your way to gratitude while something deeper keeps insisting it needs to be heard.
How I found my way back
The anxiety started early. I was a child — seven years old — when worry and panic first became familiar company, and for years it shadowed everything.
At nineteen, in the middle of severe anxiety and panic attacks, I found meditation. Alongside therapy, it became the beginning of a different relationship with my own mind — though it would take me much longer to understand what that relationship was really teaching me.
Because what I eventually discovered wasn't a way to get rid of the anxiety. It was something stranger and more useful: anxiety and longing are two sides of the same coin. Underneath the dread, there was almost always a desire — something I wanted, something that needed to be heard. When I learned to unbury and befriend those desires, they did what years of trying to "fix" my anxiety never had. They eased it. And they unleashed a joy I had stopped believing was available to me.
That discovery became the work of my life.
The work I do now
This is the process I teach — and I haven't just found my own way through. I've walked thousands of students and clients through it too. Women who came to me running on fumes, going through the motions, convinced their best days were behind them.
They weren't. And yours aren't either.
If any of this sounds like you, the best place to start is my free guide, Flip Your Fear — a four-step path to finding the desire underneath your anxiety.
Where you may have seen my work
I teach at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, and I founded Mindful NYU — the contemplative initiative within the university's Global Spiritual Life Center, and one of the largest campus-based meditation programs in the country. I've also served as Chief Mindfulness Consultant for Procter & Gamble.
My work has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS News, and Fox 5 News, as well as in Time Magazine, Real Simple, and the Harvard Business Review, and I'm a regular contributor to the Ten Percent Happier and Roundglass apps.
I'm the award-winning author of What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), with a new book on desire forthcoming from Diversion Books in 2027.
I also speak and lead workshops for organizations — universities, companies, healthcare teams, and conferences. If you're looking for a speaker, here's how we can work together.
The credential that matters most is this: I found my way back to my own fire. And I can help you find yours.
For individuals: Start with my free guide, Flip Your Fear.
For organizations: Looking for a speaker or workshop?