How I came into teaching mindfulness

In 2007, while living in California, I reached across my boyfriend's bedside table to read his copy of the Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield. At the time, I was a wildly energetic Firefighter Paramedic, with an obsession for adventure sports, an inability to sit still, and zero desire for spiritual practice. I was also never quite satisfied with anything in my life. 

As I read the completely foreign material in the pages of the book, I somehow knew the words to be true. I tried to meditate but was largely unsuccessful, so I booked a trip to India to sit my first meditation retreat. Upon returning home I discovered I lived three hours from Spirit Rock Meditation Centre, which became my second home for the next 7 years.

In 2015 I returned to Australia, and became involved with Australian Insight Community, assisting and teaching on retreats, until eventually completing my Insight Dharma Training in 2024. During this time, I left my new career as an Intensive Care Paramedic in NSW and began investigating the impact of vicarious trauma on my body and mind. 

Trauma Recovery through mindfulness, kindness and movement became my new passion, and I longed to share what I was learning with other Frontline Workers like me. I trained in MBSR to complement my Dharma teaching with an accessible, relatable and proven method for sharing Mindfulness with all types of people in a language anyone can understand.

Over the last 4 years I have been delighted to be facilitating a transformative Mindfulness-based Trauma Recovery program for Frontline Workers with my Dharma friend and colleague Lisa Brown. 

Background

• E-RYT 500 Yoga teacher (incl Yin, Restorative, Ayurveda, Yoga Nidra)
• Insight Dharma Teacher 
• MBSR teacher 
• 20 years of committed meditation practice, including 45+ retreats attended (including monthlong retreat)
• Lived experience as a frontline worker and with PTSD recovery 
• Experienced retreat facilitator having led several 3-day trauma resilience retreats in the past 4 years.

Specialisation

When I decided to leave emergency services, my nervous system was in a state of disarray. My whole focus turned to understanding how the human body responds to stress and trauma, and how it can return it to a state of wellbeing and ease. 

What I find most valuable about my experience is the personal insight into what it feels like to meditate before trauma vs after trauma, and they are very different. This has gifted me the capacity to hold space for human beings who may not feel safe or at ease in their bodies, and the wisdom that there is always a way to practice that will be beneficial rather than harmful if we are flexible, open and kind in our relationship to mindfulness. 

Teaching Philosophy

Every human being has a history (and therefore trauma), and this determines the way we see the world and the choices we make. Mindfulness, when wrapped up in love, care and non-shame, gives us the chance to set our lives on a different trajectory. We do have the capacity to be happy, the feel safe, to be relaxed and live at ease, and these practices can guide us there. For those of us with trauma, finding our own unique way, and making choices that feel right to us, is the key to a thriving mindfulness practice.