About Us:
Take a deeper look at MindfulnessUK
How it all began
MindfulnessUK was created by our Senior Partner Karen Atkinson, a respected and regulated mindfulness and compassion and yoga teacher, with over 30 years experience, and author of Compassionate Mindful Inquiry in Therapeutic Practice. Throughout Karen’s career mindfulness and compassion have underpinned her work.
Having gone to Australia with her family, Karen spent her early years there before returning to the UK aged 11, and later studied for her Nursing Studies Degree and become a Registered General Nurse. During her nursing career she witnessed first-hand the impact an holistic approach has on well-being and the happiness it can bring to patients.
Karen says: “The best thing about being the Senior Partner at MindfulnessUK, is that every day I work with a great team who share my vision of building a compassionate mindfulness community of practitioners and qualified teachers, sharing the transformational potential of mindfulness and compassion with others.
MindfulnessUK was founded to teach mindfulness and compassion and to train others to teach it, because I wanted to share that joy with others. I cannot imagine my life without mindfulness and compassion practices. It empowers me to make choices on a moment by moment basis. It helps me to keep everything in perspective and to be more compassionate to myself and others, always. I consciously immersed myself into compassion practices during my recovery from cancer, soon after setting up MindfulnessUK.
My favourite practice differs but my “go-to” practices are body-based. My body tells me so much about how I am right now and I trust that by paying attention and tuning into how my body is feeling and moving, a sense of ease permeates my entire being. I feel aligned with my body, thoughts and emotions and connect with my core values more fully through practice.”
Always practical and action-focused Karen has now been teaching mindful movement and meditation for many years, specifically teaching mindfulness and compassion for over 20 years, however it is fair to say that she takes the greatest pride in having used her unique position to develop and deliver a ground-breaking qualification, the first of its’ kind in the market. The Level 4 Certificate “Integrating Mindfulness and Compassion in Professional Practice” enables others to offer these transformative practices and skills to either individuals or groups. This enables effective mindfulness practices to be more widely enjoyed and supports the MindfulnessUK goal to bring about enhanced joy and ease to others.
Compassionate Mindful Inquiry in Therapeutic Practice.
A Practical Guide for Mindfulness Teachers, Yoga Teachers and Allied Health Professionals
Karen Atkinson’s book is an important contribution to the evolving fields of mindfulness and compassion, both of which are essential methods to help alleviate suffering and enable people to live more rewarding lives.
This book is a must read for mindfulness teachers, meditators and professionals wanting to explore compassionate mindful inquiry, learn valuable tools and continuously evolve their skill-set. With a whole chapter dedicated to the neuroscience behind our tricky brains, Dr Trudi Edginton, demonstrates how compassionate mindfulness can profoundly change how our brains and nervous systems function.
She explores the neuroscience of mindfulness and compassion, the measurable effects and introduces The Compassionate Mindful Inquiry Neuroscience Model.
Meet the team
Karen Atkinson
Co-founder & Senior Partner
I'm so happy riding Bluebell, my electric bike, on the Blackdown Hills. I actually laugh out loud as I'm working hard going up a hill, huffing and puffing then flick on the electrics and whoosh along. It's exhilarating finding lanes and routes I've never been along before
Angie Ward Head of Teacher Training
My go to place is the beach, in any season! Walking on the many terraines is grounding, the expansive space refreshing, the sound of waves calming, the ebb and flow is a fabulous reminder of impermanence and how things are always changing. Being in water is such a pleasure for me, exhilarating and energising. Of course if you add being with my favourite friends and family, a picnic or trip to a cafe then I am an extremely happy bunny!
Stephanie Unthank Director & Tutor
I just love travelling, anytime and anywhere. I have a passion for France, particularly Provence, where we often hire a small Gite with a pool and spend all of our time reading books, listening to music, eating locally sourced produce and trying the French wine!
