Our Teaching Team & Associates

Karen has been part of Breathworks since 2012 and is now a Senior Trainer & Associate. For more than thirteen years, Karen has supported students through our Teacher Training programme, helping them to grow into skillful and confident mindfulness teachers and facilitators. A familiar face in our online Community of Practice, Karen can often be found leading our free meditation events, including Space to Breathe, Meditation Support Clinics and Community Practice Sessions. 

Karen's teaching style is known for being down-to-earth, honest and accessible. Having worked as an NHS operating theatre nurse and since being a primary carer for family, Karen can authentically relate to people living with chronic health challenges such as pain, as well as those navigating stressful working or home environments. Not only was Karen an advocate for patients when she was nursing but she continues to be actively involved in advocacy for people with disabilities and those less able to speak up on their own behalf. 

Karen brings lightness and humour to her sessions, and is always willing to offer guidance and encouragement to those feeling stuck with their practice, or perhaps struggling to get going in the first place.  She loves poetry, including it whenever she's teaching mindfulness, especially the works of Irish mystic John O'Donohue & the late Seamus Heaney. Outside of her mindfulness teaching, Karen lives in Dublin, Ireland, she enjoys travelling, photography, writing, making art & corresponding with penpals around the world.   

Karen is an accredited mindfulness teacher, trainer and supervisor with Breathworks UK, a leadership coach, and restorative justice facilitator for conflict resolution.

She delivers tailored mindfulness & compassion programmes for the workplace and offers guidance and knowledge to help organisations establish and foster a culture of wellbeing, resilience and belonging. Karen coaches ethical leaders - leaders who care about the environment and other people - helping them to grow their confidence and make their life more meaningful.

Her speciality is coaching clients outdoors, walking side by side through green spaces.

Karen brings a mindful, creative and highly personable approach to her work with corporate, public and charitable businesses across London, helping to develop a compassionate and effective culture, online and in-person.

She trained in mindfulness & compassion practices, transpersonal coaching, eco-psychology, and restorative facilitation. Karen is a member of the British Association for Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA), a member of the Association for Coaching and the British Restorative Justice Council.

MJ has been accredited with Breathworks as a mindfulness trainer for six years, where he has taught many of the MfS and MfH courses locally in Manchester. He has been a practising Buddhist for many and worked at the Manchester Buddhist Centre since 1997. He has taught many meditation and Buddhism courses and has a regular meditation practice.

In 2010 he qualified as an Alexander Technique teacher. This technique is well known for posture and about bringing our awareness to our habits both helpful and unhelpful ones. With greater awareness, or mindfulness of our day-to-day activity, we see how our bodies affect our thoughts and vice versa. So he enjoys using his AT skills combined with the Breathworks material, especially with its emphasis on mindful movement and Mindfulness in Daily Action.

Mj has worked with the NHS, it's Graduate Leadership Academy, staff at various trusts and a variety of healthcare professionals. Other clients have included the Royal Northern College of Music, Nando’s management team, Havas Lynx, Autotrader Companies and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

As part of the senior training team Mj is frequently involved in the BW training retreats, supervision of practice courses and one-to-one supervision.

Sophie has been teaching mindfulness and meditation for over a decade and has had a personal practice for much longer. She has found this to be transformative in her own life, particularly in relation to  living with chronic pain, as well as stress, and is passionate about sharing its many deep benefits with others.

Sophie is an Associate Teacher, trainer and supervisor for Breathworks and regularly teaches both Mindfulness for Stress and Mindfulness for Health courses as well as offering one to one sessions and mindfulness in the workplace. Sophie also occasionally teaches MBSR but particularly appreciates the compassion that lies at the heart of all that Breathworks offers.

Sophie very much enjoys working collaboratively and doing what she can to support others on their own unique and individual journeys with mindfulness.

Stanter was diagnosed with severe Rheumatoid arthritis in her teens and was told that she would end up in a wheelchair.  Instead, she embarked upon a journey of self-discovery and is now a freelance mindfulness teacher and coach, delivering mindfulness workshops and courses across Yorkshire and is founder of ‘Open Mind’

For the last 29 years, Stanter has embraced a holistic approach to her health and wellbeing, exploring different ideas and techniques from established teachers such as Tara Brach and Ken Wilber, incorporating their teachings into her daily life.  She also discovered the practice of mindfulness.

