Sussex Mindfulness Centre trainers and teachers

On this page you can find out about all the people that make up our teacher training and teaching team.

This includes our experienced team of trainers who train others to teach mindfulness, teachers who run our eight-week mindfulness and mindful self-compassion courses for staff and patients at the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and our Associate Teachers who run various courses for us.

Teacher trainers

First we feature our experienced teacher trainers who run our foundation course for teaching the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy programme, and adapted mindfulness-based interventions.

Fergal Jones

Fergal Jones is the convenor for the teacher training programmes for Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and adapted mindfulness-based interventions.

He is a clinical psychologist and cognitive behavioural therapist who completed mindfulness teacher training at the University of Bangor. He currently works part time in Health in Mind, the primary care well-being service that serves East Sussex. He uses mindfulness in his clinical work, supervises other mindfulness teachers and is involved with a number of research projects concerning mindfulness-based interventions.

Bridgette O’Neill

Bridgette is a clinical psychologist by professional training and has taught mindfulness-based approaches in NHS mental health services for staff and clients since 2002. She is a senior lecturer, trainer, and supervisor with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice and the Mindfulness Network as well as a trainer with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre. Bridgette has a particular interest in mindfulness and compassion-based approaches in relation to social and environmental challenges and is part of the author group of the paper ‘Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Our Time: A Curriculum that is up to the Task’.

Taravajra

Taravajra has been teaching mindfulness in Sussex since 2005 to community groups, carers, teachers and NHS staff. Taravajra gained a Masters degree in mindfulness-based approaches in 2010 at Bangor University. Since 2011, he has been part of the core training team at Bangor, teaching on the Masters programme and teacher training pathway in the English and Spanish speaking worlds.

He holds a British Wheel of Yoga teaching diploma and is a Focusing practitioner. Since 2011 he has been one of the main trainers on the Sussex Mindfulness Centre’s teacher training programme.

Ruth Sequeira

Ruth Sequeira is as senior trainer, supervisor and mindfulness teacher for the Sussex Mindfulness Centre. She is also a psychological therapist and the Mindfulness and Compassion Training and Retreat Lead at the Mindfulness Network. Ruth has a history of working in mental health services and until recently worked as a clinical lead in the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Sussex. Ruth has a longstanding interest in mindfulness, meditation and movement, and is passionate about increasing access to mindfulness courses in different populations.

---

Sussex Partnership-employed MBCT teachers

The teachers that follow in this section run the eight-week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and / or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction on behalf of the Sussex Mindfulness Centre, for staff and patients of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Heather Ball

Heather is a Psychiatric Nurse and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapist working in secondary care mental health with people who experience severe and enduring difficulties. Alongside running formal 8-week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy groups for SPFT clients, she has been involved in Mindfulness for Voices Groups and the Brief Mindfulness Interventions trial. Heather was also involved in the Mindfulness for Life research trial for Sussex Partnership staff, through Oxford Mindfulness Centre. She regularly runs MBCT drop-in sessions at the Sussex Education Centre, Brighton Buddhist Centre, and a mindfulness drop-in for SPFT staff at East Brighton Mental Health Centre. She is also a supervisor of mindfulness teachers. She also gains inspiration from poetry and nature.

Cecilia Bissessur

Cecilia Bissessur is a Dramatherapist working within Adult Mental Health and Acute Dementia care at Sussex Partnership.  Following a personal interest in mindfulness and yoga she trained as an MBCT teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2019.  She has been teaching MBCT courses since this time and plans to become more involved in staff drop in and all day events.

Catherine Cameron

Catherine is a clinical psychologist working within the community-based eating disorders service. She has a particular interest in self-compassion in eating disorders treatments. She co-facilitates the mindful self-compassion course for staff with Robert Marx having trained to facilitate the MSC course in 2014 and before that running MBCT-based Mindfulness for Pain courses in Hove Polyclinic. She is also involved in the mindfulness all day retreats run for those who have attended the eight-week courses within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Jo Chittenden

Jo works as an Occupational Therapist in the Sussex Partnership’s low secure forensic inpatient service in Chichester.  She is a passionate advocate for developing new models of patient care and trained as an occupational therapist in part so she could offer Mindfulness within the health service.  Jo has a committed practice of 25 years and has trained with a number of teachers worldwide.  Jo offers drop in Mindfulness sessions to staff and patients in the secure service and is working towards a model that better suits forensic inpatients.  Jo also offers regular MBSR/CT courses to staff at the Office of National Statistics and supports individuals in their practice.

