Lisa Patterson Raterman

Lisa Patterson Raterman, BSN, RN, CCRN is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self-Compassion Instructor in Chicago, IL. Over the past 20 years, she has observed and experienced the nuances of professional and personal burnout in health care and in business settings. Yet the science-backed research evidencing that meditation can be good medicine serves as a compass and guide in Lisa’s mission of sharing the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.

Currently, Lisa is an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University, and teaches Mindfulness and Meditation skills to undergraduates, and MBSR, MSC, and SCHC to the Adult Ed population. She maintains a private coaching practice supporting individuals, business executives and health care professionals in the Chicagoland area. Instruction is held in-person and online. Through her online programs she has worked with professionals from all over the world including the UK, Singapore, Australia, and others.

As a Trauma & Flight Nurse in Tertiary Care Centers, she experienced firsthand the demands of the intense and demanding work life of frontline Health Care Providers for a decade. For the next decade, Lisa joined the business sector as a Senior Sales Representative for a leading device manufacturer in a five-state region, selling to neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. After starting a family, she chose a home-based career and became a financial advisor and entrepreneur, founding a boutique investment firm with her spouse. 

In 2002, Lisa attended a retreat at her children’s school and was introduced to the transformative teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and the benefits of a meditation practice. While Lisa has always been spiritual, this experience started her daily meditation and mindfulness journey. Meanwhile, she continued to work in the financial sector—until she had heart failure and experienced a series of life-threatening illnesses in 2011. 

She faced eight weeks of complete bed rest and three years of convalescence. Meditation proved a solace and she deliberately deepened her daily practice. Years later, Lisa’s cardiologist attributed her full recovery to meditation. Discovering that her personal meditation practice mitigated her other chronic health conditions, Lisa became very interested in the intersection of Western Medicine and Eastern Philosophy. Education, personal, and professional experience have built the foundation of Lisa’s belief in the power of mindfulness and meditation to build positive experiences, resilience, optimism, hope, meaning and purpose in our lives at any age. 

For more information about Lisa, please visit her website at: www.workingmindfulness.com