Anna Taylor Associate Tutor
My happy place is always in nature. I feel so grateful to live so close to a park in London and I've recently made a commitment to go for a short walk in the morning before I turn my computer on. It feels such a tonic to be among the trees, to watch the playful squirrels, to walk around the lake and try to spot the heron that frequently visits. Being a part of nature always puts life into perspective, seeing that there is a wider world than my own and that there is beauty to be found even on dark, dreary days. I've started to take a photo at the same place each day and it's wonderful to capture the seasons changing. It somehow reminds me to try to move more with the seasons, to trust that all things shift and flow, and to remember on difficult days that spring will come around again.
Vera Dubrovina-Thompson Director
I am a through and through book worm so sitting down, somewhere comfortable and preferably by the sea in the shade, with an interesting book, a bowl of fruit and completely in peace is my ideal place to be. The sea horizon always encourages me into reflection and contemplation! Alas almost impossible to achieve now with two children, a dog and an aging mother.
Claire Kidd Marketing
There is nothing I love more than walking and exploring a new place, towns, cities or anywhere! Being outside in the fresh air fills me with happiness and sometimes I feel like I could happily walk for hours. I am lucky enough to have travelled a lot as I was growing up and I enjoy now taking my kids to places near and far.
Dilya Mavlanova Associate Tutor
I live much of my life in the beautiful countryside and love long beach walks with Jimmy our brown Labrador. I also appreciate my yoga practice and fit a little bit in daily. It helps me centre and ground and gets me supple for my walks. Post walk I enjoy a read but also listen to Audible on long journeys.
Kate Elliott
CMR Tutor
Spending time out in the fresh air is always cathartic for me, and helps to clear my head. If I need to slow down, I go for a walk around my local park, listening to my favourite podcast “Being Well with Rick Hanson, or if my energy is high I take myself for a quick jog around the nearby lake, but the best therapy is a bike ride with my daughter, it’s always exhilarating being out together in the open air!
Joanne Reeve
Teacher Training Coordinator
My favourite thing to do to provide headspace and freedom is cycling. I enjoy family bike rides, fast bike rides, commuting bike rides. It doesn’t matter how I am feeling, I can always feel better after I have been cycling. The time I spend riding can give me time to think, time to explore and can be enjoyed on my own or with family.
Our Values
Kindness
Opening their expertise to all, the experienced and friendly team at MindfulnessUK will work with you and support you throughout your mindfulness and compassion experiences and aspirations as a mindfulness teacher.
Integrity
Everyone in the team has a mindfulness practice and utterly understand the benefits of mindfulness, and provide a trustworthy space to develop and learn in.
Inclusive
Making mindfulness and compassion available to all is at the heart of how the MindfulnessUK team teach and nurture students, providing accessible teaching methods and a wide range of options to learn.
Professional
With a deep-rooted belief in integrated mindfulness and compassion, the team take great pride in delivering comprehensive and robust teacher training adhering to good practice guidelines and accredited by external organisations.
Mission Statement:
We are here to educate and empower more people to teach the benefits of mindfulness and compassion and help people to thrive in their personal and professional lives.
Our Partners
MindfulnessUK is a BAMBA Member Organisation, with Karen a BAMBA Trustee and a member of the British Wheel of Yoga.
The team at MindfulnessUK have published many articles on mindfulness and compassion and often present at professional conferences and webinars. MindfulnessUK prides itself on fulfilling Good Practice Guidelines.
We don’t work in isolation, all our work is evidence-based and neuroscientifically proven. We take great pride in working closely with the City University London and in particular with researcher Dr Trudi Edginton, also with Helsinki, Oulu and Belfast universities. We also work with team leaders from Somerset County Council, foster carers and others as projects develop.
Charities
We support a number of charities and take great pride in raising money for the Maternity Unit in Tibet, The Tibet Relief Fund, sponsoring a polar bear through WWF, donating to Unicef and giving a monthly offering to the Venerable Amy Miller. We also offer use of our centre and therapy rooms to the Beacon Centre, Oncology Unit at Musgrove Park Hospital.