An experienced and qualified manager, adept at coaching and training delivery, Stanter holds a BA in Social Anthropology (School of African and Oriental Studies University of London, 1997) and is a fully Accredited Breathworks Mindfulness teacher (2014).  In 2017 she trained with the ‘Mindfulness in Schools Project’ qualifying to deliver their ten-week Dot B programme to children. Stanter played a leading part in developing a pain clinic in West Yorkshire, which was nominated for an outstanding performance award at national level.

Stanter has delivered mindfulness sessions – either one-to-one bespoke sessions or group workshops – to local government; NHS staff; fostering services; Neurological Centre, Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Survivors services.  She is experienced in working with complex clients suffering from long-term health and mental health conditions, and trauma including Manchester Bombing victims. 

Stanter has defied her original prognosis.  She has walked on hot coals, lived on the River Ganges, meditated in the desert and by the ocean. She lives life to the full.

Laura has lived with chronic illness and disability since her early teens and when she found herself desperately unwell at the age of thirty, she realised how habitual and automatic her life had become.

She was introduced to mindfulness whilst in hospital, which sparked a curiosity and eagerness to learn more. That led her to participate in a Mindfulness for Health online course, and to later became a Breathworks accredited teacher, drawing upon her continued personal practice and previous experience in education.

Laura is delighted to be part of the Breathworks Associate Online Teaching Team. She has first-hand experience of the isolation, difficulties and layers of stress caused by chronic illness and disability, and is passionate about making mindfulness available to those most in need and who find it hardest to access.

Annika is an experienced mindfulness trainer with a commitment to bringing mindfulness into workplaces. She completed her training in at Bangor University’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice in 2012 and has been teaching mindfulness in general population courses and in busy work places since then.

Annika’s clients have included staff in. schools, local businesses, local councils, police and ambulance services and she provides all aspects of mindfulness programmes from introductory sessions to full courses.

Coupled with her background in project management, further studies in coaching, psychology and, her experience in tailoring mindfulness for individual work place settings, she is an in ideal position to help implement sustainable mindfulness programmes in work places.

Vishvapani has extensive experience of bringing mindfulness into workplaces and helping teams embed mindful approaches in their lives and work. He has trained in several mindfulness curricula and is a leader in bringing mindfulness to Criminal Justice settings and public policy. Over the last decade he has led more than 120 mindfulness courses.

Vishvapani has worked with leading business schools (London, Said and Cardiff), and senior management teams in the public and private sectors. Clients include G4S, Wales Probation and Prison services, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the UK’s Department for Communities, Insolvency Service, social service departments, counselling services, healthcare teams and schools. As Wales Director of the Mindfulness Initiative he works with the Welsh Government on binging mindfulness into public policy.

Vishvapani has a First Class degree in English Literature from Cambridge University and an MA in Drama from London University. He’s an engaging speaker, an author and a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He lives in Cardiff with his family and several chickens.

Debbie is a Breathworks Associate, Senior Clinical Scientist in the NHS and a lecturer at the University of Manchester.

She is interested in raising awareness of and teaching mindfulness and self- compassion techniques to enhance general wellbeing and avoid burnout. Clinically, she works in the NHS with patients with chronic dizziness, using her own mindfulness/CBT model of management to empower them to live well with their symptoms.

In her free time, Debbie enjoys racing up hills either walking or on a bike, meditating at the top, and topping up her energy levels with a good bar of chocolate.

Louise is a clinical psychologist, who has worked extensively in primary and secondary mental health care services, and now works in a busy NHS hospital, supporting patients living with chronic health problems and going through complex surgery.

For the past 10 years, Louise has developed an interest, and strong expertise in, mindfulness and acceptance based approaches.  She is a qualified mindfulness practitioner and Associate with Breathworks, who deliver mindfulness training and courses.  She has experience delivering mindfulness courses and individually, to people living with chronic pain and illness, stress, and also to people in the workplace.  Louise is also experienced in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and also Compassion Focused Therapy, and has delivers training in this to other professionals.  She has also delivered ‘ACT in the Workplace’ groups to staff in NHS and educational settings.

For the past 3 years Louise has joined with her sister Rachael, to form InTwoMinds.  Together they have run courses for teachers, using both ACT and mindfulness.  The aim is that participants find ways of incorporating these skills into both their own lives, and into the wider school programme.  They also give talks to parents and educational groups, run inset days, and lead sessions with children in the classroom.

Louise has 3 children, who remain her priority - even more so as they begin to flee the nest.  She enjoys year round outdoor swimming, taking her dog on long walks, singing in a community choir, and making things for people.