Jenna Hollenstein

Jenna Hollenstein is a meditation teacher, registered dietitian, and unapologetic lover of horror movies. Her work lives at the intersection of Buddhist practice, neuroscience, eating disorder recovery, feminism, and the quiet conviction that our bodies are not obstacles to awakening — they’re where awakening happens.

Her teaching is infused with scientific evidence, fierce compassion, intersectionality, and an unconventional curiosity about the places we usually avoid. Whether she’s talking about mindfulness, body image, gender, menopause, drag culture, addiction recovery, motherhood, or the latest folk horror film, Jenna is interested in what these seemingly unrelated worlds reveal about being fully human.

Sober since 2007, mother to a spirited eleven-year-old, and devoted steward to a rotating cast of orange cats, Jenna has learned that wisdom rarely arrives fully formed. More often, it shows up in grief, laughter, discomfort, relationship, and the everyday miracle of inhabiting a body.

Although she has practiced Buddhism for many years, Jenna still considers herself a beginner. That orientation — one of curiosity over certainty — is at the heart of her teaching. She believes each person possesses an innate embodied wisdom that cannot be replaced by experts, algorithms, or self-improvement projects. She sees her role not as providing answers so much as to helping to create the conditions in which people can hear themselves more clearly.

Plus, for Lion’s Roar members: Jenna will share a live dharma talk on how attending to our most fundamental needs — rest, nourishment, safety, connection, movement, grief, pleasure, and belonging — can become a profound expression of practice. That’s on Thursday, September 24th.