Helping you to find your life balance…

Balance in life is essential for health and wellbeing. For many this may be getting a balance between work life and home life, perhaps juggling the needs of a family with your own needs. Whereas for others, this may be getting the balance right in life so you make time for things that motivate and excite you. This balance is important, as fulfilling your own needs whilst meeting the needs of others impacts directly on your wellbeing, which in turn affects your health.

Mindfulness, the ability to pay attention in the present moment without judgement, is very powerful particularly to address stress and emotional difficulties by increasing self-awareness. With awareness comes choice – we are able to recognise unhelpful habitual patterns and change. Training and practice in mindfulness based techniques allows mindfulness to become part of daily life, a way of being to enhance health, wellbeing and resilience.

“Make each moment an occasion to live deeply, happily, in peace.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

Coaching creates a space in the franticness of life where people are actively listened to and heard. This allows them to think deeply and come to their own solutions to move forwards. It also creates the right environment for positive changes to happen, drawing on a number of techniques to facilitate this process of personal growth.

Both mindfulness and coaching can be used as approaches on their own, or each can be informed by the other. These approaches recognise people’s infinite capabilities and resourcefulness and equip them with tools for life, to live the lives they want and get the balance right for them. This is the really positive message – once you’ve experienced and learnt these practices and techniques you can be your own mindfulness practitioner and your own coach.

“Follow your breathing, dwell mindfully on your steps, and soon you will find your balance.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

I have a longstanding mindfulness practice which informs my coaching practice. Offering developmental coaching for personal growth, specialising in wellbeing coaching and academic coaching.

In addition, I offer Breathworks 8-week courses in Mindfulness for Stress and Mindfulness for Health, taster sessions, follow-up sessions, and bespoke courses for groups and individuals. Courses and face-to-face sessions are offered in Leamington Spa, and online for those further afield. To further get the balance right in my own life, I am also working as a freelance academic, specialising in systematic reviewing in health sciences and research consultancy – please see my new academic page for further details.

Offerings:

  • mindfulness courses
  • wellbeing coaching
  • academic coaching
  • freelance systematic reviewing

Positive impact

Attending this mindfulness course has had a massive positive impact on my life. I feel much more balanced which in turn has made me more capable of dealing with different aspects of my life. I no longer feel overwhelmed as I am able to put what I used to think as insurmountable situations into context and deal with them in a calm way. Karen is a very effective communicator. Karen has a gentle and kind approach and this in itself is calming and radiates peacefulness which is conducive to learning and practicing mindfulness.

Cathy

Passion and belief

The course has given me the permission to give time to myself to relax and pursue the things that sustain me. I’m kinder to myself, notice my thoughts more and interrupt negative self-talk. I feel much calmer, thank you. Karen is a wonderful teacher. Her passion and belief for mindfulness engages you completely. She has the perfect voice for guiding relaxation and meditation. I am already recommending her to friends and colleagues.

Sarah

Engaging

Knowing that I’m not alone and now having a toolkit for my own and my families happiness is what I got from the course. Karen was a really great teacher, very engaging and knowledgeable in mindfulness.

Mark

Changed my thinking

I have thoroughly enjoyed the 8 week course and I can honestly say it has changed my thinking. I am far more “aware” of my day to day life and am learning to enjoy “being in the moment”. In a stressful time constrained life we can still make time for small pleasures if we do them mindfully. Karen has been the most wonderful teacher, clear and precise in her teaching with just the right amount of warmth and kindness in her manner. Meditating to her voice was an absolute pleasure!

Nina

Calming influence

Meeting with Karen has enabled me to take time out to reorganise my life – prioritising, helping me to think through decisions and get things in order. It has certainly helped me to stress less and focus more. Karen is a natural listener and is a calming influence. She has some great methods and ideas for helping to de-stress and make decisions.

Marie

Life saver

The course has been a life saver and has given me a life without ruminating, controlling. There has been a profound change. Karen was the best teacher.

Anonymous

Empowered

I have become more aware of everything I do or not do, my environment and others. It has empowered me through meditation, body scan and breathing in particular. Karen has got the perfect voice for the meditation exercises. She is very kind, sincere and just a beautiful person. Perfect for this course.

Irma

Welcoming

I now have a better understanding of myself – realisation of my present hectic stressful life – I now have tools to deal with it and the confidence to take time for myself. Karen was absolutely lovely. She put us at ease early on and has a warm and welcoming personality and delivers instruction in a casual but instructive way.

Graham

Listening

It was a great pleasure and help to have worked with Karen as a coach. She was very good at listening to what I had to say and throwing questions back that made me think. This really helped me sort out and understand difficult periods in my life. Thank you so much Karen for your support.

VM

Inspiring

The course enabled me to identify my own resources for living better, identifying things that prevent my wellbeing. Karen has been a great teacher. She is kind and understands my own position and difficulties. She has been such an inspiring and engaging teacher, and I am so pleased to have found her.

Anonymous

Spiritual development

It was a very inspirational course, involving both personal and spiritual development. I have learned to slow down and be more aware of my surroundings, to be generally kinder to myself as well as to others and not to react so quickly to events. As a result of meditating most days for 20 minutes or so, combined with Chi Gung practice, I am now sleeping much better instead of being wakeful for 2 hours during the night. I feel so much better. It was so useful to have the CDs and notes to remind me now the course has finished. Karen combined the theory and practice of mindfulness so well, but without being too serious. She has a friendly manner and good sense of humour and a beautiful warm, soft voice for the meditations. I enjoyed the course very much.