Alison Clifton

Jo Coldwell is a Clinical Psychologist working within specialist Child and Adolescent services in Sussex Partnership for Children in Care. Following a personal interest in yoga and mindfulness she trained as a Mindfulness teacher with Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2017. Since then she has run MBCT groups for Foster Carers in East Sussex and has a particular interest in mindfulness for parents and carers.

Hannah Denton

Hannah Denton is a Counselling Psychologist working within Adult Mental Health in Sussex Partnership.  Following a personal interest in mindfulness and yoga she trained as an MBCT teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2011.  She has been teaching MBCT courses since as well as regularly facilitating drop in sessions for staff. 

Lucy Edwards

Lucy is a Clinical Psychologist working in secondary care adult mental health services within the Trust since 2003. Lucy’s relationship with mindfulness developed from experiencing its benefits firsthand. She integrates mindfulness into her clinical work and in 2015 completed her mindfulnes teacher training at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre. She teaches eight-week mindfulness courses, as well as being involved in the all day and drop in events at the Sussex Education Centre.

Rachel Grant

Rachel delivers cognitive behavioural therapy and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy in a primary care setting within the trust. She works with adults with anxiety disorders and depression. She also works in a similar role in private practice. 

Rachel completed the mindfulness teaching training at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2021, after benefiting from her own meditation practice for the past ten years. She currently teaches 8 week MBCT courses as part of her role with in the trust.  She enjoys introducing others to mindfulness and witnessing the positive impact it can have on people’s wellbeing.

Sue Huggett

Sue is a Senior Counselling Psychologist who has been working in  Secondary Care Adult Mental Health Services within the Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust since 1998. She was introduced to Mindfulness six years ago joining an eight-week Staff MBCT course. Experiencing great benefits from this, in 2015 she completed the one-year MBCT Teacher Training Programme provided by the Sussex Mindfulness Centre. She now facilitates eight-week MBCT Courses within the North West Sussex Secondary Care Service.

Ruth Kendall

Ruth trained at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2017 after recognising the benefits of mindfulness on a personal level, as well as for the young people, parents, and staff she worked with. Ruth is keen to develop mindfulness workshops and groups for parents in Paediatrics and has a growing interest in trauma and the body.

Lynn Ley

Lynn has been facilitating Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Groups (MBCT) within Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust since 2008. Within Health in Mind, there is a rolling eight week MBCT program, and Lynn holds groups in Lewes, Hastings, and Eastbourne/ Hailsham. As with all teachers of MBCT within Sussex Partnership Trust, Lynn has a personal meditation practice which she has found life-enhancing. She also contributes to the mindfulness-based interventions practice network group.

Emily Powell

Emily Powell is an Occupational Therapist working within secondary care mental health in Sussex Partnership.  Following a personal interest in mindfulness and yoga, Emily attended Mindfulness and Mindful Self Compassion courses for SPFT staff and went on to complete training as an Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2022. She now offers 8-week MBCT courses for service users in the Assessment and Treatment Service alongside her work at the Group Treatment Service. 

Sarah Pratap

Sarah is a Clinical Psychologist who works within Adult Mental Health in Brighton and Hove. Sarah trained as a mindfulness teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2011 and since then has facilitated mindfulness for voices and MBCT groups. Sarah uses variety of approaches in her individual clinical work and enjoys integrating aspects of mindfulness into this work where it is helpful.

Hazel Ragoonanan

Hazel is a nurse by background and now works as a mindfulness teacher in the Group Treatment Services in Brighton.

Lisa Ransom

Lisa is Mental Health Nurse working for Sussex Partnership. She currently works at Lighthouse, to bring mindfulness into this setting. Lisa is deeply interested in how we express ourselves in our bodies, the embodiment of our psychological states and the mind-body connection.

Lisa is passionate about the importance and use of movement in mindfulness as evidence points increasingly towards the use of movement to support the regulation of the nervous system. Lisa is also passionate about being in nature, which she’s also developing at Lighthouse, offering Nature Based Practice to our members.

