My background is in higher education and mental health. Having lectured for several years, I then worked for a Patients’ Council on acute psychiatric wards and for a leading women’s mental health charity. I also undertook foundation training in a mindfulness-based psychotherapy with the Karuna Institute. My work today includes training mental health nurses.

I have been meditating for twelve years and delivering Breathworks Living Well courses for the last three, mainly in Bristol and Birmingham, and also in Worcester and Stroud. My work has included offering in-house training to NHS therapists and working with the Ministry of Defence. I am currently developing a Living Well course for senior executives, in collaboration with the Academy of Living Wisdom, using telephone conference calls.

I became a Breathworks Mindfulness Trainer because I know how much a meditation and mindfulness practice has helped me personally. By teaching mindfulness I am able to offer something to others which I know can be an invaluable tool, whether for everyday life or in times of crisis.

Having been through two periods of intense crisis myself, in 2004 I founded the UK Spiritual Crisis Network. My mindfulness practice helped me to cope with those profound crises and I wrote about this in Caduceus Issue 68: When Spiritual Emergence Becomes an Emergency. I also organised three conferences, one of them on A Mindfulness-based Approach to Spiritual Emergency. This is my particular area of expertise and I have also featured on a BBC Radio 4 programme on the subject.

I am regularly invited to speak at conferences. Events for autumn 2009 included keynote speaker at a conference on Mindfulness in Mental Health Care, organised by the Spiritual Care Team of Sandwell Mental Health and Social Care Foundation Trust,‏ and giving a presentation on A Mindfulness-based Approach to Spiritual Emergency at the Eurotas (European Transpersonal Association) conference in Milan, Italy.

What previous course participants have said: