Meet the Trustees

It’s my great privilege to be chair of Mindfulness Wales/Meddwlgarwch Cymru and to work with my amazing Trustee colleagues and our wider network of Friends in taking forward our vision of sharing mindfulness to help Wales become a more compassionate, kinder, fairer society.  My background is in education starting as a teacher and headteacher and ending as Head of Children and Young People’s Strategy in the Welsh Government.

I trained to teach MBSR and MBCT but I now focus on the range of lighter touch programmes aimed more at the general population. My main priority is in education with staff and pupils of all ages and I work with the Mindfulness in Schools Project to train staff all over the world to teach their programmes.  I’m also involved in teaching Compassionate Mind Training to staff and pupils in collaboration with the University of Derby.

All of this fits beautifully into our Nurturing Mindful Communities project and I’m looking forward to finding out more about the mindfulness happening already all over Wales to help us weave mindfulness into all sorts of communities.

I’m really pleased to be a founding Trustee and the Secretary of Mindfulness Wales, and being part of this great team of people. 

I started practicing mindfulness in 2009 when I experienced growing anxiety and was looking for something to help.  Discovering mindfulness was so powerful that it led me to embark on the teacher training pathway.  Since then I have taught open MBSR classes in the community, developed and delivered University modules in workplace mindfulness, and worked with a local authority over a number of years as part of its strategy to bring mindfulness to schools, starting with staff well-being. My academic specialism is mindfulness in the workplace, and to this end I have worked with many organisations of all sizes.

More recently, the challenges of chronic illness a significant bereavement have presented themselves, and mindfulness practice plays a large part in helping me face and manage this deluge of loss. 

On a lighter note, I am a performance poet, and enjoy my family and life by the sea. 

Helo yna / Hi there, I am delighted to serve as a trustee with Meddylgarwch Cymru / Mindfulness Wales. My interest in meditation / mindfulness practice stretches back over the last 35 years. I am a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist by profession, and a teacher of Mindfulness-Based Approaches. I currently work in the Gwent area for the NHS.

My other involvements in mindfulness here in Wales include recently completing a Master of Science by Research with Bangor University, and a collaboration with the Mindfulness Network in piloting the Mindful Self Care Programme for NHS professionals, and have a particular interest in the health and wellbeing sector.

I was a primary school teacher and deputy head for 15 years before swapping one set of (school) bells for another (division bells) when I became an MP in 1997. I served the Vale of Clwyd for 21 years and helped to set up mindfulness lessons for 350 politicians and 800 members of staff. We produced the Mindful Nation parliamentary report into the uses of mindfulness in health, education, criminal justice and the workplace. I served on the Oxford Mindfulness Centre / Foundation for 9 years and chaired Ruby Wax’s Frazzled Cafe for three years. I’m currently Chair of the Mindfulness Initiative’s international network of advocates and politicians who are trying to introduce mindfulness into their legislatures and proud to be a board member of Mindfulness Wales.

It is a pleasure to be one of the trustees of Mindfulness Wales. It was with surprise that I came to meditate about twenty years ago, and I am still amazed at how silence inspires and calms me. As mindfulness became central in my life, I was keen to share it with others and give an opportunity to do so through the medium of Welsh. I set out to train to be a teacher of mindfulness at Bangor University, and in retirement I had the opportunity to complete an MA in mindfulness-based approaches, focusing on adapting an 8-week program into Welsh

Before retiring I spent 36 years in the NHS as a specialist speech and language therapist and manager working with children and adults with learning disabilities and complex needs. I now offer mindfulness courses and sessions for parents and carers. I also hold a monthly ‘Cylch Myfyrio ‘on Zoom, in Welsh and hold sessions and workshops as needed. I am very keen to share and develop Welsh language resources for individuals to use.

Hi, I’m Kate Tucker. I have a professional background as a speech and language therapist (SLT), lecturer, and researcher. I recently completed a PhD study exploring professional identity development in healthcare students, with a focus on SLT students. I have a particular interest in supporting professional development, resilience, and wellbeing within healthcare. I am an accredited mindfulness teacher with Breathworks and I’m BAMBA registered. I run online mindfulness sessions through Mindfulness Wales; wellbeing and mindfulness training for speech and language therapy students; and offer mindfulness teaching within my local area of Penarth. I am excited to be involved in projects which support developing mindful communities in Wales and introduce mindfulness as a tool to support wellbeing. 

Hello from me Roy and thank you for taking time to read about Mindfulness Wales. It is a great honour to be invited to serve as a Trustee for Mindfulness Wales providing opportunity to continue my interest in how mindfulness can help individuals, communities and the public services, to live and work well – healthier, happier more rewarding and productive lives. I worked within Wales public sector for a number of years and for 12 of those years for Academi Wales within Welsh Government. This work providing an interesting insight into the challenges of leadership in the public sector. This work included working with organisations on continuous improvement and change staff projects. There are tried and tested tools and theories of change, this work brought about my realisation change of most kinds starts with the individual – inner work. This realisation came at a time of my own personal challenges. With some knowledge mindfulness, I decided to further this knowledge completing an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, this spurred me on to further study at Bangor University – my mindfulness journey had begun. I am interested in developing applied mindfulness approaches, acceptable and available to all in their moment of need.