June

Thoughts

The course has changed how I think and the importance of making time for myself. Thoughts are just thoughts and NOT facts. The teaching was excellent, Karen was really friendly and easy to talk to.

Anonymous

Meditation

I have participated in Mindfulness Meditation practice for some years, however I felt that I wanted to invest time to further develop this. Having read around various options, I decided that a Breathworks course would best meet my needs, especially as I wanted a course that had a strong focus on ‘Compassion and Kindness’. The course has assisted me to really reflect on authentic practice and also to refresh my existing practice, whilst offering an opportunity to try out new and varied meditations.

Karen was very knowledgeable, informative and organised and really effective in working out how I could get the full potential from the course. Karen gave additional information and touched base with me via email on the weeks between attending each session, providing encouragement and helpful tips. Ultimately Karen was very approachable and authentic. Many thanks for a very positive experience.

Steve

Incredible journey

Thank you Karen for an incredible 8 week journey into Mindfulness for Stress. Working as a professional with you I now have more wonderful tools in my kit thanks to you and Breathworks. Your meditation manner is wonderful and soothing and you made us all feel so welcome and encouraged. I have a very hectic life and this course has helped me to reevaluate what really matters and focus on the wonder of the present. Thank you.

Rebecca

Encouraging

Letting thoughts come and go and accepting difficulties and breathing through them rather than pushing them away is what I learnt from the course. The course was brilliantly communicated by Karen, no judgment and totally accepting and encouraging.

Gill

Appreciate

My eyes have been opened to how quickly I have been carried along with life’s events never giving me time to step back and assess. Now I take time to enjoy and appreciate my family and surroundings, dealing with things in a much calmer way. Karen oozes calmness and understanding, you can hear the joy in her voice when she talks of mindfulness and her joy and belief in it is very infectious. A perfect teacher ☺

Karrie

Understanding

I now have an understanding that mindfulness is not about meditation as relaxation and drifting and wafting, instead a state of presence and being. I now have a selection of tools to help develop and practice mindfulness and choice to use what works best for me. The course has been an opportunity to consider my current life demands, understand the processes behind them and how mindfulness can help manage them.
Karen is inspirational and passionate in the delivery of the course and very knowledgeable in mindfulness practice. She is great at facilitating useful discussion and debate during sessions.

Liz

Valuable theories

Before we heard about this course we had read a book about mindfulness, but couldn’t seem to find the time to try out any of the techniques. This course was just what we needed to begin. We feel it has introduced us to valuable theories and tools to cope better with stressful situations and get more out of life. Karen was very adept at delivering the course in an engaging way. Her relaxed teaching style suited us very well. This was a very personal experience and Karen definitely got the best out of us!

Rachel and Rich

Confidence

The course has given me confidence, an ability to step back and assess before diving in – ability to recognise and balance pain against good things/sensations. Pacing skills (although still needs a lot of work), calmness and general slowing down and collecting myself. Thank you. Recognition of learned bad thoughts and reactions – thoughts are not always true. New phrases to help me cope and assess wisely – What is true/good for me at the moment? What do I need to make things better/easier at this time? – bringing myself back to my centre. Permission to be kind to myself and to practice my meditations.
Karen was excellent. Patient, kind, enthusiastic, methodical, with a wonderful presence. She encouraged us, was very knowledgeable and very happy to share resources and her time. She made us feel very comfortable and welcome and was very supportive when things were a bit tough. She couldn’t have done better.

AC

PTSD

The course has provided me with tools to control and support other interventions I receive for my PTSD. Karen is very patient, supportive and understanding. I am glad I found her as she has made mindfulness a part of my life, it’s now up to me.

Roger

Daily life

The eight week course helped me to realise, understand and put into practice the different ways of being mindful in daily life. From body scans, mindful breathing to mindful movement – these and many more methods will be very very useful to me in developing my own mindfulness practice.
Karen was a brilliant teacher – she explained the course clearly and was approachable if I didn’t understand certain points. She delivered the course in a very friendly, jovial way – she was very informative and helpful.

Simret Bassra-Brar

Slowing down

I learnt that it’s OK to slow down! Slowing down and stopping to reflect is a wise use of my time in the long run. Karen is a wonderful role model of how mindfulness can enable you “to be”. She is very warm, friendly and understanding.

Liz

Manage stress

The course has helped me focus on my own wellbeing and how to better manage stress, emotions and negative thoughts in a more considered way. Much of the course resonated with me and how I normally go about life and difficult situations/experiences.
Karen has a relaxed style and approach, the teaching was not rushed but considered and flexible. Karen is enthusiastic and passionate about the benefits of mindfulness but without being forced.

AS

Supportive

Coaching has helped me to step back and analyse my actions and thought processes from an outside perspective. Karen has provided me with various tools and exercises to help me manage stress, identify when my thought processes or behaviour were being detrimental, and to plan my time more effectively. This has ultimately helped me to improve my productivity and wellbeing. Karen provides a supportive and confidential space for me to talk about my life. She is incredibly perceptive, easy to talk to and has made me feel completely relaxed throughout our sessions. I have always left the sessions feeling more motivated and positive which is a reflection of the enthusiasm she brings to each session.

Jennifer

Brilliant

The course has changed in an excellent and meaningful way how I manage my life. Karen’s teaching was absolutely brilliant!!

Debra
breathworks mindfulness wellbeing

Get in touch!

If you require more information please email me and I will contact you as soon as possible.