Meet your Mindfulness Teacher

Hello! I look forward to meeting you. You can find more about me on my professional website, Mindfulness for Life. Or just read on…

I learned to meditate when I was a first year undergraduate studying History, way back in 1983. It made a huge difference, and gave me the support and gr0unding I needed to engage in my work, and enjoy it. (I owe my first to mindfulness, too.)  I took up meditating as a daily practice, for just a short time each day, and now I have practised it daily for over 40 years.

My teaching draws on different mindful approaches. I developed and taught the mindfulness run by Cambridge University for almost a decade, based on its own ‘Mindful Student Study’ research (The Lancet, 2017).

I also work independently, offering coaching & therapy. I increasingly specialise in sleep, helping people to overcome a variety of sleep-related problems (as mindfulness helped me to overcome my own). I also support people facing physical and emotional challenges, where unresolved issues inhibit or disrupt creativity, artistry and performance. On my courses and workshops, I teach mindfulness and meditation for life’s challenges, and am author of a growing range of mindfulness books and other materials.

Qualifications
  • First Class History degree (Bristol University, 1985 )
  • Master (M.Phil.) and Doctorate (D.Phil.) at Oxford University (1994 and 1999)
  • Doctoral research into Buddhist meditation texts (published 2002)
  • Certified Practitioner and Teacher of Focusing (with BFA and TIFI, 2010)
  • Certified Mindfulness Teacher (with CMRP, Bangor, 2012)
  • Certified Trainer in Nonviolent Communication (with CNVC, 2004)
  • Certified Trauma Therapist (Somatic Experiencing, with SOSI, 2022)

My mindful approaches

I practise several different mindful in my own life, and share these in my teaching, writing, and other work.

Secular Mindfulness and Meditation – A secular, well-researched method to overcome stress, and increase wellbeing, health and happiness.
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Focusing – An exquisitely subtle approach to emotional intelligence and inner/outer flow.
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Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – A mindful approach to transforming conflict and judgement into connection and kindness, aka Compassionate Communication, or Needs-based Communication.
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Somatic Experiencing (trauma therapy) – An understanding of trauma as ‘held in the body’ in present time, and so accessible to survival, recovery, healing and health.
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My Personal life

At home, I enjoy writing, meditating and singing. Apart from my weighty doctoral tome (‘Vajrayogini’, Wisdom Publications 2002), I have written a relaxing three volume guide to meditation, subtitled, ‘The Gentle Guides to Meditation’ (published by Mud Pie Books.). With an approachable, page-a-day format, the volumes support the meditator’s journey, in prose and poetry (see Books). I have also written and directed stage plays, scribbled a novel, and etched poems, many of which appear in recent publications. I am currently researching my first historical novel. Music is always an inspiration, and I continue to train and perform as a singer. My black working cocker spaniel, Cherub, is an inexpressible source love and joy (check out our puppy videos on the Mindful Puppy Diaries!). I have recently take up hooping.

My cocker spaniel, Cherub

Just learned to hoop!