Mindfulness Teacher – Wellbeing Coach – Author
Professional Bio
I have 10 years experience in working between Youth Justice and Education, piloting innovative family practice and coaching through change (2005-10). Passionate to ‘make a difference’ and following the flow of my creativity, I left behind a well paid, and respected public sector role to take a ‘leap’ into the unknown and open to new lifestyles and ways of contribution. In 2010, after being awarded a Winston Churchill Research Fellowship, I found myself travelling across America researching alternative restorative approaches that supported families experiencing adolescent abuse. You can view my Churchill Report here. On return, I founded Alternative Restoratives, as a Training and Professional Awareness Raising Platform. I was committed to developing practitioner training that supported restorative ways of working with adolescent to parent abuse. For two years, I spoke at conferences around England and in Canada before retiring from this field of contribution in 2013. It is said we all have a book in us, and mine was born when I finally wrote Reclaimed – Turning an Uneventful Life into an Adventure. My main purpose for writing a piece of my life’s story was to inspire and awaken others to open to their own life purpose and adventure. I have since found myself speaking at women’s groups, facilitating coaching circles and later, training mindfulness based workshops.
With a long term meditation practice of my own, it seemed natural to train as a teacher with Breathworks (in 2016) and to offer my skills and services by teaching teaching Mindfulness for Health, wellbeing and Mindfulness for Stress management along with facilitating retreats and mindful-living nurture groups. I also offer personal coaching sessions on a 1-1 basis.
Between May 2017 and September 2018, I deepened my own meditation practice by living and working as a residential retreat coordinator at The Barn Retreat, jointly coordinating over 30 mindfulness retreats.
Combining my previous expertise in criminal justice with mindfulness teacher training, I spent 2018-19 developing and piloting mindfulness ‘Mindfit’, a mindfulness based invention (MBA) in prisons. As an Associate of Exeter University, and inspired by Dr Imaculada Adarves-yorno’s Mindful Leaders work in Kenyan Prisons, I was part of the delivery team of Alternative Lives prison programme, in partnership with Exeter F.C. Community Trust.
Since the Covid-19 crisis (2020), I offer mindful wellbeing coaching, both one-to-one personal sessions on zoom, skype, or over the telephone, for those over 60 and hold weekly Mindfulness Zoom Groups to reduce isolation and support learning mindful wellbeing tools, for those in indefinite lockdown through this time of great challenge and change.