Anita Raybould

Anita works at Health in Mind as a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Practitioner. She also works outside of the NHS in schools with children with social, emotional and mental health needs. Her background is in CAMHS and she continues to have a passion for working with children, young people and their families.

Anita is keen to establish MBCT groups within the adult mental health team. She offers a weekly staff mindfulness drop-in at Cavendish House which is a helpful space.  She is also interested in mindfulness with children, young people, parents/carers and during pregnancy.

Miranda Rose

Miranda is a clinical nurse specialist and team leader in CAMHS, East Susssex. She has a long standing interest in mindfulness and personal meditation practice over the past 30 years. Miranda completed her MBCT teacher training in 2015 and now facilitates mindfulness courses for adolescents experiencing clinically significant episodes of anxiety and low mood within the CAMHS service.

Hannah Shutt

Hannah is a mindfulness and yoga teacher with a special interest in integrated mind-body approaches to emotional and mental health. She specialises in working with individuals with complex emotional and relational needs and offering trauma sensitive, specifically tailored and adapted mindfulness-based approaches with a particular focus on supporting greater mind-body connection, emotional regulation and a felt sense of safety. Her own mindfulness practice includes a regular yoga and meditation practice and time in nature, particularly sea swimming and walking in the woods.

Michelle Usher

Michelle is a mindfulness teacher and mental health nurse at the Brighton & Hove Group Treatment Service. Having had a personal practice of meditation and mindfulness for many years, Michelle went on to complete training as a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2024. Michelle enjoys integrating aspects of mindfulness into her clinical work where it is helpful, and now offers the eight-week MBCT courses for service users in the Assessment and Treatment Service and Group Treatment Service.

Michelle is keen to share mindfulness approaches to promote wellbeing for staff and carers.

David Ward

David Ward – also known as Panya – has been practising and teaching mindfulness and ‘compassionate mind’ approaches for 25 years, including 10 years as an ordained Buddhist monk in the ‘Forest’ meditation tradition of Ajahn Chah, living in South East Asia. Leaving monastic life in 2007, he retrained as a psychological therapist, initially in psychodynamic counselling, followed by further postgraduate training in cognitive behavioural therapies at the University of Surrey. He currently works in a secondary care community mental health team as a Senior Psychological Therapist, and has a keen interest in mindfulness-based and compassion-focused approaches for healing trauma. 

Susan Whiting

Susan has been facilitating Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy groups since training as a mindfulness teacher with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2011, and supports the drop-in mindfulness sessions and silent all days for SMC.  Her clinical work is mainly in the specialist older adult mental health services in Brighton & Hove, and Susan has been involved in researching the benefits of MBCT for older people and has also been delivering adapted group based mindfulness interventions for people experiencing dementia and their family and carers. Susan is Consultant Clinical Psychologist and has a lead role within Psychology and Psychological Therapy community adult mental health services.

---

Sussex Partnership-employed mindfulness-based interventions practitioners

Laura Coady

Laura Coady is a Therapeutic Activity Worker within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, with 14 years’ experience in mental health services. Laura trained as a Mindfulness Based Interventions Practitioner in 2021 with Sussex Mindfulness Centre and also completed Yoga Teacher Training in 2022. Laura enjoys contributing to improving well-being by offering Mindfulness Based Interventions and Yoga within an acute in-patient Mental Health service. 

Padmaprabha Dalby

Dr Padmaprabha Dalby is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and the Clinical Director for Specialist Older Adult Services in Sussex Partnership Trust. She took up her current role out of a passion to improve and develop the services we offer to older people and people with dementia. Padmaprabha has conducted and published research into the lived experience of spirituality in older people living with dementia and also has personal experience of close family members living with dementia. Clinically she is currently offering a service to support care homes and their communities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Padmaprabha trained to teach mindfulness-based interventions in 2018.

Celia Heneage

Celia Heneage trained with the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2018. She has retired from her work as a Clinical Psychologist for people with learning disabilities and now works to support the provision of mindfulness for people with learning disabilities. 

