Founding Team
Meet Sun
Sunni (Sun) Brown is a social entrepreneur, acclaimed author, keynote speaker, Internal Family Systems Experiential Facilitator, Deep Self Designer, and American Zen chaplain-in-formation.
In 2007, Sun founded one of the country’s first visual-thinking consultancies, Sunni Brown Ink, and after years of advocating for multi-sensory learning, she 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 over 1.6 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. She was recruited by the former CEO of MURAL to be their first and only Innovator-in-Residence and her two globally-beloved books—Gamestorming and The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently—have been translated into 25 languages and counting. She’s one of the educators widely credited with the rise of visual thinking as a tool for deeper inquiry, and after leading and inspiring millions of learners, she deepened her offering and founded the Center for Deep Self Design, crafting an elegant method of inner science based on 17 years of collaboration with therapists, clinicians, and spiritual teachers, which will be featured in a future book.
Sun is a devout student of a relational American Zen tradition (an innovative branch of Sōtō that integrates Western psychology) 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, whom she assisted in IFS Level 3.
Meet Liya
Liya James is an acclaimed author, serial entrepreneur, inclusive design leader, innovation consultant, certified trauma-informed coach, somatic healer and Deep Self Designer.
Liya is the co-founder of CDSD. She’s also a best-selling author and a serial entrepreneur.
In her previous life, Liya started and ran multiple businesses that had successful exits. She’s also coached and advised entrepreneurs in various industries, often working with them from the inception of their ventures and leading to exits that total about $3+ billion.
Her awakening began in 2010 when she accidentally found herself walking alongside pilgrims on the road to Lhasa. She turned toward this invitation by journeying for several years into expanded states of consciousness assisted by Aya, Bufo, Huachuma, skilled facilitators, and her own breath. From these experiences, a true passion for inner work and a commitment to techniques that serve human healing and human potential were born.
Liya’s certifications in personal development include Trauma-Informed Coaching, Embodied Processing from the Centre for Healing, and certified Root-Cause Therapist from the International Institute for Complementary Therapists.