About Me

I have almost 25 years of experience as a mindfulness practitioner, and over 8 years as a mindfulness teacher. For the first 15 years of my mindfulness journey, I practiced within a Buddhist context (Triratna Sangha, formerly FWBO), during which I attended many retreats including solitaries, and went part way through ordination. I have taught mindfulness in a range of public and private contexts, including companies such as Tarmac and NHS Business Services Authority. I have also ran workshops with Dr Zoe Williams (ITV's Good Morning Britain's GP), but the bulk of my experience has been teaching mindfulness within the Higher Education sector. ​ I am currently Co-Chair of the Mindfulness in Medical Education (MiME) Special Interest Group for The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME). I lead on helping to raise the profile of, and advancing the scholarship of, mindfulness in medical education through conferences and other events and publications. ​ My teaching career started in 2005 as an A-level philosophy and A-level critical thinking Lecturer, after which in 2007, I became a Teacher Educator in Higher Education. For the last 12 years or so I have been a Teacher Educator in the Medical Education context. I am currently a full-time Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of Sunderland where I help run a Masters in Medical Education programme, and as part of this, deliver some workshop on mindfulness and self-care and mindfulness and leadership. I also lecture on mindfulness to year 1 medical students. Prior to this role, I was a Lecturer in Medical Education, Associate Lecturer in Psychology (Mindfulness and Transpersonal Psychology), and Mindfulness Teacher at Newcastle University. ​ In terms of research and scholarship, I have presented at many conferences and events on themes such as mindfulness and resilience; mindfulness and clinical decision-making; mindfulness and self-care/compassion, and have most recently been involved in a project with MindfulnessUK on the impact of 4-week compassion courses on the resilience of health and social care workers which has aided their ability to gain accreditation with EAMBA. I also review mindfulness and wellbeing-related articles for a number of academic journals including 'Mindfulness'. ​ I have completed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher training pathway with MindfulnessUK. Prior to this I did teacher training with Suryacitta at Mindfulness Unleashed in Leicester. ​ I have been providing one-to-one mindfulness for clients referred from Newcastle Psychologist in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2019. ​ I have a first degree in Philosophy; PGCE in Post Compulsory Education and Training and Masters in Education. I trained as a facilitator of philosophical enquiry with Oxford `Brookes University. I am currently writing my PhD proposal which will have a pedagogical focus on mindfulness teaching. I am a Senior Fellow with Advance-HE.