Gillian Hurren

Gill is a learning disability nurse working in the community in West Sussex and has over 35 years experience working with people with a learning disability.  She started her journey with mindfulness in 2015. She quickly  realised that the people she was working with in her clinical role would  also benefit from having mindfulness in their lives.  She completed the Mindfulness Based interventions course in 2018. It was apparent very quickly that there is limited research and resources to help  teachers with adapting mindfulness for people with a learning disability. So along with a small group of teachers from the learning disability service, she has developed resources and ways of teaching mindfulness creatively so it is accessible for people with a learning disability. 

Sally Stapleton

Sally, a clinical psychologist at Sussex Partnership, learned to teach mindfulness-based interventions during 2020. 

---

Sussex Mindfulness Centre mindfulness teacher associates

The Sussex Mindfulness Centre draws on a wide-range of experienced teachers to offer mindfulness courses within the Trust, and for various other commitments, such as running mindfulness courses for underrepresented communities.

Rosalie Dores

Rosalie Dores is a mindfulness teacher, supervisor and trainer. She completed a five-year masters degree in teaching mindfulness at Bangor University, with distinction as well as holding a Certificate of Teacher Competency. She teaches general and workplace populations, as well as one-to-one Distance Learning Programmes. She offers supervision and personal practice mentoring for The Mindfulness Network CIC, as well as conducting MBI-TAC assessments. She has been practicing mindfulness and yoga since 1992. She also teaches Insight Dialogue retreats and Interpersonal Mindfulness courses. Her website is www.optimalliving.co.uk

Juan Du

Juan Du is a Trainee Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist who has been working with mental health services in Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust since 2016. She trained as a MBCT/MBSR teacher with Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2017 and has been involved in teaching ITM (Introduction to Mindfulness) with Recovery College and mindfulness in self-care for staff induction since.  She believes her strong interest and imprint in mindfulness begins with her upbringing in China, with a strong influence of Buddhism culture. 

Richard Gilpin

Richard is a mindfulness teacher, counsellor and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist. He has trained extensively in mindfulness-based practices since the 1990s and has been facilitating MBCT courses since 2007. He is the author of two self-help books: Mindfulness for Black Dogs and Blue Days (2012) and Mindfulness for Unravelling Anxiety (2016). His Masters research on MBCT was published in 2008.

His website is www.richardgilpin.co.uk.

Kate Gooch

Kate Gooch holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Mindfulness Based Approaches from Bangor University (2012) and has taught Mindfulness since 2007. She teaches the general population, clinical populations, and carers, as well as delivering courses in educational settings and the workplace. She’s trained in .b, .b Foundations, and MYRIAD, in addition to being a Mindfulness supervisor for the Mindfulness Network. She also has a Speech and Language Therapy background.

Lana Jackson

Lana is a Senior Clinical Psychologist, Mindfulness Teacher, and Yoga Therapist for Mental Health specialising in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) and Paediatric Clinical Psychology in Brighton. Over the last three years she has co-developed, co-facilitated and evaluated an eight-week adapted MBCT programme for young people (14-19 years) with stress, anxiety and low mood within CAMHS. Lana is currently taking this work into the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital where she is developing and delivering mindfulness and yoga workshops and groups for young people with chronic pain and long-term physical health challenges. Lana also runs staff MBCT courses, mindfulness workshops, and training for professionals working with children, young people and families.

Paul Johanson

Paul Johanson is a social worker, mindful self-compassion teacher and cognitive analytic therapist in private practice. He has worked in many areas of health and social care, including criminal justice, substance misuse, serious mental illness, psychological therapies, cancer and palliative care.

Paul has worked as a strategic leader for the NHS in implementing national programmes in mental health, psychological therapies and patient experience. Paul is a long-term Buddhist practitioner, beginning his journey over 35 years ago in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition, and has been a student in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism since 1991. He has been the Buddhist Chaplain at the University of Sussex since 2013.

Ali Lambie

Ali Lambie is a Mindfulness and Self-Compassion teacher and teacher trainer. With background as a psychotherapist in the NHS for many years, she went on to train at Bangor University for an MSc in Teaching Mindfulness-Based Approaches. During this time she also came across the field of Mindful Self-Compassion and took additional trainings to incorporate this into her approach. Ali has been an international Teacher Trainer of Mindful Self-Compassion since 2018. She is also a trained and experienced Supervisor and Mentor working with individuals and groups both online and face to face. She works independently (as Mindfulness Hampshire) and is also regularly commissioned to offer trainings by a number of organisations.  

