Our People

Ri Ferrier

Ri has been practicing mindfulness since her early 20s, when she discovered the power of meditation and being fully present. Since then she has delved deeply into this work, from Jungian based retreats through to Shamanic ceremonies, both as student and as teacher. She is also a biodynamic craniosacral therapist, a therapy that brings nourishment and healing through deep listening to the body.

Will Stephens

Will has held director and consultant roles for many organisations; including serving as European Director for HeartMath and starting a Mindfulness Centre in the South of England. He has completed over 50 weeks of mindfulness training, spent three years training in Core Process Psychotherapy and gained experience working in NHS mental health services and UK prisons.

Tania Wheatcroft

Tania’s passion for sustainability and social justice has guided her work. She was the Marketing Manager at the Fairtrade Foundation leading the campaign to ‘Make Trade Fair’ working with supermarkets and coffee chains to change their sourcing habits. Mindfulness has helped with both work and her family, she says allowing her to be more present and connected. While looking after her 2 children you will find her in the vegetable garden, walking the dog or beach combing.

Jasmine Shaw

Jasmine has facilitated mindfulness for over 10 years- for her peers as a young adult and later for children and adults. She has completed a 2-year in-depth Certified Mindfulness Teacher Training programme with internationally recognised teachers Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield. She has undergone teacher training retreats in Mindful Self Compassion with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer.

Lyndsay Lunan

Lyndsay has taught both at Glasgow University and in Further Education, where she created acclaimed mindfulness programmes for staff and students. She was later director of programme development and lead trainer at Youth Mindfulness. Lyndsay believes that the world we create begins with a state of mind.

Kareem Ghandour

Kareem discovered mindfulness aged 18 whilst struggling with alcoholism and depression, and it enabled him to discover a more meaningful way of life that he had been searching for. Later he has been a facilitator with various groups and charities including Wake Up London, Youth Mindfulness, Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (IBME) and Colours of Compassion – a community for people of BAME backgrounds. He has trained to teach mindfulness with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

Veronica Ellis

Veronica’s background is in teaching young offenders and children with Special Educational Needs.

She is the founder and director of Mindfulness Connected Learning and has created mindfulness programmes for parents and for people suffering from stress in the workplace. She teaches mindfulness to both adults and children and has also created a mindfulness course for children with ADHD.

She is committed to creating safe spaces so that mindfulness can be easily explored by individuals and groups. Veronica has completed an extensive course with Gabor Maté in ‘Compassionate Inquiry’ and is passionate about using this approach within her mindfulness work to facilitate insight and growth.

Susie Hooper

Susie was introduced to mindfulness through her work with men who have committed sexual offences. She quickly realised how beneficial a regular practice was, enabling her to experience her emotions more deeply and to be kinder to herself. Through her mindfulness practice she almost never listens to the internal critic anymore! She loves teaching mindfulness is her local community in Central Scotland, and also online.

Niki Lewarne

Niki discovered mindfulness over 20 years ago, only discovering mindfulness in community during Mindfulness for Life training in 2018. This training deepened her own practice and skills to share with others.

As a psychotherapist working in schools and privately she specialises in loss, attachment and trauma. She teaches mindfulness to both adults and children and has developed an integrated model of therapy and mindfulness she shares with clients.

Karim Manji

Karim has previously worked as a secondary school teacher and also in communications for a range of charities and organisations. He has been practicing mindfulness for a decade and spent 18 months immersed in mindfulness in a practice centre in France as well as numerous other residential programmes.

Joe McMartin

Joe has worked in social development, in the UK and internationally, for almost 30 years. He spent 4 years in China teaching and running programmes in education and health. In recent years Joe’s interests have been on how groups of people work together in ways that include everyone, generate new approaches and create shared excitement.

Lorna Reid

Lorna has a professional background in hospice based nursing and education where she practices her commitment to compassionate listening. She came to mindfulness to help with her own long-term health condition. She stays with it to fully engage with life. Lorna’s mindfulness facilitation training is in line with good practice guidelines, and she has been offering mindfulness based courses and events for the past five years.

Michael Schwammberger

Michael is a highly sought-after teacher and has led retreats in the UK, Spain and South America. He has been practising mindfulness since 1992 and he lived as a Buddhist monk for 15 years in Plum Village France, where he was a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.