How I came into teaching mindfulness

After corrective surgeries for severe scoliosis in my teens, I have lived with chronic back pain for over 30 years. For a long time, my energy went into survival — pushing through, desperately seeking answers tumbling through the medical roundabout, and staying busy as a way of avoiding discomfort, both physical and emotional. In 2009, during a particularly dark period, I acknowledged that I needed help. Attending a three-week intensive pain management course became a turning point. It was there that I was introduced to mindfulness — not as a way to “fix” myself, but as an invitation to meet my experience differently.

Since then, mindfulness has been a daily companion. Turning my scientific curiosity inward, I discovered through small moments of presence that I could relate to my experience with openness rather than resistance. Mindfulness helped me recognise when fear was taking the driver’s seat, when I was slipping back into urgency or self-pressure, and how to gently reconnect — to myself, to others, and to what truly matters. These days, there is less beating myself up and more compassion and curiosity. I live by my own definition of recovery: a slower, sometimes messier yet more engaged life, grounded in clarity, calm, and choice.

This lived experience deeply informs how I teach. I understand how hard it can be to find the time, energy, or motivation to practise — especially while juggling work, family life, pain, and the relentless pull of achievement-focused culture. I know what it’s like when practice feels inconsistent, or is reduced to a single conscious breath and a quiet promise to begin again. I’m not interested in perfection or performance. I teach from a place of compassion, realism, and respect — offering practices that meet people where they are and supporting each person to find their own way – a way to trust in their own inner wisdom, resilience and capacity for change.

Background

After studying science and a PhD in ecosystem management, I have developed extensive experience teaching in higher education and community settings. As a scientist and life-long learner, I bring my signature enthusiasm and curiosity into my teaching.

• Recovered from chronic back pain (30+ years lived experience)
• MBSR Teacher trained by MTIA
• 15 + years of daily meditation and movement practice, including a number of
  week-long silent retreats
• Extensive background in community education for pain management
• Specialist training: Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Explain Pain, Modern Qigong
  

Specialisation

My teaching specialisation is working with people living with chronic pain and persistent health conditions. I am an accredited MBSR teacher and have recently delivered Openground’s eight-week From Pain to Peace program. I bring a unique blend of contemporary pain neuroscience, mindfulness-based approaches, and my own lived experience of recovering from decades of chronic back pain. This allows me to relate quickly and authentically - it’s likely I’ve been there before, and I understand the messy-ness and complexity of pain. I’ve facilitated programs for people living with pain, health clinicians, and policy makers, and I advocate for a whole-of-person, multidisciplinary approach grounded in compassion, evidence, and real-world experience.

Teaching Philosophy

I believe recovery from chronic pain is possible because I live it every day. My own experience, alongside that of countless others and a growing body of scientific evidence, continues to strengthen this belief. Recovery begins when you learn to work with your whole self - body, mind, and nervous system - from a place of compassion and understanding. Through a biopsychosocial, evidence-based lens, I offer a warm, practical space where pain is taken seriously and nothing needs to be forced, fixed or feared. I combine clear pain neuroscience, adaptable mindfulness practices, and lightness and my own unique sense of humour. There is no “right” way - only your way, I look forward to walking alongside you as you reconnect with it.