Meridian University

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United States
Santa Monica, CA
Meridian University

Transformative Learning in Psychology, Business, Education, and Leadership since 1993. Graduate programs in Los Angeles and online.

Scholarships are available to students globally. Founded 30 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area, Meridian University enrolls students globally in its unique hybrid and 100% online graduate degree, certificate, and public programs. The University offers master's and doctoral programs in Psychology, Education and Business with diverse concentrations available within each of these programs. Meridian’s integrated, innovative curriculum is designed to be experiential and transformative. Meridian graduates are engaged in varied professional contexts that include coaching, psychotherapy, organizational development, facilitation, social healing, social entrepreneurship, and transformative leadership. Meridian’s graduate programs are available in two formats, hybrid and 100% online. This model supports students who are working professionals and balancing other life commitments to move forward towards their personal and professional future.

09/10/2026

"There's a lot of encouragement of imagination and encouragement of experience, while also rooting us in some solid foundation."

This is how Carter S., a PhD in Psychology student, describes learning at Meridian University. The pedagogy asks for engagement, and what develops carries directly into client work, program design, and professional practice.

The same orientation shapes Meridian's upcoming online course, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆, exploring the history, theory, and established modalities of the field.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/3SSWUCz

09/10/2026

What happens in the body in the aftermath of overwhelm?

Somatic Psychology examines trauma through the nervous system, including arousal, regulation, dissociation, defensive responses, and co-regulation.

In Meridian University's upcoming online course, The Mystery of Embodiment: Perspectives on Somatic Psychology, participants explore topics including the window of tolerance, polyvagal foundations of safety, titration and pendulation, the defense cascade, and the completion of defensive responses.

Participants also experience a range of modalities in action and develop clinical and psychoeducational somatic skills applicable in psychotherapy, coaching, education, and organizational settings.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/4A6Lw6E

09/09/2026

"When it comes to transformative learning, what I really notice is kind of exactly how they say it: it's just landing in my body. I don't have this stress or urgency to memorize facts. Because it's landing in such a way, it stays with me and translates to my outside-of-school experience, too."

— Heather B., PhD in Psychology

The relationship between embodiment and experience is at the center of Meridian University's upcoming online course, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.

The course offers a historical and theoretical overview of the field, introducing the principles, concepts, and methods underlying its established modalities. Participants experience a range of modalities in action and practice the frameworks through which practitioners read movement, posture, contact, and the felt sense.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/4cvngkI

09/08/2026

Somatic Psychology emerged in part by challenging a longstanding separation between psychological life and the body.

From attention to character and armoring through the formative, bioenergetic, focusing-oriented, developmental, and sensorimotor lineages that followed, Somatic Psychology has accumulated a substantial body of theory, research, and clinical craft.

At the center of the field is the recognition that the body is not where psychological life simply registers after the fact, but the ground on which experience is organized.

Meridian University's upcoming online course, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆, traces this history and introduces the principles and methods underlying the field's established modalities.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/4gZRU79

09/04/2026

Meridian University's upcoming online course, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆, approaches learning through activities that engage the whole person rather than through instruction alone.

The course draws on Meridian's Imaginal Process, in which capacities develop through experience that is diversified, embodied, and personalized, with imagination bringing it all together.

Over six weeks, participants explore the history, theory, and established modalities of Somatic Psychology while experiencing a range of modalities in action and developing somatic skills applicable in psychotherapy, coaching, education, and organizational settings.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/46FFFrv

09/03/2026

"It's been a really beautiful experience at Meridian to dive into putting my whole being into the learning process. Actually experiencing the learning in my body, my mind, and expression, and weaving that all into something that I can carry with me when I leave."

— Carter S., PhD in Psychology

At Meridian University, the body is central to how learning and psychological life are understood. This orientation shapes the upcoming online course 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.

Over six weeks, participants explore the history, theory, and established modalities of Somatic Psychology, developing clinical and psychoeducational skills applicable in psychotherapy, coaching, education, and organizational settings.

Six live sessions with faculty Brian Tierney, PhD, Aftab Omer, PhD, and Melissa Schwartz, PhD. Starts September 15, 2026.

Learn more and register → https://bit.ly/4gySRnU

08/27/2026

Jean Houston invited people to consider a larger view of human possibility: what individuals and communities might become when creativity, care, and imagination are treated as capacities to develop.

In this reflection, her influence is remembered through the way she connected personal development with broader social and ecological transformation. Her work encouraged people to examine the assumptions shaping the present while imagining different possibilities for the future.

That invitation remains relevant in periods of uncertainty and change. Transformation begins with the capacity to see beyond what has become familiar and to participate thoughtfully in what comes next.

This reel reflects on Jean Houston's legacy and the possibilities she continued to ask others to explore.

08/13/2026

"As a result of the transformative learning process, I feel like I'm very attuned and aware of myself. And that's allowed me to be aware of how I am in the environment around me. It's been a beautiful process."

— Jessa P., PsyD in Clinical Psychology

Self-awareness of this kind develops through practice. At Meridian University, students engage with the curriculum through reflection, dialogue, and experiential learning that connects what is being studied to how they live and work.

For clinical practitioners, this awareness carries directly into their work. How a therapist attends to themselves shapes how they attend to their clients.

Meridian offers graduate programs in Psychology, Education, and Business, available in Online and Hybrid formats.

Explore Meridian's graduate programs → https://bit.ly/4gc4zDG

08/06/2026

"I have always been courageous, but now I actually believe in my capabilities to do whatever it is that I want to do. And I think that comes from Meridian, because when you change inside, then whatever comes out is coming out authentically."

This is the kind of shift Meridian University's curriculum is built to support. Belief in one's own capabilities develops through practice, and through learning that engages the person behind the professional role.

Inner change of this kind carries into everything: how a practitioner meets a client, how an educator holds a classroom, how a leader responds under pressure. When the ground shifts, the work built on it changes too.

Meridian offers graduate programs in Psychology, Education, and Business, available in Online and Hybrid formats.

Explore Meridian's graduate programs → https://bit.ly/4fTBj49

07/31/2026

At Meridian University, graduate education is designed to develop the whole person. The curriculum is experiential, drawing on the lived experience, creativity, and inner life that each student brings into the learning.

For students whose work moves through art, movement, and other forms of embodied practice, this approach creates a space where those dimensions remain central to how they learn and grow.

"Meridian has been really good at holding what is so important to me, which is my creativity. I'm an artist. I'm a dancer. I need something that is going to be experiential." - Brycken O.

Meridian's graduate programs in Psychology, Education, and Business support this kind of integrated development across the fields of coaching, psychotherapy, education, and creative practice.

Explore Meridian's graduate programs → https://bit.ly/4pOtW2L

Address

2450 Colorado Avenue Suite 100E
Santa Monica, CA
90404

Telephone

+17077651836

Website

http://www.meridianuniversity.edu/

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