Ali is passionate about her work and enjoys supporting people to make sense of and respond with greater awareness and skill to both life’s joys and its challenges! Her website is www.mindfulnesshampshire.co.uk

Jiva Mashader

Jiva has an MSc in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapies from Exeter University and has gone through the strict assessment involved in gaining her Certificate of Competence in Teaching Mindfulness Based Approaches from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. She has taught the 8-week mindfulness course over 80 times both to groups and 1-1 and worked with a wide variety of people from all ages and backgrounds. 
Jiva is also a mindfulness supervisor, both on Exeter University’s MSc programme in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapies, through the Mindfulness Network CIC and privately. She taught for a research trial at Sussex University and was part of the MYRIAD trial at Oxford Centre for Mindfulness, as well as mentoring for Bangor University’s Teacher Training Pathway.
She has been practising mindfulness since 1997 and has seen herself becoming calmer, happier and more emotionally stable over that time.

Liz Mayman

Liz is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) teacher working in Oxford NHS Talking Therapies with adults with depression and long-term physical health problems. Liz has worked as a nurse and then therapist in the NHS for more than 25 years. With a longstanding interest in meditation and yoga/qigong practices, she trained in MBCT in 2019 with the NHS Talking Therapies programme run by Robert Marx and Kay Octigan. Since then, she has been teaching MBCT groups with patients and staff in the NHS. More recently she has been involved in teacher training (as a teach-back trainer)  and supervision with trainees on the Talking Therapies course. She is passionate about learning and bringing the MBCT practices to people who struggle to access them. Liz is very excited about taking on the trainer role with this year’s cohort ! 

Nicky Mouat

Nicky is a Registered Nurse and Mental Health Practitioner with more than thirty years of experience working in both mental health and general nursing for the NHS and equivalent, in the UK and Australia.

She completed her mindfulness training at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in 2015 after finding mindfulness practice transformative in her personal life. She is now a freelance mindfulness practitioner and teaches mindfulness for wellbeing, depression, addiction, and long-term health conditions in the NHS and charity settings. She is also a supervisor, assessor and trainer of mindfulness teachers. She has a Masters Degree in Medical Anthropology, and specialised in how experiences of trauma are experienced and communicated across cultures.

As a BAMBA UK registered teacher, she follows the Good Practice Guidelines, receives supervision for her teaching, and attends regular retreats and training.

Julia Powell

Julia Powell is a mindfulness teacher and coach. She leads mindfulness courses to help people find more balance in their lives, improve their wellbeing and flourish. While caring for her mother who lived with dementia, Julia used her mindfulness practice to help navigate the challenging times. She now draws on that experience in the training she offers to both carers of people living with dementia and people with mild to moderate dementia.

Having trained to teach with Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and taught with Sussex Mindfulness Centre, Julia is registered with the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches. Julia runs three mindfulness courses for the general population: Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness for Life and Finding Peace in a Frantic World.

Bethan Roberts

Bethan is one of the Core Trainers at Bangor University’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (CMRP) teaching teacher training retreats and offering supervision. She has been teaching 8-week ‘Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction’ (MBSR) courses since 2008 and has taught Mindfulness in a variety of organisations including the NHS, the Welsh Assembly, Families First Projects and the Office for National Statistics. She has also been teaching Mindfulness to distance learners since 2010. Bethan is also a Mental Health First Aid Instructor (approved in 2008) and teaches courses on mental health at Cardiff University as well running training on mental health and unconscious bias for the Civil Service.

Zoe Shobbrook-Fisher

Zoe is an accredited counsellor/psychotherapist, Certified Mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher, Trainer and Supervisor. She has been delivering beginner and deeper-dive mindfulness-based programmes and popular retreats since 2009. She is a teacher trainer and mentor at the Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion and a retreat lead and supervisor for the Mindfulness Network. Based in south-west London she specialises in trainings that are accessible, inclusive and creative in the workplace, community settings, mental health charities and the NHS. She has always been dedicated to paths of the heart and authenticity and her own practice includes wild swimming and conscious dance.